RWA Literacy Signing

Jillian Hart and Michelle Willingham

Then we were off to the literacy signing. Here are some authors I ran into, starting with Nora Roberts who was gearing up for a television interview:

Nora Roberts

Then I spotted Terri Brisbin and Kate Bridges:

Terri Brisbin and Kate Bridges

Christyne Butler sold her first book to Harlequin but was signing her first book from Samhain:

Christyne Butler

And here’s double Rita-finalist Anna Campbell:

Anna Campbell

Trish Wylie was without her leprechaun Sean, but was smiling as always.

Trish Wylie

Then I also saw Lisa Gardner, who writes wonderful romantic suspense.

Lisa Gardner

Next up…the Mills and Boon pizza party…

Chinatown Adventures

Melissa McClone, Jennie Lucas, Michelle Willingham

I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed with dim sum. Maybe I just like touristy Chinese food better, but it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was still fun to see all the sights and the kitschy (sp.?) t-shirts and Chinese parasols and jewelry. Worth going to see, but I think we should have chosen a different restaurant than the one recommended by the Concierge. Oh well.

Ghirardelli Square–best sundae in the world

Last night, I met up with several friends to go to Ghirardelli Square. We decided to have dinner at O’Neill’s Irish Pub which, er…wasn’t very Irish. They were playing techno music in the background. The Irish stew was good, but the menu was pretty limited, so it was more of a regular bar than anything else.

Here’s a photo of authors Deb Marlowe and Claudia Dain.

Deb Marlowe and Claudia Dain

We had our dinner and then were joined by more historical romance authors: Deb Marlowe, Elizabeth (help! Can’t remember her last name!), Ammanda McCabe, Carolyn Jewel, Megan Frampton, and Sabrina Jeffries. Here are two photos of everyone with captions below.

Michelle Willingham, Elizabeth, Amanda McCabe, Carolyn Jewel, Megan Frampton, and Sabrina Jeffries

Deb Marlowe, Elizabeth, Amanda McCabe, Carolyn Jewel, Megan Frampton, Sabrina Jeffries

Outside the pub, it had a great view of the harbor. Here’s a picture of the famous San Francisco fog rolling in:

Fisherman's Wharf

And here’s a photo of Alcatraz and a gorgeous ship. Deb Marlowe and Claudia Dain highly recommended the audio tour. I’m not sure if I’ll get to go or not, but it was amazing to see where criminals like Al Capone were imprisoned. It was formerly a Civil War fort, used to keep prisoners-of-war.

Alcatraz

And here’s another view of the harbor:

San Francisco Harbor

Last, I dragged everyone to Ghirardelli’s for the world famous chocolate sundae. It was a bit confusing, figuring out which entrance to use, since one section appeared to be take-out and another appeared to be the store. We ended up going through the wrong one, but no one cared because a man was passing out free samples of Ghirardelli chocolate and peanut butter squares. I casually suggested that we make a big circle and get another free sample, but they thought I was crazy. It was good chocolate, however.

Here is me, in my happy place, with the amazing Ghirardelli Hot Fudge Sundae:

Michelle Willingham enjoying Ghirardelli's Hot Fudge Sundae

RWA Nationals - Day 1

I’m in San Francisco!

After surviving a five-hour flight where they no longer serve meals (you purchase whatever you want), I landed safely. My first impression of San Francisco was that it wasn’t as cold as they told me it would be. I’d say it’s in the mid-sixties or so. Secondly, the architecture of the suburbs is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

It reminds me of shoeboxes stacked on hills. The rooflines are predominantly rectangles, and it truly is strange not seeing triangles. The fog rests on top of the hills like a fluffy tsunami, waiting to spill onto the city.

When I reached downtown, I did see the Golden Gate bridge. It’s not golden. It’s just a bridge. But it was interesting to see. We have a nice view of it from our hotel room. So far, I like the city. We’ll see how I survive street car transportation tonight. The plan is to hit Ghirardelli Square for dinner at an Irish pub and then go out for the world famous hot fudge sundaes. I’ll try to post photos as I get them.

I heard there was an earthquake in southern California already. I blame my roommate Larissa for this. I tease her about having the little black cloud of travel doom hovering over her. So if I mysteriously disappear, it’s her fault.

Those of you who have been to San Francisco before, do you have any restaurant recommendations?

Off we go…

Okay, I’m signing off. I may try to get online later tonight after I’m in San Francisco, depending on how things go. I pray that my flight doesn’t get cancelled or my luggage lost. I did print out my boarding pass and dear God, I’m in row 32. There were, um, about 4 seats left. Not good. And what is UP with them charging $64 to sit in an economy class seat with leg room. They also don’t feed us–it’s $5.00 for a box lunch.

I have a feeling that down the road, there will be free seats available outside, strapped to the tail and wings. Everything else will be pay-as-you-go. Oxygen masks will be an extra fee, in the case of a loss of cabin pressure.

And don’t get me started on luggage costs. Can you imagine, a family of five trying to travel? If each person takes 2 bags, it’s $125 extra. That really chaps my hide. They could raise the cost of the airline ticket by a few dollars and not have to charge anything extra for fuel.

Okay, then, I’m off. I’ll be posting San Francisco pictures, later on. Pray for good flying weather!

