Still more incriminating photos of authors behaving badly…

After an early dinner, I met up with several authors for drinks. Julie Cohen, may the Lord bless and keep her, brought me 10 Cadbury’s Picnic Bars. And there was great rejoicing throughout the land!

Here are photos of our night with the Struggling Writers’ Club:

First, here’s Julie Cohen, Anna Sugden, and Tanya Starratt/Kris Starr.

Next, we have Lisa Cochrann.

After that, we must discuss Sasha White. Sasha, as you can see, is quite the mature lady. She celebrated having her first book in print.

Then she got a little out of control as you can see her here squishing Cat Cody

and again here:

But after that, I met up with Christyne (left) and Trish (right), both of whom were very nice and taught me the proper way to put on a bra. Who knew you were supposed to bend over? And no, they did not demonstrate in public, thankfully.

Julie Cohen also enjoyed her ice cream…

It was a moment of Nirvana, clearly. No one gets between an expectant mother and her ice cream…:hungry:

Preliminary photographs from RWA

So, I met up with my first few victims friends from RWA. Here on the left is Amy Knupp who wrote an amazing book called Unexpected Complication for Harlequin Superromance. We had drinks, appetizers, and shared stories. And then I got to meet Jan Kenny who writes for Kensington. Jan was telling me about her hunky cowboy books, and all I could think was–why aren’t these books available, and why can’t I buy them right now? Can’t wait! And here’s a picture of me with Jan. We are suffering, I tell you. Suffering!!

More pictures later…

RWA Nationals, Day One

Day One of Blogging at Nationals

So, I flew out of D.C. at 10:00 AM this morning, and I am now in Atlanta! Woo. Currently I am in my lovely Marriott hotel room after surviving the travel. I have tried, without success, to become a lightweight traveler. I packed exactly one outfit per day. Why, then, does my suitcase weigh approximately 120 pounds? I suspect my two-year-old daughter is somehow hiding in there. I even took out my hairdryer, people! The suitcase should not be this heavy.

And of course, when I got out of Baggage claim, the Ground Transportation is not close by. The taxis are. The rental car buses are close. The downtown hotel shuttles? They are out in the middle of Egypt. I actually wanted to cry with relief when someone left a luggage cart on the sidewalk (You know, those $3.00 rip-you-off carts?). But on the bright side, I ended up being the last person to fill up the Atlanta Link Shuttle, and we were merrily on our way. I got the lucky seat with a broken seat belt, and our driver had a death wish. He nearly killed three pedestrians at last count.

I went to my special place and decided that God would not be so cruel as to let me die in a hotel shuttle accident when I haven’t sold my book yet.

Luckily, I made it to the hotel intact and had a nice conversation with Ken Casper (sp.??) who writes for Superromance and Everlasting. I admire men who write romance. I also had a Gena Showalter sighting and a Jill Monroe sighting. Jill wore a t-shirt that said, I am Jill Monroe. Gena had a shirt on that said I am Jill Monroe’s friend. Too funny.

My hotel room is on the 30th floor with a nice view of parking lots, cranes, and buildings. Scenic, don’t you think?

I registered for the conference and had a quiet little pity party that I do not have a pink First Sale ribbon to pin on my badge. Ah well. Perhaps next year. I did glory in the Big Honkin’ Bag o’ free books that they gave out this year as part of the goody room. There are 18 titles (some hardback, some paperback) by Lisa Gardner, Tori Carrington, Sofie Metropolis, Cheyenne McCray (oh goodie, I’ve been wanting to read one by her), and many others. Very cool.

I spent half an hour talking to the Internet gurus, trying to figure out why the heck I couldn’t connect in the hotel. Turned out it was a problem on their end! But I am connected now and will share events as they happen. I am now going to try to track people down. More to come!

So, for those of you who aren’t here, what sort of details would you like me to share? Publishing house information? Gossip? Incriminating photographs?