Overheard at RT: Rob G. Browne to Brett Battles, "You parade around the room in your underwear anyway."

That was part of a very serious and intellectual conversation. Really. Brett insisted that, if I did quote Rob, I must also add that he was adamantly denying the fact that he PARADED.

The very popular vampire ball had many attendees parading in their best costumes, though. The turnout was fabulous and I'm always amazed at how elaborate the make-up and costumes were. I stood in line with Cindy Gerard beside a woman who gave us a detailed account of how she sewed her vampiress outfit from her old suede curtains. And how she stuffed the horns on her head. It was just simply amazing.

Heather Graham and gang did another of their crazy skits. This year it was Alice in Underland, and I'll never hear the word Twilight again without the image of F. Paul Wilson sauntering on stage in Edward makeup and wig. There was also a male Lady Gaga at the end of the play, the perfect guest for the Mad Hatter's Party indeed.

Workshop-wise, I had the bestest time captaining my second romantic suspense panels. My guests were Cindy Gerard, Ann Voss Peterson, Caridad Pineiro, Nina Bruhns, and Shiloh Walker. The ladies were wonderfully eloquent, talking about the perfect alpha hero. One of the fun questions was "How long and how many times a night?" ;-)

I also asked about the qualities of our heroine--what qualities do we writers give them to make them The Woman for our hero? Bruhns talked about strength; Peterson wanted her heroine to have the "heart of a warrior;" Walker liked her heroines to be capable and smart; and Pineiro agreed, adding that she and many readers didn't like the TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines, so she always try to avoid writing those. For myself, I said that I liked to give my heroines two things--a sense of humor, so she could laugh at that silly alpha male or coax him to laugh at himself too, and, she must pull one over her hero at least once in the story. I related the story of Marlena's Tweety Bird tattoo in Into Danger as an example. Got a good laugh out of that ;-).

The e-book signing, my very first, went well too. It was two hours long and newbie that I was, I managed to sell six CDs of Big Bad Wolf as well as two downloads of Virtually Hers. I was very happy to know many fans were waiting for the print copy of Virtually Hers (coming out in August) and all my homemade Jed-bookmarks were popular--all gone within an hour!

That's the report for now. It's time to pack and drive home, so posting will be sporadic for the next 20 hours. It's raining so think GOOD THOUGHTS FOR GENNITA, 'kay? I hate driving in the rain. The next report will be about Saturday's main event, the Booksigning, tales at the bar, esp. one about a potato, MR ROMANCE 2010, which some bloggers are calling the MANGEANT (heh), and the Dorchester Rock and Roll party. I'm sure you're all waiting breathlessly.

Again, photos when I get home (and after rest). My little puter isn't made for resizing. Can't wait to show you all the crazy costumes and happy faces at the convention!

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