Notes From A First-Time RWA Goer

This week I’m at RWA, which is an annual convention of romance authors and other industry professionals. There are workshops, there is drinking, what’s not to like?

Unless you’re an incurable introvert such as myself.

But this is my first time here, so I am content to watch and learn. I’m rooming with the lovely (and much more savvy) Ruthie Knox, and I’ve met some other cool people, both published authors and aspiring writers. I had planned on live-tweeting more stuff, but the internet kinda sucks here at the hotel and even my iPhone’s 3G is struggling in certain rooms (like, oh, the ones the workshops are in).

I spent yesterday at the Beau Monde mini-conference, which was a day of learning about historical details, focusing on the regency era. Then I got to drink wine and learn a country dance at last night’s Soiree. Not gonna lie, the evening started off trippy, but after I had a little alcohol, it was all good.

I got to see two workshops by Sandra Schwab, who it turns out is very smart and witty and also has a fun (German?) accent that I could have listened to all day. I was so impressed that I went online to check out her books, and discovered that I recognized one of the covers. I’ve had her book sitting in my Kindle for a long time now. I should probably read from there more often instead of buying new books! Of course, between all the freebies in our bag and goody table and other things, I have quite a bit of reading to do anyway.

Today I’ve hit a few panels, and then there’s some more this afternoon, possible drinks with other Loose Id authors and then the Passionate Ink “Hurts So Good” party tonight. Boy, I am going to need some serious decompression time when I get home.

Speaking of home, I am going through serious withdrawal pains being away from la familia. The hubs sent me a picture of our 4-year-old strumming on his Toy Story guitar and the quote “I’m playing sad music because I miss mama.” So I have serious mama sads.

On a high note, I brought a big bag of my custom handcrafted soap swag for Giving It Up and it’s going like hotcakes. I put about half out the first time, and then again, and each time it’s snapped up in a matter of hours. Even as I was laying them out in a nice arrangement, people were coming up and asking about it. So that’s good. I felt like I did my duty to my book, since I’m not doing any other authorial promotion things while I’m here. Marketing? Check. And I didn’t even have to be in the room