We're Ready For Our Close-Up Mr. DeMille

Remember way back in July when I was at the RWA conference in Washington D.C.? Well while I was there I taped a video interview for Romantic Times with author Carrie Lofty. I just got word yesterday that our three-part interview is now online - just in time to promote Carrie's most excellent new book, Scoundrel's Kiss.

A couple things of note:

• That's it. Nothing but carrot sticks for me.

• I don't normally play with my hair that much. It was a gorgeous day, we filmed outside, but there was a breeze. Hence the hair playing.
  

• We had no script we were working off from. None. Nada. No notes, no nothing. This is a completely off the cuff, fly by the seat of our pants interview. And I think it turned out pretty damn good. Says me.
  

Below I'm posting all three videos, each running about 5 minutes a piece. I know. If you wanna watch them - great. If you'd rather poke your eyes out with a dull spoon - you don't have to watch. We can still be friends. Honest. Here it goes:

Video 1: Carrie and I discuss her debut novel, What A Scoundrel Wants



Video 2:Carrie and I discuss her latest release, Scoundrel's Kiss



Video 3: Carrie and I discuss her unusual historical settings

My Favorite Swag

I'm sure the vast majority of you are sick of RWA related posts, but the last and final box I shipped from D.C. was waiting for me when I rolled into the office this morning. And since promo is always a hot topic amongst romance authors, readers and bloggers, I thought I'd highlight some of my favorites from this year. Note: clicking on the picture will make it bigger.

• Book bag from author Tracy Wolff. I'm pretty sure I got this at the Literacy Signing when I stopped by Tracy's table. I need another book bag like I need a hole in the head, but what I love about this one is it's smaller size. I like my book bags two ways. 1) Big enough to fit a dead body a mess of books or 2) Small enough for me to carry to the office. I expect to get a lot of use out of this bag, and it's excellent promo for Tracy since who knows how many innocent bystanders will see me carrying it around.

• Post-It Note Tablet from Hannah Howell. Do you know how many post-it notes and pads of paper I go through at work? A lot. I always keep some by my computer to jot down information about books, authors, random ISBNs I need to look up.....

• Green collapsible tote bag from Samhain. I'll admit an e-publisher giving out tote bags strikes me as....odd. That said, this one folds into a handy (and small!) pouch. Ideal for keeping in your car's glove box when you have to make that last minute run to the grocery store. Or that impromptu run to the bookstore. Either way, it'll come in handy.

• Buttons from Cherry Adair and Tessa Dare. Dare's buttons were really clever. She took the title words from her upcoming trilogy - Goddess, Siren and Lady - and made individual buttons. Then she gave them out at RWA....a conference full of women. Women walking around with Goddess, Siren and/or Lady pinned to them. Awesome. Adair's buttons include such valuable advice as "So Many Books, So Little Time" and "Today Requires Chocolate." Amen sister.

• Thumb drive. I think others have already blogged about this. This flash drive came with the conference registration tote bag and includes various handouts and some free Harlequin books. Very cool.

• Sunscreen from Gina Ardito. Individual mini-packets of SPF 15 sunscreen in a matchbook. Great to stuff in your purse when you're on the go. I'm so white I'm see-through and I live in southern California. I cannot have too much sunscreen. Just sayin'.
  

• Zebra Authors CD. This was probably my favorite promo item of the conference. This CD includes excerpts, book trailers, links to the author's web site, and links to buy the books for six authors who are published (or are soon going to be) by Zebra. An excellent example of how authors can work together on promotion and highlight what readers care about the most - the books! Avon authors - are you taking note? This seems like a natural for you guys. Authors on the Zebra CD are: Anthea Lawson, Kit Donner, Lori Brighton, Jackie Ivie, Heather Grothaus, and Kimberly Killion.

Photographic Evidence

First, a shout-out to the So. Cal. Bloggers to let them know that RWA won't be in San Diego in 2012. It'll be in Anaheim! The thought of sleeping in my own bed and attending Nationals is enough to make my heart skip a beat. Who cares if I have to wait three more years to do it?

Last night I finally got my pictures uploaded to my Flickr account. I made an album and you can see all of them here. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Carrie Lofty and I after our video interview for Romantic Times. That's not happiness on our faces, it's relief! One of my better hair days, and Carrie? Big Sis informed me she loves your blouse. I loved it too!

I titled this picture the cutest girls in the bar. Lusty Reader, Aymless and Barbara. Bask in their cuteness.

