RWA Nationals

shilohwalker 20 July, 2009

I’m still trying to recover from the madness that is RWA Nationals.  It may be a long recovery.

However, I do want to hit the highlights.  Today, I’m gonna hit the authors…in a few days, after brain is settled, hopefully it will settle, I’m going to talk about other RWA stuff.

Had an awesome time talking with some authors, namely Angela Knight, Julie James, Lauren Dane and Alisa Sheckley

  • Lauren is one of those people that talks with her hands, and she is almost as fun to watch as she is to listen to.  Chatted with her and Beth Williamson the night of the midnight madness bazaar.
  • Julie is so much fun to talk with-I love her books.  Plain and simple.
  • Alisa Sheckley-I haven’t met her and up until she threw a furry werewolf glove at me, she seemed perfectly nice and polite (we won’t mention how I was throwing grapes at Lauren, okay?).  *G*  Ended up talking with Alisa for most of the Ballantine party.
  • I adore Angela.  She’s so fun to talk with, and she had her cop with her, too.  I love her cop (aka her husband).  He’s a great guy, and they look so perfect together.

I also got to meet Allison Brennan and Suzanne Brockmann.

Talked with Lori Foster for a while on Friday.  Love talking with her.

Drum roll, please….I also got to meet Jim Butcher-of the Harry Dresden books.  LOVE those books.   Met him and his wife, Shannon Butcher, at the Berkley party.

I had a friend who ended up hanging out with me a lot.  We met at our local chapter and she fondly calls me ‘the sister I wish I never had’.  😉  She makes awesome purses, too.  And she has the devil’s own luck-ended up getting upgraded to a presidential suite somehow.  With a balcony. And a dining room.  And strawberries.  And champagne.  Man, some people get all the luck….

My mom and my oldest daughter came with me-my bratlet is like tttthiiissss close to hitting that ticking teenage timebomb phaze and I figured I could do some serious mama-daughter bonding if I took her to a city full of zoos and museums.  She’s a science and history buff.  Mom was there to keep her company when I was tied up.

I hit the Berkley signing on Friday afternoon, right before we had to get ready for the parties Friday night.  At the signing, I grabbed books galore.  And I do mean books galore.  I had to borrow a tote just to get them all home.  One of the authors I got to meet was Jayne Ann Krentz-love her books.  She was one of the authors I discovered right after I found Nora Roberts.  I introduced myself to JAK and she tells me she enjoys my books.  At this point, I’m somewhere in the vicinity of the clouds-the cirrus ones…you know, those really wispy ones that are like almost in the stratosphere?  That’s where I was.

When I get back to my room, I tell my mom.  One of my fave authors has read my books.  o_O   Can we say ‘googly-eyed?’   I’m talking a mile a minute while I grab my stuff for the parties.  A few minutes later, we hit the door and head down the hall.  At the same time, one of my neighbors also heads out.  My friend is talking to the lady…she looks very familiar, I can’t figure out why, and naturally my friend isn’t exactly catching my ‘subtle’ signals.  So finally, I ask outloud…  “Who is this?”  while I’m rudely pointing at the lady.

The lady smiles, as friendly as can be, and says….  “Oh, I’m Jayne Ann Krentz.”

I blink, and then say…  “No, I just met her.”

And my friend is rolling her eyes, looking at me and going,   “You are such a dork.  This is Susan Elizabeth Phillips.”

I die.  Then I accost Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  In the hallway.  I grab her and hug her and squeal, “Oh, I love your books!”  (I’m not a hugger…I am not normally a squealer, either)

Turns out that SEP heard me telling my mom about me meeting Jayne Ann Krentz.  My friend thinks I’m strange and weird and rude, but apparently SEP thought it was funny.  Made her laugh… that’s not a bad thing, right?

And because I do need to do something about all the goodies I picked up…anybody that leaves a comment during the next few days while I’m posting about my RWA experiences will get their name entered into a drawing.  Prize to be given away probably in early-going out of town again…whimper, next week.  There might be two or three giveaways even.