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Friday
I had a fun drive up with Jenna, a fellow Romance Diva and NaNoWriMoer. Let me tell you this woman is a brainstorming GENIUS! We got to the hotel just before 2 p.m. Since we were early enough we grabbed some free books off the goodie table. Gotta love free books. I talked a bit to my roomies (I don't know Betty's Web site).
From 2-3 there was a tea with Cherry Adair. I sat down by myself to look through the workshop list. She approached with disapproval in her eyes, grabbed my scone and water and instructed me to follow her. She plopped me down at a table with three women I had never met. I'm very shy, very very shy and terrible at small talk. But these women were great! Super sweet and they were fun to talk to. I'm very glad Cherry forced my comfort zone to expand (more on the reasons why Cherry Adair is a fantastic person to come).
During dinner we heard from Stella Cameron. She was a hoot! I'll definitely be adding her to my TBR pile.
That evening I went to a pitching workshop where I practiced my pitch. Then to a workshop with agent Nephele Tempest of the Knight Agency. I had an appointment to pitch to her on Saturday (which I was uber happy about). I was highly nervous as I had never pitched a book before. But her workshop calmed me down some. She shared that she hated pitches as much as we did because our writing is what's important (woot! woot!). I really like her style from what she shared in the workshop.
Saturday
My first pitch was with Nephele Tempest (she is not a Mr. or known as Neph). I was nervous as a whore in church. No valid reason, I just was. But she was so personable and friendly, I was instantly at ease. My second pitch was with Kate Seaver of Berkely. She was very friendly too and the editor of Katie MacAlister's first book. Why was I so scared of these people? They are people like me. I know better now. I guess there are just some things that defy logic.
The speaker during lunch was Vicki Lewis Thompson with the nerd series. I just bought some of those a couple of weeks ago and I'm even more excited to read them after hearing her hilarious talk.
I also met Katie MacAlister. A very exciting moment indeed! She was very nice, even in the presence of a psycho happy fan (moi).
Paty and I went to karaoke for a while. That was fun. The guy running the show had some saucy leather pants.Sunday
During lunch I sat with the Romance Divas. Sha-Shana Crichton of Crichton & Associates was at our table as well. That woman had us in stitches! She was a HOOT! We were laughing so hard that one of the speakers reading names of volunteers looked at us and said "did I mess up her name?" Blushing followed, then more laughing.
Cherry Adair was the speaker for the closing session. Last year she was as well and had everyone in the room write the date they will have their book finished by. She had them put it in a sealed envelope and give them back to her. Cherry kept these envelopes all year long. She brought them back and had everyone who met that goal come up to the front and get a certificate.
She then had them write their names on a post-it note and drew three names. Those women won a trip to the Emerald City conference next year, hotel and registration fee. Out of her own pocket! Then she was going to draw a name for an all-expenses paid trip to Dallas next year for RWA Nationals. Registration, hotel and airfare out of her own pocket. At our table we all had our fingers crossed for Shelli to win. She deserved it so much, working her tail off all weekend for the conference. Not to mention she is such a sweet, kind and giving person. Well, guess whose name Cherry pulled? We all started crying. Cherry started crying. Other people in the room started crying. It was a good cry.
Talk about giving back to the romance writing community. Cherry Adair, you are a gem! And she stayed after the conference to teach us all her plotting method. Which I will blog about soon.
I'm also happy I got to see several of the Romance Divas, women from the Rose City Romance Writers and some wonderful ladies I had met in Atlanta. I with I would have taken pictures with them. Stupid me.
7 comments:
I'm so glad you went. Sounds like it was a great time.
I'm going next year. :)
Happy to have met you as well, Lisa with an "i" - grins on the soapies!!
Cherry Adair is my hero even though I've never read a single book of hers. You can't help but love her.
I'd totally forgotten about last year's written commitment to finishing my book. My jaw dropped when she pulled out that box of envelopes and I realized what she had done. I was proud that I had finished and was crossing my fingers for the nationals' win. But you are right. Shelli deserved it more than anyone else in the room. I cried, too.
Cherry truely wishes success for fellow writers and does everything she can to help them along. Other writers could care less about us peons. When I'm on the NY Times list I will follow in her footsteps.
Sounds like a fantastic trip!
So when will your manuscript be finished?? More importantly, when will it be available at my local bookstore? ;-)
It was a fun conference. Not only did I have awesome roommates, ;) I met more romance authors and writers.
We kind of traveled our own ways meeting up with people who wrote what we each did, but it was fun hashing over things in the evening and watching that leather clad banty rooster strut his stuff!
I saw pictures on Shelli's blog. Looks like you had a FABULOUS time. I'm so glad, Lisa.
Eli - GOOD! You can promote the heck out of your upcoming release ;-)
Lesa - More soapies next year!
Kendra - Great job on finishing the book! I feel bad for all the people in the audience getting her look of death for not winning ;-) And I love your attitude "when I'm an NYT bestseller"
Princess - I adore you. :-) I plan to have 3 chapters sent to an agent within a month or so, with the full ready in a couple of months. So I guess you can expect in bookstores February 2008? Haha!
Paty - Leather man will hold a special place in my heart. You're a great roomie!
Jen - Next year if you're able to drive up to Salem, I'd be happy to drive you to Seattle! Haha! :-)
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