NJRW...better late than never!
I am once again waiting for the Sear repairman to come & fix my exercise bike. Sigh. I love my bike, but it really is a pain in the butt. This time, it's been broken for nearly a month. What was wrong with it before got fixed, but then only three or four days later, as I was using it, one of the petals snapped & flew right off. So someone had to come out to look at it, then parts had to be ordered, & now they're supposed to come replace those parts. By the end of the day--God willing--I may have my bike back & in actual working order. :-PAlso today, I promised myself that I would finally get around to recapping the NJRW conference I attended more than a week ago. The good news is that nothing I have to say is really timely or educational. I was basically lazy the whole weekend. LOL
Last year, I left on Friday morning, the same day the conference was set to start, but never made it. So this year, I decided to leave on Thursday. That way, I figured I could take my time, not worry about traffic or weather or getting there before the first workshop started. Let me tell you, that's definitely the way to go. The trip was great &, thankfully, uneventful. No rain this time, no accidents... A little construction, but nothing that stopped traffic. Whew.
Upon checking into the hotel, I discovered that they had both a workout room & indoor pool on the same floor as my room. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven! As soon as I unpacked & changed clothes, I was down there. And the second delightful thing was that no one else was around! Gotta love that. Now, we all know that I wasn't 100% excited about going to the conference this year because of my deadlines & such, but as soon as I hit the pool, I decided it was totally worth it, no matter what the rest of the weekend brought. LOL
The next morning, the conference-related events didn't start until about noon, so I hit the gym & pool again before starting to get ready. (Did I mention I was in heaven?!? What I wouldn't give for the exact same set-up at home! :-D) When I did head out for the PAN workshops, almost immediately I ran into friend & fellow Desire author Katherine Garbera. We found a seat in one of the sessions & chatted until it began. I didn't take notes, of course, but from what I remember...hey, I told you I was lazy that weekend!...the first was a roundtable discussion with two great, romance-friendly booksellers, & the second was a roundtable with Anne Stuart. Both were fun, & I even think I learned a few things. :-)
After that, my memory gets a little sketchier. I forget what I did the rest of the day... I know I dropped off some bookmarks & coasters in the Goody Room, & I even think Kathy & I found seat somewhere & talked for a while longer. I believe I also ran into another friend who writes Regency historicals, Diane Perkins/Diane Gaston. Did dinner at Red Lobster, which was only about a block from the hotel, & ended up being a real treat because a couple of the hostesses love romance, so I ran out to the car & got them books. :-) There was also a mall across the street from the hotel, so I ran over there, too. Hit the Disney store, Bath & Body, & a little shop that carried all things Irish & Scottish. So that was fun, too.
Saturday morning, the conference started early. Really early; we're talking 7am. Ugh. Not my idea of a good time, since that meant getting up at, like 5:30am to start getting ready. And I wasn't able to get to the gym or pool that morning becaus of it. ^%$@! But that's okay because they fed us breakfast & Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer spoke afterwards. As you can probably imagine, that was a fun talk. Through no fault of either Jenny or Bob, though, I started to nod off several times. Serves me right for grabbing a decaffeinated teabag when the server came around with hot water. :-p After breakfast, I sat in on a special presentation given by Victoria Alexander, & once again grew very sleepy. (Also once again, it was not her fault.) That's when I realized I had to get some caffeine in me if I wanted to be conscious the rest of the day. So after her talk, I went to the little refreshment area the hotel had set up for us & got another cup of hot tea--Lipton Brisk with full caffeine this time!--& found a seat to sit & sip.
And that is pretty much how I spent the rest of my day. LOL Yep, sitting around drinking--that's my idea of a good time. As I was sitting there, Sally McKenzie wandered by & joined me, so we sat talking for a while. Then I went to refresh my cup & run into Kathy again. Together, we ran into Virginia Kantra & then Sharon Schulze. And we all just sat around talking for the longest time. It was so much fun! I did not attend any workshops, but that's okay; I think I probably learned more chatting with Virginia & Kathy than I would have in an official session, anyway.
Now, you know how observant I am...not!...so imagine my surprise & excitement when I realized Andrea Kane was the luncheon speaker that day. I just thought it was very cool that she was there & I'd brought one of her books--Scent of Danger--with me for the weekend. It's really good, too! And that afternoon, to wrap up the conference, NJRW held a big book fair where all the attending authors could sign. I was signing, but before I took my seat, I ran around getting other authors to sign books for me. Andrea Kane was one of them. Victoria Alexander was another. (Stay tuned to my blog, & soon you'll find out why. *vbg*)
I was somewhat hidden behind a giant pillar for the entire signing, but that's okay. People still seemed to find me, & I was blessed to be signing beside another friend & frighteningly talented wench, Annette Blair. In between talking with readers, we chatted, & when Terri Brisbin sold out of her books on the other side of Annette, she sidled up & joined us. It was a great time!
Also at the signing, I met a reader who gushed about the cover of CALLIE'S CONVICT. She believes it's the best cover ever, & far be it for me to argue. *g* I actually happen to agree that it's a pretty great cover. She also nearly went into convultions when I pulled out a few postcards for the book that I happened to have with me...& offered to mail her some cover flats & fliers, too. (Haven't actually gotten around to that yet because I haven't managed to find the darn things, but I will.)
And I met another dedicated reader--who happens to also be Jennifer's friend :-)--who showed up last year to meet me when I wasn't there. So we finally got to see each other in person. And her daughter snapped a picture that I want to post here, but of course I'm having nothing but trouble getting that done. I'll keep working on it & post it later, if I can. :-p
So that's the recap of the NJRW conference. Not terribly exciting, huh? It actually is my idea of a good time, but I know it probably sounds boring to everyone else. Just remember, there was a pool. An indoor, heated-to-exactly-80-degrees, ten-doors-down-from-my-room pool on the premises. I'm thinking about moving in there permanently. :-D
