Young Pup

Hello kiddies from the RWA conference in Big D! I'm typing this from the lovely Jane's laptop, bless her heart. She's been so great about sharing.

Wednesday at RWA is always a full rich day for me, as it kicks off with the Librarian Day event. This year marks the final year of Cathie Linz's official tenure as RWA's library liaison. She really spearheads this event, and it's always a wonderful day full of interesting speakers and choice freebies. RWA staff members will be taking over this role that Cathie has graciously served for the last several (several) years. Some quick highlights:

• Once again I'm the youngest one in the room (or maybe it just feels like it). I'm 32-frickin' years old now. You think by now I'd start seeing librarians "younger" than me at these types of functions. I guess I shouldn't complain really. Pretty soon I'll be complaining about hot flashes, my bad knees, and "those damn whipper-snappers."
  

• Susan Elizabeth Philips and Jayne Ann Krentz gave a very informative talk on how libraries can get a better response from authors/publishers/PR departments when they want an author for a library program. Some really good ideas, most of which came from The Author Event Primer: how to Plan, Execute and Enjoy Author Events by Chapple Langemack. I'll be ordering this title for my library(s) when I get back to work.

• When I grow up I want to marry Jane Porter. She gave a wonderful speech "justifying" women's fiction, chick lit and romance - a really heartfelt impassioned plea. They recorded these sessions for the first time ever, with the hopes of making them available for free "at a later date" on the RWA web site. I'll keep an eye out for them and post a link to Jane's talk when it appears. Well worth a listen. I have such a major girl crush now!

• Nora Roberts was the lunch time speaker, and she (as always) gave a lovely talk. She talked about how critics dismiss the genre as formulaic because of the "happy ending" but that it's the journey readers enjoy. Yeah, we like happy endings - but try reading a Barbara Samuel novel and a Nalini Singh novel and call them "the same." They aren't. Also the entire troupe of librarians were given a free copy of High Noon, and Nora hung around to sign our copies after lunch. I can't wait to read it!

• Sherrilyn Kenyon and Sandra Hill both talked about paranormal romances. I've never tried Hill because her books set off my "wacky and zany" radar and Kenyon? Well Kenyon's rabid fangirls scare the crap out of me. That's besides the point really - both of these ladies were funny and warm. A lovely panel.

• Malle Vallik from Harlequin talked about their digital programs -eBooks, audio books, cellular digital content, blogs, social networks etc. I pretty much knew this stuff already, but Malle was a good speaker, answered all of our questions, and seems to have a lot of good ideas. Oh, and by September all of Harlequins "front list" (current releases) will be available as eBooks.
  

I'll confess, after this I skipped out and missed the last presentation on revamping your library's romance collection. Besides, I wanted to drop off all the freebies I got (several, but sorry I'm not listing them all because I'm lazy) and get ready for the big Literacy Signing. More on that in a future blog post.

Until later.