RWA Round Up Blog
NYC -- they ain't kidding when they call it the city that never sleeps.
Hello everyone! For those of you not plugged in to the world of romance (and if you're not, why aren't you? Follow me on twitter or facebook. It's about to get real for you), last week was the Romance Writers of America National Conference, held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City – otherwise known as the center of the universe, and the town I called home for all of my 20s. I had a marvelous, whirlwind, exhausting time. Just how marvelous was this exhausting whirlwind, you ask? Well, let me tell you:
Monday: A small trip back in time
I got in on Monday, having come across the country from Los Angeles and staying at a friend's in New Jersey the night before. Luckily, by the time I got there, my roommate, the awesome Megan Crane had already checked in, so the room was open and ready. However, Megan had already left by the time I dragged my luggage up to the 21st floor, so I wouldn't see her until later. (Note: this will become a running theme.) BUT – she did leave me a copy of her latest Harlequin Presents release on my bed! It's the first book I collect at the conference! Huzzah! Book count: 1
Since I'm back in the city of my frivolous youth, I simply have to go visit the old haunts. So I head out, and quickly re-acclimate myself, taking the N R train down from Times Square to Union Square (the subway is not only the cheapest, but the fastest way to get where you need to go – I pity the scaredy cats who take cabs everywhere) grab a slice of pizza for lunch, go to my old nail place and get a much needed cheap manicure, sign my stock in the 4-story Union Square Barnes and Noble, and then window shop my way up 5th avenue to the Flat Iron District where I'm meeting one of my old friends for lunch in a roof top beer garden. Awesome? Yes. Am I used to walking this much? Um, no. My shoes were broken in, thankfully, but my feet were not.
One thing I forgot about living in New York that I remembered quickly: When crossing the street, the Walk sign is definitive while the Don't Walk sign is merely suggestive. If there's no one coming, you can cross. Honest. Just do so with speed and alacrity.
When I get back to the hotel I have a little time, so I soak my feet, and then go check in with the conference registration. Low and behold, in the goody bags there are six more books (only one of which I already own)! Book count: 6 (1+6- the Mary Balogh I already have, so I'm putting it in the leftover pile so people who want it can have it.)
Its 6 pm, so I think it best to head out the door and go down to Lady Jane's Salon, where six awesome authors are reading, including the wonderful Sarah MacLean and the incomparable Eloisa James! Both of whom read beautifully, to a jam-packed room of romance fans. (Among those fans? Cara Elliott, Miranda Neville, and that intrepid, yet slightly jet-lagged Australian, the fabulous Anne Gracie.) After, my voice already sounding like I'm a pack-a-day smoker, Sarah MacLean and I grab a late bite of guacamole, discussing books, books, and the awesomeness that is Friday Night Lights.
Heading home, it's so late, I cave and take a cab (I do have my limits). Once I get back to the room I see my roommate Megan Crane (yay!) for all of 10 minutes before I collapse into sleep.
Tuesday: The official start to the conference
You always run into people at RWA. It's inevitable. And the first person I ran into on Tuesday was Sara Lindsey as I stepped off the elevator into the lobby. She's killing time waiting for her room to open up, so she helps me find the goody rooms, where I lay down a lovely fan display of my beautiful bookmarks. And if I happened to grab a couple of free books from the goody room while I was there… well, that's the whole point of the goody room, isn't it? Book Count: 8
I'm meeting my agent at 3, and the panels and what-not don't start until tomorrow, so I have a couple of hours to myself… thus I go to the most inspirational place in the city – at least for me: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm there for the Alexander McQueen exhibit, but on my way to that hour long line, I find myself drawn to a special exhibit about art work from northern Europe in the 19th century that features interiors with a view through a window to the outside world. (The title of this exhibition: Rooms with a View. Succinct.) I am moved by a German artist named Kersting. Almost as much as I am awed by the McQueen display. As such, I buy books about both exhibits. Book count: 10. I also got McQueen pencils.
Next, I meet my lovely agent at a café near her offices. We are both sweltering, and take to the café's special watermelon-cucumber punch like gangbusters. We talk next books, ebooks, and of course… Friday Night Lights. (Because you can't not discuss the best show ever, right?) But I'm due over at the Readers for Life Literacy Signing, so the eternal Saracen vs. Riggins debate will have to wait until tomorrow…
Miranda Neville and me at the Literacy Signing. And my fascinator!
Get back to the hotel (took the subway, was across town in 3 minutes) and notice a MASSIVE crowd outside of the Marriott Marquis. Is it the crowd gathered for the premiere of Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon? Uh, apparently no. That's the line for people to get into the literacy signing. Ho, boy.
I'm seated next to Miranda Neville. We celebrate. We commiserate. We sell books like our own literacy depends upon it. We take pictures. We tweet. We meet wonderful fans. Our voices get hoarse – again. Three hours goes by fast. I almost sell out my books (huzzah!) and I feel guilty enough to purchase the remainder books myself. Book Count: 15 – but 5 of those are my own, so I'll make sure they find their way to a good home and won't stay with me long.
After dinner with a friend (sushi. The dinner, not the friend. Although both are awesome.) I am too tired to do anything other that chose a website contest winner and crash out, because tomorrow is gonna be a doozy…
Wednesday: Party like your feet aren't hurting.