Rosie having some sort of religious awakening with her ARC of Indiscreet by Carolyn Jewel. Getting this ARC made her trip. I'm not kidding.

I was casually wandering around the Literacy Signing when I just happened by Linda Howard's table and saw Rosie was next in line! I snapped this picture so Rosie could preserve her fangirl moment.

The always gracious Harlequin Historical author, Michelle Willingham before the RITAs. You can't really tell here, but she was rocking a really cool necklace that used to belong to her grandmother. It was very sparkly.

The lovely and talented Nora Roberts standing next to some fat girl. Sigh. I'm trying to do better. Honest. Anywho, as always Nora looked lovely for RITA night (OMG, her jewelry!). I got several compliments on my dress. The first non-black dress I've bought in years.

Da girls on RITA night. From front to back: Azteclady, AnimeJune, Barbara, Rosie and Kristie. Note to anyone who lives near Barbara: girlfriend is one mean hair-wrangler. She did Kristie's hair and it was fab-u-lous!
Here I am rockin' the light-up plastic tiara I got at the Harlequin SuperRomance party. It'll have to do until a Greek (or Italian) tycoon shows up on my front door bearing a real one.

And those are some of the pictures. Now Ames and Nath can get off my back! LOL

The Last Day

By Saturday my butt was dragging. The wake-up call came at 7AM, and my first thought was "how badly do I want to get up to attend the NAL and Ballantine booksignings?" Seriously. Exhausted. But I wanted to get my hands on Tessa Dare's debut novel, Goddess Of The Hunt, and I had heard she was going to be signing some copies at the Ballantine signing. I was in luck! She did have copies, along with more of her cute promo pins for her trilogy. Rosie had been coveting mine, and since she was running a little late, I swiped a set for her.

Next up was my video debut. Romantic Times is apparently looking to revamp their web site around the first of the year, and they're shooting video interviews to be posted. They asked me if I would consider interviewing an author. Carrie Lofty and I both jumped at the chance! It went fairly well. Carrie and I didn't have spinach stuck in our teeth, and hopefully we made enough coherent sense that when they go through the editing process we'll come out looking mighty fine. It's going to be a long time before it's posted though! Not until sometime around the launch of Carrie's second novel, Scoundrel's Kiss, which won't be released until January 2010. I'll keep y'all posted!

Carrie and I were on such a high after that shoot that we briefly hit the Sourcebooks publisher signing (which was jammed!), then got a drink at the bar to celebrate. She hadn't eaten all day and one more panel discussion to attend, so after downing my cosmopolitan, I left her to mail my final box of books and goodies before FedEx closed.

Then it was time to beautify for the RITAs! I attended a cocktail party beforehand (the joys of being a librarian who orders a crap-load of books for a living), so I found myself getting all fancied-up before the others. I went up, schmoozed, and left the party around 7:30PM to connect with the other bloggers so we could sit together at the award ceremony.

By now the RITA winners have been posted. I was so happy to see Karen Templeton win. I was sad that Janice Kay Johnson didn't win for the most awesome The Man Behind The Cop, but I did think she was a bit of a dark horse in the Suspense/Adventure category. The biggest shock of the evening (I thought) was a YA novel winning the best first book category. Note to self: have Lil' Sis check book out. Might be good to add to her classroom.

There was a small gathering of bloggers after the RITAs, but as detailed in previous posts, I was dog-tired from lack of sleep. Plus I had to get up early the next day to catch my flight. So I made an appearance, then went back to the room to get some sleep.

Rosie, Kristie and I shared a cab to the airport. Our flights home were uneventful, although the flight to Dallas found us sharing a plane with several other conference attendees. Among them? Stephanie Feagan (RWA Treasurer and writer), Sharon Lathan (Sourcebooks author) and Sharon Sala. Yeah, Sharon Sala. We really only chatted with Sharon Lathan, since she was literally sitting right behind me and Rosie!

Our flights home were just as uneventful as our flights to D.C. My Man met me at the airport, we got my luggage, and he promptly informed me we would be ordering a pizza for dinner (yeah, I looked that good). I was in bed by 7PM last night....and slept the whole night though. Seriously. That tired. It's a full rich day today with laundry and errands. Then it's back to work tomorrow. Coming up? Pictures! Look for an entire post devoted to them tomorrow.