Knuckling Down

Today I’m going to knuckle down and do some writing because the next few days will be pretty much loaded up with conference goings-on. Borders coffee shop and I have a date this afternoon, for some writing and maybe book-browsing. And God Bless my mother for watching the children. She’s a saint.

Tomorrow I fly out to San Francisco, and I really hope that I don’t run into the problem that happened two years ago. No oxygen masks, please. But I’ve heard that there was already a power outage at the Marriott, so I’m a little wary. Here’s hoping that it all goes well.

For those of you who are interested in random updates, I’ll be blogging and also posting on Twitter. If you are in the San Francisco area or are attending RWA, please come and see me so I won’t be lonely at the Literacy Signing!

Incidentally, I did find shoes yesterday for $8.00. So much for Prada. But getting a good bargain is half the fun. What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found while shopping?

Shoes, Glorious Shoes

I went on a Crusade yesterday, to find a nice pair of comfy black sandals. I wanted some that would hold up to some serious walking, since I’ll be in San Francisco on Tuesday. Most of my sandals have been worn to the point where you can separate the soles. Not so good.

Last night I was meeting a good friend for dessert, and we chose to meet at the Tyson’s Corner Galleria where they have some nice restaurants. I arrived early and decided to window shop and hopefully find some good shoe sales.

If you’ve never been to the Galleria, let’s just say that it is the Mecca of shopping. We’re talking Prada and Ferragamo shoes. The kind where each shoe needs a personal security system. I don’t know if you’re like me, but inevitably I spy a pair of super-cute shoes and go to check them out.

$450.

How is it possible? Now, maybe they are the most rockin’ shoes in the universe, but $450? Dang, those shoes had better come with built-in massagers. And those soles had better be made of platinum. So I dropped those shoes pretty fast and decided that, er…maybe this wasn’t the right store for me.

Note to self: One day, when I hit a bestseller list, I might buy a pair of shoes like that. But then again, I’m a practical girl. More likely I’d use that $450 for a plane ticket somewhere cool…like Ireland.

I wandered up to the third floor of the Galleria and found another store with a 60% off sale. Now we’re talking. Once again, I found pairs of plane-ticket shoes, but the sale rack wasn’t too bad. But even when a pair of $195 shoes is marked down to $99, you have to ask yourself–am I really going to wear these? Am I going to get that much use out of them? And is the white stitching on black leather really that distracting?

In the end, I put them back. Just couldn’t bring myself to spend the money, even though they truly were comfortable. So today, I’m going to another mall and will hopefully find something more reasonable in price and still cushy for my big old feet (size 10). Ack. Something that doesn’t look like I strapped surf boards onto my feet.

So here’s a question. Let’s say that you had the money where you could drop $500 on a pair of shoes without even missing the money. Would you do it?

Berry Picking in the Summertime

I meant to take my camera while we went berry picking, but forgot. Anyway, this morning, we packed the kids (minus the baby) in the car and drove to a local orchard to pick our own berries. We picked blackberries that were the size of large grapes. It was the perfect day for them, since literally, I could stand in one place and almost fill my bucket. I could hardly believe how many there were. Both kids had their own baskets, and they skipped around from place to place, picking berries and exalting when they found new ones. Since we finished so early, we went ahead and picked raspberries, too.

There weren’t as many raspberries, but since we arrived so early in the morning, we still found a few. However, the bees were everywhere around the raspberries. It didn’t bother me at all, but my bug-hating son was not at all happy. I tried to convince him that a few bees never hurt anyone and they weren’t even diving toward us, but he didn’t believe me at all.

Son: They’re just waiting to sting me. They’re just waiting for me to reach my hand over.

Me: They are not going to sting you. Look, they aren’t even bothering me at all.

Son: Well, they’re going to bother me. I know it. They’re going to sting me.

Me: Have you ever been stung before?

Son: No, but I know these bees are going to.

Conspiratorial bees. Too funny. In any event, we made blackberry pie today and we set the raspberries aside to use over vanilla ice cream. Mmmm… I’m trying to think of something I could use the raspberries for, besides jam or just for eating. I don’t recall them baking particularly well. Have you ever used raspberries in baking? What’s your favorite way to eat them?

Sparkly Bling-bling

I’m still in the process of packing my bags for San Francisco for the Romance Writers of America National Conference, and once again, I’ve hit that stage where I question whether I have everything. An hour ago, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t packed any jewelry to wear with the fancy dresses. My Grandma gave me some vintage necklaces that are sparkly and fun to wear. They’re just costume jewels, but it’s nice to have an occasion to dress up. I’m channeling my daughter right now, with the princessy stuff.

Really, though, my husband got off easy. On the whole, I don’t wear a lot of jewelry. I wear my wedding rings, a pair of earrings, and the occasional watch. It’s not often that I wear a necklace, and I tend to go for the pearls or something fairly classic. I’ve never felt the urge to go out and buy jewelry. I’d much rather have books. Then again, perhaps my book budget rivals other women’s jewelry budgets.

What’s your favorite, must-have piece of jewelry? Do you like sparkly stones? Gold or silver? I’m a gold girl, myself.

Photograph Updates

I think all of the photographs are now uploaded into the photo gallery. You can click on the menu, or here to access them. Hope the loading speed works well. I have a lot of Ireland pictures, along with some medieval research photos. I’m hoping that the program will allow me to add captions, but for now, you can browse around. I haven’t added any more RWA photographs because I’ll be traveling there next week. I’ll add them in, after I get back.

Enjoy!