When I say Wednesday is a doozy, I'm not kidding. I'm up at 7 am to make myself presentable and caffeinate before my first meeting at 8. Once that discussion goes down –all of us bleary eyed and slightly less than enthusiastic, except for Katharine Ashe, who had already gone to the gym, darn her – it was time for a series of meetings that lasts until about 2pm.
I feel like I'm in high school. The hours are the same, 7am-2pm, and all I'm doing is shuttling from one hour-long meeting to the next, with a lunch break in between, where – if you don't have a table scoped already – you have to stand around scanning the crowds hoping to find someone you know who will beckon you over to an empty chair.
But at 3pm, its time to head out of the Marriott – I know! Shocking! – and go to my agency's cocktail party, followed quickly thereafter by my publishing house's cocktail party.
Sidebar: Shoes. I have, as previously stated, lived in New York City for a significant enough period of time to know how to walk in the city. Regardless of what Sex and the City told you, comfort is far more important than fashion – although, it's a bonus if it can be both. That said, I brought a very cute, very practical pair of flat sandals… sandals that were beginning to make my feet ache as I walked block upon block of either hard cement sidewalk, or interior hotel ballrooms. So, what do I do for the garden party across town at my agent? I put on heels. My stupidity will be discussed at length later.
Parties at RWA tend to go something like every cocktail party you've ever been to, except attended by a bunch of introverts who don't talk to more than 2 or 3 people on a daily basis, and even then, its just to tell their spouse that the dog ate something weird and that's why the kitchen smells that way. These introverts (also known as writers) will stand in the corner and stare at their toes until someone else staring at their toes stands near them (ok, me) and they can awkwardly strike up a conversation.
Generally, we talk about how much our feet hurt.
And they DO. Oh my god, they do. We've all been standing and talking gabbing, not just for two hours now, but for two to three days. Shooting pains go everywhere. I decide I can't take it, and change shoes in between parties. I am significantly shorter in my cute flats, and therefore significantly less dressed-up looking. But even in the flats at the second party (this one was at Sardi's, and I was so hungry, I was chasing around the guys with the hors d'ouerves on trays) I was in enough pain to have me changing into sneakers and jeans when I got back to the hotel… just in time for a group of writer-friends to make their way back from their own parties in full cocktail party regalia. We all decide to hang out at the hotel bar, a motley crew of mostly historical authors including the lovely Anne Mallory, and the crashing Meredith Duran – both of whom I had never met but admired their works from afar.
I am the grubbiest dressed person at the bar. But I'm also one of the few who maintain the ability to walk. Which I do, up to my room, finally, at around 12:30 AM.
Book count: 18 – one from opening session meeting and 2 from the Madeline Hunter lunch.
Thursday: Are you here for free books? YES I AM.
Just a small selection of the books I absconded with.
If Wednesday was my tough day, Thursday is my easy day. Thursday I am not in romance author mode, I am in romance fan mode… because that's how I got started in this business. I was, is, a fan. And Thursday is the day the house signings start! Each publishing house has a signing just for attendees of the RWA conference. And all the books you get there are free. Free! Warped glee runs through my body! As I go from signing to signing (in sneakers, because when I wake up my feet are still sore), and the book pile gets higher and higher, my roommate looks at me like I'm a crazy person. How am I gonna get all these books home? (ship 'em) How am I going to read them all? (… uh… through valiant effort over the course of several years?) What will the Boyfriend say when he sees them? (Nothing. He will shake his head and say nothing.) But I have them! The books are mine! All mine!
Book count: 60? 70? I'm going to be honest, around here I lose count.
Friday: a Few Last Things and I am OUTTA HERE.
Me at the Berkley signing. You can tell its early because my hair is still wet.
I have my house's – Berkley – signing at 9am, so once again, I am up far earlier than I would like and back in good-shoes romance writer mode. Signing goes fantastically, I sign and giveaway those 5 books of mine I had left over from the literacy signing as well (so whatever my book count is now, its down by 5, so… that's good, right?). My one regret is that my signing was the same time as Ballentine's, which means I missed my chance to get the awesome Stefanie Sloane's latest.
Then it's running from place to place for more meetings. Lunch with one person, another singing to collect a few choice more books, 2 pm meeting with another friend. Pack and get boxes of books shipped, meet with my editor, and suddenly, its 5pm.
Unfortunately, I am unable to stay for the RITA and Golden Heart awards ceremony. I have a ride to catch in New Jersey, and as it's a holiday weekend, must get moving. And while my personal choice would have been for a 6-way tie in the Regency Historical Category, I was very happy to see Lauren Willig walk away with the golden lady. (Also, I just picked up her The Orchid Affair that morning at her house's signing and I can't wait to dig into it.)
All in all, getting on a train to New Jersey instead of getting into a ballgown and partying with dessert foods may seem a little anticlimactic to such an exciting week, but to be honest, I'm too tired to care. But it was a fantastic time, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough, and it only took a couple days, but my feet almost feel normal now. That's what finally being able to kick back and read a stack of brand new romance novels will do. Gets me back to normal.
Well, it's been an exciting week, and this one promises to be a far more… diligent one. But until next time sweets, happy reading!