Pleasant Surprises

Friday at the RWA conference is usually when it starts to show that Wendy has lost half her brain. The busy days and lack of sleep start to catch up with me. I had a particularly hard time getting out of bed this morning because I had a leetle too much wine the night before. I could have easily used a few more hours of sleep, but Harlequin had a book signing this morning and hello? I couldn't very well miss that now could I?

Today was spent at some of the publisher booksignings and attending the Awards Luncheon. The speaker at the luncheon was Eloisa James. I'm not above admitting it - I had some preconceived notions on what her talk was going to be about. James is an academic, so you know, I just assumed her talk would have an academic bent. Not at all. It was more a talk about family, finding inspiration and achieving your dream(s). I can't really do her justice. It was really wonderful, and there were more than a few of us shedding some tears. I told Rosie that is why attending this conference is so deadly. You end up hearing an author give some great talk or speech and your immediate reaction is "I am buying every one of their books, brand new, on the release day, until the day I die." Never mind if you've tried their books before and they're just not for you. Hearing them give a tremendous talk causes you to reform your wicked ways.

This evening a bunch of us got together and hit a Lebanese restaurant. This was where I finally met Kati and Lusty Reader. I had been missing them all week, so it was great to finally be able to connect with both of them.

After dinner we all decided to hit the hotel bar and just hang out. I found myself walking on the wild side and ordering hot tea in the vain hope that it would help my slowly disappearing voice. Yeah, not so much. Hopefully a decent night's sleep will do the trick. Um yeah, but it's now 1AM and I'm still up typing this blog post. Go Team Wendy!

This will very likely be my last blog post live from RWA. Tomorrow is pretty jam-packed and the RITA award ceremony will make for one long night. So my Saturday recap probably won't happen until Sunday and Monday. Until then, see ya'all when I'm back at the Bat Cave!

Live From D.C. It's Jerry Springer!

We had some excitement here in our hotel last night after I signed off from blogging. As you all know from my last post, I was up until 2AM. Well so were Barbara and Kristie, because we couldn't seem to stop yakking about books. Anywho, we're chatting when all the sudden we hear someone pounding on a door down the hall. Then this woman starts screaming, in a very uppity tone saying things like, "Bitch, you better let me in there. I'm going to kick your ass you fucking whore." Seriously. Now as my family, My Man, and most of the bloggers who have met me in person will attest to, I'm a champion swearer. I can cuss with the best of them. But this woman? Every other word was an obscenity. And frankly? She sounded really unhinged. Unhinged enough that I wasn't about to open the door. Just as I was thinking about calling down to the front desk, she storms off down the hall.

Barbara, who was by this point wondering if she was back in New York City, got bit by the curiosity bug. So she left the room and discovered said unhinged woman sobbing by the elevators, surrounded by security, and her luggage. Yes, sobbing. Because she couldn't understand why they "called the cops." She then wondered what kind of convention the hotel had that the attendees would "call the cops." Um, the kind of attendees who don't want to listen to a crazy woman ranting in a hotel hallway at 2AM.

After that excitement, we all went to bed, only to get up this morning early to hear Janet Evanovich give the Opening Session talk. She basically answered some prepared questions about her life and career, and it was a nice way to start the day. After that, I hit FedEx to ship my first box of books back to California. I'm really trying to be restrained and not grab too many....but it's hard. I easily get distracted by the pretty and the shiny.

Then came lunch which featured Keynote Speaker Linda Howard. Now I heard Howard at a RWA Librarian Event some years back and she was charming, funny and entertaining. She delivered again here, relaying some very funny stories about her family that had people rolling in the aisles.

I wrapped up the afternoon by hitting the Avon publisher signing. I picked up a few things for myself and scored a Rachel Hawthorne (Lorraine Heath for you romance readers) YA novel for the Lil' Sis's classroom.

I had a dinner invitation, so I hit the room to get ready - where I ran into my roomies and AztecLady. I keep forgetting to mention that I have met AztecLady! And yes, I now know her real name. Admit it. Y'all are just plain jealous.

I came back to the hotel after a scrumptious dinner, called My Man, then hit the bar to have some drinks and scintillating conversation with Miss Rosie. And despite my original plan to get to bed early tonight? Yeah, it's 2-frickin-AM. Again. Two damn days in a row. Shoot me now because at this rate I'm going to be Dead Woman Walking by Sunday morning.

Librarians, Academics, Authors, Oh My!

Wednesday at RWA is always a full rich day for me since it's All About The Librarians. I got up early, grabbed my conference registration, then headed to the Librarian Event. I attend this program every year for three reasons:

• I always learn at least one thing new from the diverse program.
• They feed me.
• The swag is off the charts.

