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?