A Little Game of Guess Who?

Before I post the final pictures of the conference, I thought it would be fun to play a little game. Can you guess which stylish heel belongs to which lady?



No cheating allowed! Just post your answers and I'll reveal the winner. Maybe a little surprise, too :)

This picture was taken after the Golden Heart/Rita Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening, the last night of RWA's Dallas Conference.

DFW Tea sponsored by Fresh Fiction at RWA Convention

Here are some great pictures of the Saturday afternoon event. We met some great authors, including Jane Porter, Lorraine Heath, Karen Kelley, Tracy Garrett and lots of others.

More Fun at RWA National Convention in Dallas

This happens to be the only picture I took of Friday. A pity, because Friday was by far the funnest day :) My friend Sandra Ferguson and I started out hunkered down outside the ballroom where agent/editor appointments were taking place. We practiced out pitches until they called our names. Did our thing, then queued for the Publisher sponsored booksignings. Avon was first on the Docket. They're a large publishing house with a strong romance line. They've also recently opened to Women's Fiction in the last year.

The place was packed so we each headed in opposite directions. When we left, we each had a full box of books. We also picked up a couple of flash drives in Avon's signature pink. Cool.

I headed for the Passionate Ink Luncheon where I ran into friends. Great luncheon. Everyone walked out with goody bags full of more books and animal print cowgirl hats. All I need now is a stripper pole in my bedroom!

We finished out the evening by going to dinner, which is where the photo from above was taken. (Please ignore the wine bottle and empty glasses on the table!) Shannon had to beg off due to a migraine. (Shannon, you were missed!) And Mary was at the Harlequin Bash with Terry. (I've heard that was quite a party.)

Needless to say, it was an adventure. We had a very good time. I laughed so hard my jaws ached. There were also a couple of happy tears. I love these women. We've come a long way. There was a lot to celebrate. And with our Laura a Golden Heart Finalist, it just made it a perfect night.

More later.

More from RWA

Here are more pictures from Thursday. We're all decked out for the Welcome Reception. After, we caught up with friends Ron Campbell, our Aussie friends Bernice and John Sibberas. In the next picture, Kim Campbell dishing about writing and Delores, Shannon and Ron conferring on the publishing industry in general.

More tomorrow :)

Here is Delores with Sandy. Dallas has a big Hispanic culture. We're soaking it up at one of the oldest Mexican Restaurants in the city: Oheda's

The two pics on top are from RWA's Annual Autographing for Literacy held on Wednesday night. It's open to the public and all the books are donated by the pubs. The proceeds from the sale go to literacy. Delores and I are here with Judi McCoy (in the pink) and the other pic is of Rosemary Clement-Moore, at her very first Literacy Autographing.

More tomorrow.

While I'm thinking about it . . .

Sparkle This! is a new group blog I've signed up for. Click over and check out the great posts.

The contributors are all experienced writers in various stages of the publishing journey. Eager to share the wealth of knowledge (and pitfalls) to come our way, we decided to put it into a community blog easily accessible. Check it out. And if you have any comments, or subjects/questions, feel free to post.

Happy Writing :)

RWA Part 2

Wednesday, July 11th:

We arrived at our hotel to check in. Four of us decided to go the cheap route, since the conference was in our backyard, and booked a two-bedroom condo at the Hawthorne Suites. Not the best neighborhood, but we're talking about downtown folks! We had a spacious 750 sq.ft. apartment-like dwelling with a full kitchen, two baths and a living room complete with fireplace. Not bad.

We had time to grab some lunch and then do registration at the conference hotel. There were already a lot of people there. We were glad we'd done our volunteering on Monday in the goody room and picked up a box of books. It meant we wouldn't have to fight our way through the throngs.

After registration, we found our buddies who were staying in the hotel and poured over the conference booklet to plan out which workshops to attend. This actually works well if you want to attend more than one workshop at a time! Just split up and exchange notes.

We went back to our condo to change for the FF&P Banquet/Awards Ceremony later that evening. But first, the Literacy Autographing where I met Karin Tabke!! Folks, the woman is just as beautiful in person. (Seriously, I'm talking invisible tiara, here.) And nice! I highly recommend her FirstLine contest.

