TBR Housekeeping, RWA, Cowboys, And Big Pimpin'

There's quite a bit of news around the Bat Cave at the moment, so that must mean it's time for another one of my hap-hazard catch-all posts.  Why blog on one topic when you can blog about five?

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I want to thank everyone for taking the TBR Challenge 2011 ball and running like hell with it.  Not only have you signed up for the challenge, you've done a ton of your own promotion.  I've had several new people sign-up in the last couple of days.  So thanks for all that excellent word-of-mouth!

In terms of general housekeeping, a couple of things.  1) You don't need to send me or post direct links to your commentary anywhere.  I have everyone listed on the information page, so people can find us there.  And 2) remember that the monthly themes are completely and totally voluntary.  If you don't want to follow them, you don't have to.  The only "goal" of this challenge is to help you get through some of those books you've got lying around.

If you're not "doing" the challenge but are interested in following it?  Check out all these happy people on the information page!  You just might discover a new-to-you resident of the online romance community (or two, or three....)

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I have some exciting RWA-related news to share.  One of the adult services librarians I work with told me many moons ago that she was submitting a grant proposal for RWA's Library Grant.  Well she got the call yesterday and she phoned to deliver the news.  They won the grant!  So this particular branch now has a chunk of change to spend on all sorts of romance goodies.  I don't know the exact perimeters of the grant proposal, but a decent chunk of those funds are going to go to new books in English and Spanish.  Woot!

I also registered for the annual conference in New York City this summer.  This is a two-fold vacation.  1) I get to hang out with all my romance novel homies yo and 2) my former college roomie lives in the city and I haven't seen her in over 10 years.  Woot!  Here I come Patty!

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AAR is talking cowboys today, complete with a shout-out to the Great Western Drive!  Thanks ladies!

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Longtime Bat Cave readers might remember a few years back when I did a book talk for a local book group.  Well, they've invited me back.  And since I warned them back then that I read "a lot of genre fiction," they must be OK with that, because here we are again.  I'm meeting with them on Monday and I'm prepped with books, passages marked to read out loud and plenty of handouts.  I'll be blogging about the whole experience next week, but in the meantime?  On the agenda we have 2 romantic suspense novels, 1 inspirational historical romance, 1 cozy mystery and 1 young adult novel.  Because that's how I roll.