This year was no exception. The panel discussions ranged from such topics as planning author events at your library, a panel of authors discussing the various sub genres, an academically-bent panel talking about the history of the genre and how to recommend romance to literature snobs, and a focus on multicultural romance. My personal favorites? The academic panel and the multicultural panel that featured Jade Lee, Candice Poarch and Tracy Montoya.

The librarians get their own swag room, and even with me behaving myself, I still walked away with several books. My biggest coup? I got my hands on Beth Williamson's first two Brava titles. Kristie was particularly green.

Next up was the Literacy Booksigning, and I honestly believe it was crazier than usual this year. I can't wait to hear how much money they ended up raising. I was very restrained and only picked up a handful a titles. A few for myself, and a couple for two romance reading colleagues at work. But the Literacy Signing is also a great place to just chat with authors. I stopped by and talked to several - including Christie Ridgway, Kathryn Smith, Chris Marie Green, Sylvia Day, Tracy Wolff, Trish Albright, and probably half a dozen others I'm forgetting. And for any of my e-mail loop buddies reading this (Hey SL-ers!!!!), I did run into Amy, we did get our picture taken together, and she did buy too many books. As if there really is such a thing as too many books? I also briefly ran into JMC at the signing, but it was so insane that we were more like two ships passing in the night. She's here for the rest of the conference, so I'm hoping I see her tomorrow!

After that, I made a pit-stop at a party hosted by the Harlequin SuperRomance authors. They had munchies, and gift baskets to give away (sadly, my unlucky streak holds). I also got myself a rather kick-ass plastic tiara that lights up. Yes, I know. You all are supremely jealous.

By this point it's 10PM, but I'm not done. It's off to do some mingling and "networking." I got to connect with some more bloggers, including Katie(babs) and Aymless. I also ran into the ever fabulous Megan Frampton who was hanging with one of her best buds, Carolyn Jewel.

Tomorrow (uh, OK....today) the conference officially gets underway with workshops, keynote speakers, and a luncheon. It's now 2AM and I'm still up typing this blog post. The no sleep at RWA trend continues to hold. So if this post is a complete mess, makes no sense, and you're wondering if I've gone slightly insane? Yeah, it's 2AM. Cut me some slack.

Until tomorrow.....

I Knew I Forgot Something

OK, here's the thing. I've been taking pictures. Honest. I got pictures of the White House and everything. But I've been bogarting Kristie's laptop while in the room, and I've been scratching out blogging time really late at night. Plus I'm lazy. Can't discount the lazy. So I think I'll save up all my pictures until I get home, download them all in one fell swoop, and throw them on my Flickr account.

I know this will make some of you impatient and unhappy....but I'm lazy. Can't discount the lazy. You'll get pictures. Honest. Just not immediately.

Anywho, today was sight-seeing day. Kristie blogged about this already - we took a trolley car and we had two different drivers. One good. One not so good. The good driver, I'm not kidding you, was named A-Train. Yep, A-Train. Seriously. I'm hoping that wasn't his real name. Cuz damn, if it was I bet kindergarten was hell. The other one was a former teacher, and no offense to Lil' Sis who reads my blog and is also a teacher, but this woman kept quizzing us. Hello? You're the tour guide. It's your job to tell us, not have us tell you. Geez.

My only goal today was getting to the Library Of Congress. Or as I like to call it....Mecca.

It's a librarian thing.

I saw the reading room. I saw a Gutenberg Bible. I saw some of Thomas Jefferson's library. Books owned by Thomas Jefferson people! I got pictures, I got souvenirs, and I controlled myself and didn't latch on to anybody official looking and beg for a job.

Or beg them to let me live there.

Either would be good.

After sightseeing, we hooked up with Barbara and AnimeJune. Eating, drinking and general merriment ensued. It's been so fabulous to talk about other readers about romance novels! Even when we don't always agree on said romance novels.

It was after dinner, laughs and fun that I noticed my right arm. Damn, I got sunburned. Now for those who have never met me in person - I'm so white that I'm see-through. Pale, pale, pale. The kind of evil complexion where if I stand out in the sun for 5 minutes I better be wearing SPF 45. So what do I do? I come to Washington D.C. where it's hot and humid and do not pack any sunscreen. I've had this complexion for 30+ years. Hello? Wendy? Anybody home? Where is your brain?! So now I have this sunburn on my right arm, and I'm rocking a sleeveless dress on RITA night. I'm gonna look lop-sided. Oh well. It's not the first time I'll look silly, nor will it be the last.

