RWA: A First Time Love Affair by OH

I was going to do a scene by scene of my arrival, fun times, and departure of San Fran, but really, you don’t want that many details. But I’ll break it down to the highlights. I arrived Wed after the plane, the airBART, the regular BART, walking uphill with a suitcase (ew) and plenty of nice conversations with strangers (the book I brought sucked). First thing I did in SF was meet Kay T (aka RWA roomie). Next thing I did was walk into a lobby with at least a hundred women talking romance, their voices like “chattering birds” (stole that from someone), their energy level sparking the mind. But that was nothing compared to the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing that night. Over 500 authors, a lot of the RWA members, and a huge smattering of the public filled up the enormous ballroom. I made a beeline to Suz Brockmann’s table- squeal squeal squeal- and then made my rounds around the place, picking up among others Kathleen O’Rielly’s Sex, Straight Up, which I’ve read since I’ve been back and found extremely well-written. As I’m making the end of my rounds I notice the raffle board and omibob I won two gift baskets. (Let me* say right now, Kay T actually dropped off my raffle tickets while I was in line for Suz- squeal- so I did share some of the goodies, though she wouldn’t take the seagull sculpture no matter how much I insisted. *grin*)

Thurs. was the beginning of the workshops (and the Goody Room, where I saw what made good promotional items and filled up a bag with the stuff). I got to see RSS again (yay! I was very lucky and got to spend a lot of time with RSS, all of it fabulous) and then Dee (first and last time I saw her at the conference; you need to get an elephant to sit on her to keep that CB in one place). The workshop to point out for that day is Watching the Detectives: Peek Inside a Real Detective Agency with Eileen Rendahl, who basically explained all the ins and outs of PI work and life. If anybody has a PI in their story, I’ll be happy to type up my notes from this one for you, cause wow was she informative. The luncheon during the afternoon had a very funny, funny speech by Victoria Alexander, who I must now read in the hopes she is just as funny in her books. I also went to the Moonlight Madness Bazaar (aka time to sell you stuff) and met the DH of a writer/blogger who did magic tricks. Spent more time talking to him than anyone else there (until he started to look like a young Tom Cruise which was a little freaky, cause ew) but he and his wife were very wonderful. Had the best time at dinner with RSS that night too, where I found out some more cool things about her and the family.

Fri. was the first all-day workshop day. There were three especially amazing wokshops. First, The 21st C Heroine: How Far She’s Come and Where She’s Heading (which included on its panel Kesington editor Kate Duffy who is completely hilarious; if you go to RWA next year make sure you go to one of her workshops). We had a very fascinating discussion that I learned a lot from (you burst with romance pride after this one). The second was World Building: Creating Your Own Universe. A lot of it was stuff I knew, and they were referring to contemporaries, but I had a lot of little light bulbs go off, which is the best response to have in a classroom (as opposed to yawning). And third was Sociopaths vs Psychopaths and the Serial Killer with Dr. Cynthia Lea Clark, and I must buy her books cause oh boy, the stuff she knows. I talked about her workshop often afterwards, which garners more strange looks than I was really expecting considering where I was. I also should mention the workshop with SEP and Jayne Anne Krentz, which was more entertaining than informative (not saying it’s a bad thing, I just found it to be so). I’d love to see Jenny with those two doing a ‘workshop’. This was also the night of the CB Get-Togther in Chinatown. I don’t really have words to describe just how it feels to be sitting and talking with CBs face to face. Most of you have experienced it, but it strikes me* every time by how wonderful it all is. Even if they think checking up to make sure they got home safely is something only a mother would do. Like if I wasn’t walking back with Kay T they wouldn’t have made me* do the same thing. CBs. Sheesh.

[BTW: I’m mentioning the names of the omibob workshops I went to because you can download the workshops from the website and you may want to look at a few to get a feel for them if you’ve never been to RWA. I’m not really suggesting any of the above three- first was more about being there, second was good but basically common sense, and the third will probably have a lot of blank spots as after her first five minutes of speaking we just peppered her with questions and I’m not sure how many she repeated for the mike. I did take good notes in the last one though, so again, will type them up if you so wish.]

Sat. had one very mentionable workshop (though there was another I liked, but mostly just because the people were so wonderful on the panel, all from Dorchester Publishing House)- From Cover Concept to Finished Cover, and this gave me a great view inside the marketing/sales/art dept. Don’t bother getting this one, you needed the images too, but I would love to go to another one like this. After that it was mostly zooming through book signings (cause at this point I really needed more books) instead of workshops. Then it was the awards ceremony, which I dragged Kay T to so I could see Suz emcee. As I said to Kay T, until RSS or another CB is up for an award, or someone like Jenny is doing host spot, I’m probably not going to another one. It was fun, and we got to sit in the finalist section (didn’t see the red rope, I swear officer), but once is plenty until a CB is nominated.

Sun. was not as fun, mostly cause I was leaving and partly because I had a monster headache. RSS, Kay T and I meet up and ate breakfast as lori’s diner (judging by the car in the middle of the place, let’s not have lori doing any driving any time soon). And then it was a plane ride and home, brimming with ideas, a headache, and the desire to go to RWA next year.

I really didn’t mean to do a play by play of the whole conference, but overall I have a few tidbits I picked up during the conference. One, get the vegeterian meal at lunch. Two, find a workshop with Kate Duffy in it. Three, learn as much as possible, but go to to at least one book signing during the weekend. Four, have Kay T drop your raffle tickets in the box if possible. Five, romance writers want to meet you and want to share as much knowledge as they can. Six, it truly is their refrain that the best book to write is the one you want to. Seven, stay in the hotel where the conference is at if possible; it truly is worth the money to be able to drop off stuff you pick up during the day instead of breaking your back (RSS lent me* her room for this reason).

And eight- it’s a magical experience, and I recommend it to anyone who loves romance- whether it’s reading, writing, or doing both with it. The energy you get can bring you into a new place in your writing and life. I’m so glad I finally went to one.

And don’t forget about Dr. T’s Scotland post below.

109 comments August 6th, 2008