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 . . .