The Final Countdown

I got a grand total of 6 hours of sleep Thursday night.  This is actually, I think, a record for me when it comes to my RWA sleep pattern.  6 hours is downright decadent.  That being said, I still woke up feeling like a barely warmed over sea slug.  But I had places to go and people to see, and there was no time for whining.

Friday is the day of conference when people are really starting to feel a bit rough around the edges.  Case in point, I'm starting to work on this blog post Friday afternoon and already my brain is leaking like a sieve.  So for lack of having any brain cells to rub together, I'm going to go with the Ye Olde Make A List route:

• I adore Thea Devine.  I love that woman.  The first romance novel I ever read that could be construed as "erotic romance" was a Thea Devine novel.  I love her misbehavin' heroines, her barely housebroken (hell, who am I kidding - these guys still pee on the carpet) heroes, and when she's concocting an over-the-top, Big Secret, soap-opera-style world/plot?  I'm like a junkie begging for a fix.  She's my guilty pleasure.  Haters gonna hate, but if you've read and enjoyed even one J.R. Ward novel....shut your pie hole.  Don't be hatin' on my Ms. Thea.  Anywho, I got a signed copy of her BRAND NEW release, several hugs, and she was just the sweetest.  Total gushy fangirl squee'ing moment.

• Carrie Lofty slipped me an ARC of her October release Flawless.  I told her I would love it and pet it and name it George.  I'm seriously already looking at my "reading calender" to see when I can justify reading it (and I am trying to not resent the heck out of my current review commitments).

• Jennifer Haymore looked fantastic when I saw her at the Grand Central signing.  As quite a few of you may recall, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010.  When I inquired on how she was feeling, she said better and stronger every day.  Go Jennifer go!

• I was happy to see that Kensington had a signing this year (this was the first one I've seen them have, and I've been attending RWA every year since 2007).  I was glad I went to see them first though, since they didn't have a lot of books.  I was able to snag a couple of Bravas though (Emma Lang and Sylvia Day) along with a copy of Blue Angel by Logan Belle.  Now, I had never heard of this book, but I took one look at the cover and I was sunk.  I mean, how could I resist picking that up?  The answer was, I couldn't.  It's published under the Aphrodisia imprint, so it falls more under the "erotica" label - but hey, that's hunky-dory with me.  I hope the inside matches the incredible packaging.

• Samhain had a signing this year, they had a ton of books, and a nice variety of authors.  Contemporary, historical, paranormal, erotic, and m/m were all represented.  I also was able to finally meet Heather Osborn, one of their editors, and someone I follow on Twitter, in the flesh.  I had been missing her the entire conference, and I just caught up with her on the last day. 

• Joanna Bourne likes my blog.  Go ahead.  Be jealous bitches!

I ended up shipping two boxes of books home this year.  Big boxes mind you, but that's still downright conservative compared to previous years.  I'll need to sort once I get home, but after dividing up what I got for coworkers, Lil' Sis and the Librarians Day goodies that will go to work?  I don't think I picked up all that much for myself.  We shall see though.  That could be famous last words.

By now it was time to get ready for the RITA/Golden Heart ceremony, so I got myself gussied up in order to meet up with Kristie and Nath.  I'm sure the ceremony has been tweet'ed and blogged within an inch of it's life already, so instead I'll just give a shout-out to a couple of things that "stuck" with me:

• Trisza Ray won the Golden Heart (unpublished manuscript) in Paranormal Romance and I hope someone gives her a big, fat juicy contract.  She was so genuinely overcome, shocked, and in awe - that it was hard for me to stay seated, not rush the stage, and hug the dickens out of her.

• Karen Templeton won the RITA in Contemporary Series Romance, and I was just thrilled for her....even if I haven't read the book (Welcome Home Cowboy) yet because I suck like that.  She writes such wonderful books, and her shout-out to her category writing sisters during her acceptance speech was spot on. 

• Sharon Sala is full of win.  Now, I've read a couple of her books.  A Silhouette Desire I was "meh" on and a romantic suspense where I liked the suspense and the romance?  Not so much.  But I'm telling you, after hearing her acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award?  I want to run home, dig all her books out of my TBR, and start reading. 

When this blog post goes live I will be scurrying around getting ready to leave NYC for home.  I've had people ask me if I'm "ready" to go home.  The answer is yes and no.  I'm exhausted and miss My Man.  That being said, everyone has been so nice this week - telling me how awesome and wonderful I am - that the thought of going back to reality is a wee bit of a letdown.  I'd consider having my plaque surgically attached to a visible location on my body if I didn't think that would be creepy and wrong.  But hey, that's sort of what this job is about right?  It's not glamorous.  Sometimes it's even a major PITA.  But librarians aren't librarians for the accolades or acknowledgment (although that's pretty nice - gotta say).  We do it because we love it.  We do it because we want to help people.  And I know that I do it because I'm honestly not very good at anything else.  I'm good at being a librarian, and right now a whole national organization of writers thinks I'm a pretty darn good librarian too.  Go Team Me!

See you back in Cali!