Day 5
I was up bright & early Saturday morning for breakfast with my agent. We had a nice, long talk & covered just about everything we could think of. He even gave me a small gift--a "magic" pen. It's green with yellowish-orange flowers on it & is shaped like a small fish (a minnow, maybe). He told me it's a very special pen & that I am to use it only to sign new contracts & endorse checks from his office. Ha! If only he knew how seriously I take this sort of thing. I love the idea of having a magic pen & will never use it for anything else. Believe me; I'd be way too afraid of having some sort of bad luck befall me. I'm supersticious that way. :-p
After breakfast, while I was waiting to meet a friend for lunch, I attended my one & only workshop of the week. It was Susan Elizabeth Phillips's & Jayne Ann Krentz's "Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood." Susan & Jayne can both be so funny, & I took notes. They also opened the floor to questions fairly early on, so I'm guessing the attendees found the workshop very helpful.
I met up with my friend, Karen Alarie (who writes for Harlequin Blaze as Karen Anders, btw), & we made our way to Susan's keynote luncheon. We were sitting at the back because we'd gotten there a little late, & just a few minutes into the meal, Richard showed up again. I swear, I spent more time with my agent at this conference than ever before...& I hadn't even meant to. But we made room for him at the table & had another really nice meal. We also got a couple of great books on the chairs at this luncheon: Susan's AIN'T SHE SWEET? & Christina Dodd's SOME ENCHANTED EVENING.
And then, of course, Saturday night was the Golden Heart/RITA Awards Ceremony. Now, ever since arriving home, I've heard the hubbub about the ceremony's content and Nora Roberts refusing to emcee. I have to tell you, I wasn't the least offended. Yes, it ran on a bit long--but then, doesn't it always? And, yes, I suppose some of the images displayed during the video clips could have been deemed offensive...but I guess I'm just not easily offended because they didn't phase me in the least. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. LOL Either way, I had a blast, & I was super-excited to be rooting for friends who had been nominated. Best of all, many of those I was rooting for WON! Yay!