Tomorrow is the full rich day for me. It's the Librarian Event, the Literacy Signing, and probably a party afterwards. I imagine I'll be half dead on my feet, but heck this is RWA. Who needs sleep when you have caffeine and adrenaline?

Travelin' Fool

After a long day, I have made it to Washington D.C. Rosie and I both got very early starts this morning, up and marginally conscious by 4AM. We met up at the airport, got ourselves fully caffeinated, and boarded the plane. The travel itself went fine. Totally uneventful flights, everything went according to plan.

I think a big reason everything went so well is that Rosie and I were around to distract each other. Travel is just more fun when you have someone to chat with about romance novels.

We got to the hotel a little before 7PM, got checked in and then met up with Kristie, where much squee-ing ensued. Then it was a quick dinner, and now we're all hanging out in the room chatting about books, kids, significant others, and any other nonsense we can think up. Tomorrow it's some sight-seeing and hooking up with Barbara, who is taking the train down.

Well kids, it's back to the slumber party. It's also late, so I should also think about bed.....

Making A List, Checking It Twice

It's finally here chickadees! I'm on vacation and boarding a plane tomorrow for the RWA conference in Washington D.C. Rosie and I are traveling together (weeeee!) and we'll both be up at an ungodly hour in order to make it to the airport. If all goes according to plan, we'll be in D.C., at the hotel, sometime early evening. Since we'll be on California time, I figure we'll either be bouncing off the walls, or so darn exhausted from the traveling that we'll fall into bed.

I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. Just a few last minute toiletries that will have to be stuffed in the suitcase in the morning. I've also got Ye Olde Laptop ready to roll, along with my Sony Reader loaded with lots of books. Of course, I've pretty much decided I'm only bringing it along so other people can play with it. I never, ever seem to get any reading done at this conference. Too much to do, too many people to see, and I'm easily distracted by the pretty and shiny.

As for what's in store for you all? Well, hopefully lots of blog updating. Tweeting? Not at all. I tend to ignore my Twitter account and stick to blogging cuz that's how I roll. Also, I'm really going to try and be better about taking pictures this year! I'm always terrible about that, but this year there is no excuse since My Man got me a shiny new digital camera for my birthday. One that easily and conveniently fits in my purse. Praise saints!

My dance card seems to have exploded a bit, so I should have lots to blab about....assuming of course that I find time to blog about it all. Oh well, I just won't sleep. That will solve that problem!

Until later faithful blog readers. Next post will be coming to you live from D.C.

Authors, Books, And Wendy Blowing Up Her Credit Card

I was going to do a nice, thoughtful post for Memorial Day, but threw that out the window when I noticed that RWA has posted the list of authors signing at the Literacy Autographing on July 15 in Washington D.C.

If you live anywhere within spitting distance of D.C., and can't afford to attend the whole RWA conference, I still highly recommend you make the trip for at least this one event. It's free to get in, open to the public, and the cost of any books you purchase are donated to literacy charities. It's an awesome, wonderful, amazing event, and really? Seeing that many authors, gathered in one ballroom, all signing their latest releases is really flippin' cool. Hell, even if you don't buy a single book, it's worth coming in just to people watch.

Lots of great authors lined up this year - including Nora, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, J.R. Ward and Suzanne Brockmann. But I know you're dying to ask? Who am I excited about seeing?

Nicola Cornick.

I've read and loved her last two Harlequin Historicals (the Edwardian, The Last Rake In London and the throwback, Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress). Plus, she lives in England. This is a long-ass trip for her, and I'm sure she's shelling out the bucks because she has back-to-back-to-back releases coming out from HQN this summer (I picked up The Confessions Of A Duchess this weekend). So I'm really, really excited to meet her. I mean, she's in England, I'm in California. How many chances am I gonna get?

Any others? Thea Devine will be in da house again this year. I've met her before, but this year I vow I will finally get my hard cover, book club edition of Desired signed. It's a must. That woman's stories are like crack for me. Hey, you all have J.R. Ward. I have Thea Devine. Over the top sexual shenanigans and soap opera plots. Seriously. My life doesn't get any better than that.

So what authors on the list intrigue you? Are you attending RWA this year? Making the trip for the Literarcy Signing? C'mon, dish!