Dead Dog Tired
By Jane • Jul 11th, 2007 • Category: Misc, RWA • •I can see that the blog time is wrong and will change that. I also have realized that I forgot to post an afternoon review. Many apologies. It’s frenetic here and I doubt that many reviews will be going up this week. I hope you’ll understand.
I got back to the room at 8:48 and realized I had left my camera at the literacy signing. I shlepped back down with Sybil and picked it up. There was one author who was still there and it was Sherrilyn Kenyon. Long after all other authors had left, Kenyon stayed to talk to each fan who had come to see her. When Sybil and I went down to chat, she was still smiling and gracious. Color me very impressed. I did ask her about the “big ass swan” and she replied that one of her books, Born in Sin, had a terrible back cover copy and all she liked was the black swan. When she saw the hat, she immediately thought of her awful cover and had to buy it. It’s now part of her signing costume.
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Sherrilyn Kenyon
Kenyon wasn’t the only one dressed up. The Dorchester authors, Liz Maverick and Marianne Mancusi, dressed as their characters and took advantage of their placement to pass out Shomi booklets to readers in line to see Kenyon.
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Liz Maverick and Marianne Mancusi
The RWA Literacy Signing is best characterized by long lines.
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Entrance lines
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Ballroom filled with readers
There were long lines to get in and long lines to see authors like Ward, Brockmann, Kenyon, Quinn, and Nora Roberts. All these authors stayed to see their fans as well.
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Nalini Singh and Nora Roberts
Roberts attempted to flash us with her girls during a picture taking episode. We suggested that she dress up in leather next to year so as to fit in with authors dressing their characters. I told her that her girls would look great in leather. She replied that leather was too hot.
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Nora’s Line
One of the most classic moments of the signing was early on when the readers began lining up for Ward and the other “W” authors wondered for whom the readers were lining up.
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Ward’s Line
It was kind of amazing how dedicated these authors are to their fans. Many of them ran out of books early on. Lisa Kleypas only had a tiny amount sent by Avon but she, like many authors, stayed to sign reader books and speak to their fans long after they were sold out.
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There were authors who did not show up. One author had a note on the her placard that her plane was cancelled. Other authors were just completely absent. Still others left early (not the big names ironically). Worse, I manned the exit doors where we had to check receipts. More than one author that went through the line were disgusted at this. One commented angrily that there were more checkpoints here than at the border.
Overall, I had a great time and met with a ton of authors. I chatted with the Farrah Rochon group and will be buying that book when I get home. Right now we four are back in the room. We’ve turned down invitations to Brockmann’s after party and the Avon Ladies. We’ve ordered room service and hope it gets here before midnight. Totally serious.
Jane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways.
She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation!
Email this author | All posts by Jane
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Reviews?! What are reviews?! Keep the commentary (and the pictures, especially the pictures) coming!!!
Lisa Kleypas is pretty. She was Miss Something or Other, wasn’t she?
Miss Massachusetts. There’s even a picture of her in the Miss America pageant on her website: http://www.lisakleypas.com/aboutlisa.asp
I was at a writer’s conference a couple of years ago where Sherrilyn Kenyon was a keynote speaker. The conference opened to the general public for a signing session one afternoon — and Kenyon signed for *hours*, until every last fan had had their turn, and she had a smile for them all. I was enormously impressed with the effort she put in that day to make sure everyone went away happy.
Yay you met the Rochonettes!! I wish I could have been there, I loved the 2003 conference in NY
I love that pic of Roberts and Singh
You’re doing a fabulous job! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, it means a lot to those of us who can’t be there.
The Literacy volunteers were wonderful. They helped me when I had questions and brought me water. I really appreciate their hard work. Thank you!
Your round-up of the conference is fabulous! This was, by far, the best conference yet. Thanks for posting the pic of the Rochonettes! I hope you enjoy DELIVER ME!
Re: A lot of authors not showing–there were some problems: Dorchester’s and Warner’s books were mistakenly not delivered to the signing (ever), so those authors had nothing to do. Many of them sat down and talked to their readers and handed out promo things anyway. I was fortunate that my Allyson James books (Berkley and EC) were there, so I was able to sign those (and sit two seats from Eloisa James!). Also, many flights from NY had been cancelled that day (big storm in the east apparantly).
I stayed the whole time, and had to be pried out of my seat in the end. I love booksignings. I get to talk one-on-one with the readers and see authors I never get to see. If I want to track someone down, I know I can find them alphabetically. :-)
I was sorry not to have the Immortals books to sign–apparently they were all given away in the goody room on Tuesday, but oh well. They all got into hands of readers, which is where they are supposed to be!