Uber Author At RWA 2007 Day Two

I woke up in my creaky five-star Hyatt sofabed.

My back hurts right now while I type and I haven't been roofing. What's up with that? I'm sure I didn't do anything wild and crazy with Author Pamela Clare last night because she had to rush back to her hotel to retrieve her lost luggage. It was a happy moment for her because she was walking around begging money from authors for the Buy Pamela Clare Some Underwear Fund. Her line was: I'm a RITA finalist and I can't afford underwear!

That's Emma Holly on the far left and I'm not sure whether she'd ever want to have a drink with me again ;-).

Yesterday was when the madness really began--arrivals (hah! So many late from delayed planes. Hahaha, I cackled triumphantly inside. I'm early this year, girls, earlyearlyearly, nyah nyah). Then there were lines to the counters, lines to the restroom, lines to the restaurant. Nothing like 2000 hungry and talkative women in the hotel lobby ;-).

As always, this turns quite a number of men in the hotel into wide-eyed, scared, bewildered, "I'm surrounded by female hormones," whimpering lost souls. You can easily spot them holding on to their luggage in the corner of the elevator, crowded in by 3 dozen RWA ladies, standing at the end of the bar, shivering over his beer as 500 RWA women talk over him, scuttering into the shadows as he avoids being trampled by 1000 females going for the restroom after a conference lunch.

Oh, lunch! I totally forgot. I was starving still from having not eaten since yesterday's plane fortification! My stomach was complaining like crazy when I finally joined Pamela Britton for lunch.

It's usually a bit quiet on Weds because of regional chapter meetings. I talked to many of my old Golden Heart buddies at the Golden Network annual meeting and made plans with Gayle Wilson about our publisher dinner tomorrow night.

I ACTUALLY TOOK SOME TIME AT THIS POINT TO WRITE MY BOOK. Hallellujah. Nothing like feeding off the creative energy of writers buzzing around one. Stomach full, creative temperature rising, I was ready for the big event of the day, the Literacy Signing.

When I entered the huge ballroom, the first table to the right was filled with raffle baskets, hundreds and hundreds of donated items from different chapters and writers for Literacy. You could buy a raffle ticket and drop your name/number into the bag(s) attached to the basket you want. These goodies include signed ARCs, so there were quite a number of interested readers!

Before I sat down at my corner, I managed to snag two books for myself:

La Nora was looking her usually sophisticated and beautiful self.

Eileen Wilks had the most gorgeous brown outfit on. And she let me drape myself over her table for some reason.

Then, it was signing time and the doors opened for the waiting readers outside. They poured in and headed immediately to their favorite authors, for example:

Yup, that's La Sherrilyn Kenyon with a black swan head ornament. She looked dynamite, glitter make up, vampire teeth, satin gloves, her favorite coffin handbag. I just love her outfits. A couple of years ago, she wore these killer spiked gogo leather boots that went up to her thighs. This year...black swan. Why didn't I think of that instead of a boring stud belt?

This is part of the line in front of me, waiting for Sherry:

Friends and readers stopped by in the two hours I was there. Here are a few of them:

Casee and Ing, who has a long Thai name I couldn't spell, are readers of this blog and my Yahoogroup. It was so wonderful to put a face to the people who post and had emailed me the last year. Casee made me laugh when she kept bringing the McNaughties (Judith McNaught fan forum group) to get my books. Thank you, Casee!

Michelle Buonfiglio from Romance: By The Blog (with her infamous Bellas) dropped by and we air-kissed. I told her it would only be fair that we go bad boys hunting in Dallas for her blog.

A very old friend from the Philippines, Kathleen Dante, is at her first RWA booksigning event (BUY HER BOOK!). I took several photos with her because if you look closely, she is SHORTER than moi. I told her that makes her four foot to my four foot four, heh heh. I then pulled her to Marjorie Liu, sitting not too far from me, so Kathleen can scream at the Tall One and call her names, like I do. ;-)

By the way, I. AM. NOT. PREGNANT. 'kay?

Just a stupid misbehaving belt and sitting on my ass for two hours, 'kay?

Marjorie, Angela Knight and me. I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!!! If I am, alien baby is growing very, very fast.

One more photo and I have to split for today's workshops (I'm already late. All your fault!)

This man looking bemusedly at the long lines of Sherrilyn fans dressed up in vampire make up and costumes?

He made me wish I had a Giant Black Swan on my head too. Hey, if this was RT, you wouldn't find me sitting so well-behaved at my seat. This man would have been Gennita Low toast, baby. (Toast? Where did THAT food item come from?!)

Instead, I could only pat on my pregnant stomach and sigh.

Back later, dude, if I have a break.

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