July 17, 2009

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!

6 comments:

nath said...

Is today the last day, or Sunday?

Good luck for today :) Hope you tough it out LOL :) Don't worry, you'll get some sleep very soon :D

Wendy said...

Nath: Today is the last official day of the conference, culminating in the RITA awards ceremony. Most of the conference attendees will be leaving sometime tomorrow.

Kati said...

It was such a pleasure to meet you last night, Wendy! And thank you for letting me fondle your reader. I hope you have a safe trip back to Cali!

Angie said...

It sounds like you're having a great time - I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

Lusty Reader said...

Friday was super fun hanging out with y'all, so glad you made the trip to the other side of the country for RWA! When else can you rehash terrible Western romances with secret identity cowboys named Colt? (i so called that!)

Wendy said...

Lusty: Because they all used to be named Colt! LOL Another thing I didn't mention is that most terrible western romances feature a bathing scene (hero and/or heroine spies the other one bathing in a stream/pond) and a long lost gold mine. I've yet to enjoy a western romance featuring a long lost gold mine.

Authors, take note. LOL

Kati: More than happy to let you fondle my reader.

Angie: Glad you enjoyed the updates!