Day 4

The sightseeing is done - and I'm glad as the temperature soared today. I gather it's more like DC weather, but it's too humid for me to do the sightseeing thing.

So now it's strictly RWA conference stuff. The first thing on the agenda today was the Opening Session with Janet Evanovitch. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get her newest book as a handout and she didn't do a signing last night. There are now 6 or 7 people in my department where I work reading her book and I was hoping to get a book signed to the department. I know they were all excited that she was going to be at the conference.

She did a great job in the Opening Session. She did a question and answer session and while many of the questions were a tad on the boring side, her answers were interesting and intuitive. She did say she had a new series coming out some time next year based I think, on one of the characters from the Stephanie Plum series.
What was good about the session was the big screens located at the sides of the stage and in the middle of the room. So although from where we were sitting, M. Evanovitch was only about 12 inches tall, she was much taller on the screens.

We had barely left the Opening Session, went back to the rooms for a bit of a rest when it was time for the KeyNote lunch with Linda Howard. I was a bit worried when I saw what the meal was - chicken with a tomato sauce and pasta as I make it a rule not to eat tomato based food *shudder* and I'm sure everyone who knows this position I have taken would be laughing, but after I scraped as much of the sauce as I could off, and brushed away those nasty little tomato pieces, the meal was pretty darn good! One thing I found a bit interesting - iced tea here isn't sweetened. Can you imagine? I had to add sweetener to it. And the desert -yum! Aztec Lady was bit miffed. She said to everyone at the table that she would be more then happy to eat their dessert if they didn't want it and no one said anything or offered up their dessert. Then when we were getting up to leave, we noticed about 2 or 3 people hadn't touched their dessert. By this time it was much too late for her to eat it as they wanted us out of there asap.

Now for Linda Howards talk. It was hi-lar-i-ous! Honestly - I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard. My eyes were running and my sides were hurting from laughing so hard. She was telling us stories about her family and funnier stories I've rarely heard. No wonder some of her books such as To Die For, Mr. Perfect are so funny - she has a Wicked sense of humour. Again I was slightly disapointed as the book of hers they gave away was Death Angel and I already have that in hardcover. I was hoping for a copy of Burn. Ah well - my loss will be someone's gain as it will make a great prize for a contest when I get back.

And then there was the Avon signing. Now Barbara was torn as there was a workshop she wanted to sit in on at the same time as the signing so I said I'd pick her up some books. Aztec Lady and AnimeJune also got her some and believe it or not, none of the books we got for her were books she already had!! I picked up some for myself too - yes me - I picked up some Avons. And yet again I was slightly disappointed. I was really hoping to get a copy of One Reckless Summer but it wasn't there and the books of hers they did have, I already have copies of. But once again I reached that wall - it was crowded in there and had to get out - immediately!

Rosie, Aztec Lady, Barbara, Amy and I went out for dinner. It was good although they did have some tomato bits on my plate. I guess the staff at the hotel didn't pass the word along that I don't like tomatoes. And after dinner, I did something I very rarely do - I had........dessert. Dessert twice in one day. That doesn't happen often.

The I headed down to the bar for a drink where I ran into SBSarah. It still astonishes me that people remember me *g*. I had a nice chat with some people from Source Books - the publisher that will be publishing Judith James' next book.

And then Barbara and I headed back to the room. Wendy has been MIA all evening. She went to a dinner with some people from Harlequin. She didn't think it would be long but it's almost midnight and young missy hasn't made it back yet. Methinks we might just have to ground her.

I don't have as many pictures this post, but I do have a lovely one of the back of a chair.








And I'm feeling bad about not answering most of the comments -but with three of us in the room using the lone internet connection - not to mention AnimeJune when she gets a chance and drops by, all the stuff we've been doing and so tired yet buzzed, I just haven't had time! So I'll do a post just answering everyone's comments and questions - but yes, I'm having a wonderful time. My feet hurt like you wouldn't believe and I'm looking my age instead of the youthful 27 I usually look like.

Update - it's now after midnight and young miss Wendy still isn't back yet. I'm going to have to have a talk with her!