Seven things about RT11

As promised, here are seven things about RT11, again in no particular order.

1. Glass elevators! I LOVE glass elevators, and the RT hotel had them. You could get on at the lobby and ride up through the lobby roof all the way to the 35th floor. I stood as close to the windows as I could. (No, I didn’t press my nose against the glass. I have some class.) I felt like I was on an amusement park ride. I even allowed myself a little “whee” or two if no one but my husband was riding with me. My husband is not a fan, though--he stood by the doors and looked a little green.

2. Saucy Sirens. I co-hosted a social Wednesday night--Saucy Sirens through History. Here are a few of the sirens, but I have to apologize for the quality of this picture. My camera's battery died, so I had only my phone and I don’t know how to manipulate those pictures. I promise no one was possessed by evil spirits, though some of the eyes might look like it.

From left to right, the sirens are: Sahara Kelly, Sabrina Jeffries, Mia Marlowe, Victoria Alexander, Sharon Page, and Kieran Kramer. There were other sirens I didn’t catch on “film”—how 20th century is that concept?

My friend, Kim Lowe, took a picture of me with a reader.

Can you guess which siren of the silver screen I was? Well, it helps to have the list of names to choose from. Most of the attendees could figure out who I was by looking at the matching game—I’m supposed to be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

3. The Faery Ball. I’m not one for costumes, as you may have guessed from the picture above--I had all the Audrey Hepburn items except the hat (borrowed from Pat the Hat Lady) in my closet or drawers. So I didn’t go to the Faery Ball dressed in anything other than conference wear. But Alicia Condon, a Kensington editorial director, was very impressive. She’s the one with the zebra balloons—can you believe she made that dress herself? With her are Kensington authors Mingmei Yip, Kate Douglas, and Erin Kellison.

4. The historical panel--Finding the Right Historical Setting for Your Book--I was on with fellow writers Elizabeth Hoyt, Judith James, Sabrina Jeffries, and Amanda McIntyre. Renee Bernard tried valiantly to keep us under control and on topic. I had fun and a lot of laughs with this fabulous group—and I hope our audience enjoyed the presentation as well.

5. Seeing friends. I love seeing in person the pals I generally only get to “see” on line. After our panel, Elizabeth and I went to get lunch. We ended up in the lobby restaurant which turned out to be a great choice. We had a rotating selection of lunch companions--Renee Bernard stopped by for a while, and then Jade Lee. And it was either at that meal or another that I saw Kim Lowe, Kristina Cook, Amanda McIntyre, and Jessica Trapp. I’m not sure what the wait staff thought about the musical chairs, but they adapted admirably.

6. The mammoth book signing. This year I sat next to Julianne MacLean, whom I haven’t seen in a while, so it was great to catch up. And some lovely Aussie brought us that delicious Australian treat, Tim Tams, a kind of chocolate cookie. (Or biscuit in British English.) But the highlight of the signing, of course, is meeting readers. Many of them brought their Naked books from home for me to sign—I saw some of the original Dukes and Marquis!

7. The SOS Military Mixer. Kim Lowe does a great job with this every year. It’s a wonderful tribute to our military families. Rather than recap it myself, I’m going to suggest you hop over to Kim’s blog. She has some great pictures of the event, and if you scroll down through the days, you can get a look at RT from her reader’s perspective.

I’ll leave you with one more picture. Kim took this shot of Jessica Trapp and me with the woman at RT’s helm, Kathryn Falk (and her very cute puppy, General Patton).

RT is in Chicago next year. Hmm…I haven’t been to Chicago for a while…