RWA Conference Report: Part II

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posted Thursday, 31 July 2008

2008 RWA National Conference (July 30 - August 2)

by Kate Garrabrant

And So It Begins...Officially (photos added)

Wednesday was the big day...I finally registered for RWA. Since Monday I have only gotten about four hours of sleep, going to bed way after midnight and waking up around seven in the morning. Wednesday kicked off with a lovely breakfast with Angela James, Senior Editor for Samhain Publishing. We were joined by about five other bloggers at Denny's, and had a ball! And let me say this: Denny’s has some awesome French toast.

After breakfast I went through the registration process. I received my name badge and some ribbons that identify me as a First Timer and Volunteer. I also got a bag filled with books, pens, and the conference schedule...and then I visited the goody room. I knew from discussions with previous attendees that the goody room is the icing on the conference cake, and it is! Items change every day and include an overabundance of bookmarks, pens, lollipops, books...the list goes on and on.

Because I really didn’t have anything to do until late in the afternoon, I went to one of the local Borders where something incredible was taking place. The Today Show was actually reporting about RWA. By the time you read this you'll no doubt have missed it, but for those who live in Hawaii, here's a heads-up. You might see a conference report in the show's second hour, featuring interviews with Beverly Jenkins, among others. Why, you might actually see me on TV!

By the time I returned to the Marriott, it was time for my volunteering duties. I was one of the many people who would sell raffles on the floor of the "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing Signing. The huge room was set up with tables for more than 400 authors to sign their books for the 2,100 conference attendees as well as the San Francisco public. As soon as the doors opened, there was a rush mainly to the tables of Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon. There was also every romance author imaginable there!

After selling raffles for almost three hours, I decided to hand in my apron and meet some of my favorite authors. The first was Ann Aguirre, who writes amazing SF Romance for Ace, whom I'd actually met for dinner the week before in NYC. She is one of the nicest and sweetest people I had the pleasure to meet. Next was Linnea Sinclair, who actually wanted to take a picture of me! Linnea was the one author I wanted most to meet; she writes wonderful SF books for Bantam and is up - again, for a RITA this year. I also met briefly with another RITA nominee, Diana Holquist, who was also delightful. As I made my way around, I chatted with Eve Silver/Eve Kenin. Eve did quite well in AAR's annual reader poll earlier this year.. She has such a lovely smile and I couldn’t believe she was so happy to meet me I also met Linda Wisdom, who writes these funny romance paranormals about a witch and her talking bunny slippers for Sourcebooks Publishing. Like me, she loves the showtime series Dexter.

I also had the pleasure to meet the adorable Nalini Singh, who had a smile for everyone who came up to her. Next I talked to C.L. Wilson, whose Lord of the Fading Lands books were my favorites of last year. She is also very sweet and nice to meet in person. The very first author I ever wrote email to and started a correspondence with was and Anna Campbell, who writes historical romance for Avon. Both of her present books are up for RITAS this year. She even brought me some chocolate cookies all the way from Australia! I also met Eden Bradley, who writes wonderful erotic romance and next to her to Elizabeth Boyle, another Avon author who writes funny historical romance. The final author I met was Joanna Bourne, who was also so very sweet and nice and so very grateful for the readers who love her books.

I honestly can say that the authors I met are very nice, sweet and genuine people. I had this fear that they wouldn’t want to talk to me and I was wrong because they were very excited to meet me. This night will be one that I will treasure forever!