On to the FF&P. I had the best time. Ran into agent Jessica who agreed to let me buy her a drink. We found a table with Gail Dayton, Prism Winner for her book The Barbed Rose. I didn't know everyone at the table but I did recognize Prism finalists/Rita Nominated/Multi-pubbed author PC Cast and Fantasy author Jeri Smith-Ready. I'm currently reading Jeri's Eyes of Crow, which is great!! As soon as I finish it, I'm going to post an Amazon review. She has such a way with characters and the rhythm of her words is very appealing. It's easy to fall inside the book.

I also met GH finalist/Paranormal Katey Coffey. Very smart chick. She's a life coach. Anyway, besides the greath contest and awards, FF&P hosts a bevy of agents and editors to speak during the banquet. Four agents and two editor in, I picked up on the idea I might be at the wrong conference.

Hmmm. More on this later . . .

RWA Conference in Dallas -- Part 1

The Romance Writer's of America held their annual convention the week before last in Dallas. I thought I'd have a chance to post about the conference during those days but down time was practically non-existent! If I managed the odd thirty minutes here or there, it was to catch my breath before the next function.
So, I'll attempt to do the catch up here.

For me and my great cp's, the week started early with a plot-fest at a friend's house on Tuesday. This was the original group from seven years ago when we started: Teresa Southwick (Terry), Judi McCoy, Mary Karlik, Sandra Ferguson and myself. When we began, Terry had been pubbed since 92 with Silhouette, Judi had recently been bought by Kensington and Mary, Sandy and I were plugging away, still trying to get all the pieces to fit in place.

Since Terry and Judi had both moved away, it was especially great to have them all to ourselves for the day. We had a great time. Chatted and caught up then plotted until our jaws were sore and brain-lock set in. Later, we cooked and laughed and drank until we were all warm and fuzzy :)


The next morning, we put our conference stategies together over breakfaast and set out for the conference hotel . . .

More later in part 2.

I entered the IGO!

Indiana Romance Writers Golden Opportunity. It's romance based and they give feedback according RWA's Golden Heart Contest.

Speaking of the Golden Heart. Another of my critique partners, L.A. Mitchell is a finalist in the Romantic Elements catagory. Her link is on the side bar. She's an amazing writer.

And I'll mark my calender for Sept.12 to see if Lucky the Leprechaun has decided to make my house a stop on his travels.

Happy Writing

Dijkstra Literary Agency Podcast

I was doing a little research for the upcoming RWA National Convention next week and found this interesting video on Agent Kevan Lyon, who will be in attendance and taking appointments.

Check it out.

I'm done !!! (Again.)

I finally finished the complete revision of Residuals: The Mender. :) It came out to 467 pages. 100,829 words. I'm so glad it's done. And a whole week before RWA's National conference. Whew. Talk about cutting it close. Now, I just have to tweak the synopsis to show the bigger romance and deeper motivations.

Piece of cake! (kidding)

Happy Writing

I love The Mummy Returns!

Remember that scene at the end of the movie? The one where Rick has stabbed the ceremonial spear into the Scorpion King and sent him and his army back to Hell?

The event triggers an earthquake inside the pyramid and rips a fissure in the ground, leading to Hell. Rick's holding on by his fingertips while the minions of Hell are trying to pull him in when he looks up. Notices Evie watching him. He starts yelling at her to go, even as she adopts a resolute expression and makes her way toward him.

She risks her life to save him, knowing they both could die (she's already died so this is high drama, folks!) Of course, she saves him. And in the background, we see the bad guy calling to his bad girl to save him in like fashion. Of course, she doesn't come through for him. She attempts to save herself, tripping and falling into a pit of scarob beetles that eat the flesh from her bones. Yuck!

But Evie never wavers. She keeps pulling on Rick until he's safe. That's heroism and romance tied up in a nice pink bow. It evokes so many emotions and appeals in so many ways to men and women alike.

In short, this movie has it all. High concept premise. Action. Adventure. Exotic setting. To-die-for Romance . . . -sigh-. The pinnacle of fine writing in my estimation. It not only inspires but reminds me of what I aspire to. This is why I write. What I'm trying to achieve in my own endeavors each time I sit down at the computer.

I just finished a week of family vacation at the beach. Nothing but laying in the sun. Goofing off with the kids and the hubby and filling up the well inside me that had been running on fumes for waaaayyyy too long.

I really took a slice and slowed down. Forced myself to take a look at all the other things in my life that are good.

I hope each of you will do the same, if not now then in the very near future. Life is a beautiful merry-go-round.

Take a spin!