…aka The Grind. After two days of convention, exhaustion was setting in. And yet we all managed to get up in time for the Kensington mixer…and free Mimosas. Thankfully they were weak, otherwise I think I would’ve just gone back to bed!
That would’ve sucked, too, because I would’ve missed Lisa’s raffle win. She won a basket – well, collander – full of books and baking goodies. Check it out on her site, http://calicheermom.com.
The first workshop of the day was Peeling Away the Layers of Romantic Suspense. The premise was to analyze the movie Body Heat but ended up being a great discussion of pacing and dialog in suspense novels. Cherry Adair is awesome, and I made a point of finding her at the Book Fair. But that’s not until Day 4…
The following workshop, Plotting and Setting Your Mystery, was a little dry, and spent a fair amount of time discussing pantsters versus plotters – something that wasn’t new for me. Yes, I took off early…but I didn’t want to be late for lunch with my publisher.
It was a treat to have lunch with Omnific owner, Elizabeth Harper, and Acquiring Editor, Lynette McCann. More than professional acquainances, Elizabeth and Lynette and I go back quite a ways, and I was fortunate to be able to renew our friendship at RT.
Also joining us was another Robin, an aspiring writer and online friend. I love meeting the people I’ve encountered online, and especially someone so nice who has such a great name! 🙂
After lunch, the plan was to drop off the books I had for sale at the Expo and catch another workshop, but things were a little disorganized. Instead, I waited in line a lot longer than I’d planned. Rather than crash the workshop halfway through, I went back to our room and freshened up before collecting the rest of the stuff for my table at the Expo. A half-hour before the Expo, the three of us headed back down, and got ready for the crowd. Here’s my table at the Expo:
The Expo itself was FANTASTIC! It was a pleasure to be seated between authors Jess Dee and Genella DeGrey, and we traded goodies and laughs throughout the Expo.
And that was the point of the Expo, I feel: to connect with people. Readers, writers (both published and aspiring), publishers, booksellers, agents, promoters…all kinds of people stopped by. My sparkly ribbon bookmarks seemed to be pretty popular, and the avenue through which I introduced everyone to Whirlwind. The highlight of the Expo was when Erin Quinn bought a copy of my book – she’s a NY Times Bestselling Author! Thanks, Erin, for supporting a budding author!
After two hours of talking in a large, noisy room, Lisa, Killian and I decided to skip the Avon mixer (which I heard was great with margaritas), in favor of a quiet dinner of Chinese food. Orange Chicken never tasted so good – and it was nice to give our voices a rest!
The day ended with the Vampire Ball. Having never gone to an RT convention before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The entertainment was a skit that was sort of a parody of a variety show and was a little hard to follow. The best part was we shared a table with Mr. Romance contestant DeLonn, an actor and model who was also very funny and of course, smokin’ hawt! Wicked Little Pixie has a photo and bio of DeLonn HERE. DeLonn, you rock!
We did score even more books at the Vampire Ball, adding to our hoard. Tomorrow I’ll show you the loot…it’s a sight worth seeing!
Robin DeJarnett 