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.....