Don’t worry, I’ll get back to my day-by-day summary of RWA. To break things up a little, though, I’m posting about some great events going on at Romance Divas this month. Romance Divas is a terrific resource for authors, and they also offer interviews, chats, and things readers may also enjoy.

Author of the Month: Gemma Halliday – Contests workshop from the Golden Heart winner

Aug 5-7 :: Paranormal Event with Carrie Vaughn, LA Banks, CT Adams/Cathy Clamp, Gena Showalter, and Kelley Armstrong.

Aug 11 :: Jessica Faust: Bookends-inc agent in the Chatroom. 9 Eastern

August 8-18 :: Getting To Know The Voices in Your Head Workshop with Jo Ann Ferguson/Jocelyn Kelley

Aug 18 :: Theresa Meyers: PR/Promo in the Chatroom.

August 25 :: Ann Christopher, Patricia Sargeant, Maureen Smith and Sophia Shaw Multi-cultural Authors Chat

Hope you can attend at least one of these events!

Thursday’s events started off bright and early with the PRO Retreat at 8:00 AM. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed to get up in time for this, since I am not a morning person and I’m even less a morning person in Eastern Time. LOL! Anyway, I made it to the retreat and sat with fellow Cobblestone Press authors Mia Romano and Shelli Stevens.

Left to right: Mia, Me, Shelli

There were several speakers, including Lani Diane Rich and Susan Crandall, who talked about the myths about what it’s like to be a published author. Editors Raelene Gorlinsky (Ellora’s Cave), Tracy Farrell (Harlequin) and Cindy Hwang (Berkley) talked about what’s hot and what they are looking for. I thought it was pretty interesting that Cindy Hwang found a few authors by reading their fan fiction, which led her to their original fiction.

One especially promising moment during this discussion was the statement that a lot of e-book authors are making the jump into print. These authors are often prolific and are accustomed to deadlines, two definite points in their favor.

Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer, and Mollie Smith talked about the benefits of a website and blog. The goal of a blog is first to entertain, than to inform. I’m not sure how good a job I do with either, actually. LOL! They did recommend group blogs, which offer more variety for blog readers and put less pressure on authors.

Nora Roberts was the keynote speaker, and she was awesome. I loved her topic and found it very motivating. She talked about the importance of focusing on the story instead of getting bogged down by centering on your career. The story is what you can control. She also emphasized that there is no right way to write–one author’s magic may not work for you.

After the PRO Retreat came the luncheon with Meg Cabot as the keynote speaker. Lunch was OK; I especially loved the cheesecake dessert. Ha! Meg was hilarious, and I enjoyed hearing her talk about her experience attending the movie premiere of The Princess Diaries. Two free books by her were waiting on the chairs when we entered the luncheon area to sit down. I now have three copies of Size 12 Is Not Fat, one of them autographed. I might need one or two more. What do you think? Ha!

After lunch, I went upstairs to my hotel room to take a nap. It was so nice to sleep for a while. When I got up again, I went downstairs and ordered MP3 of the complete conference classes. I knew I wouldn’t be able to attend all the ones that interested me, so I ordered a set. They should arrive in about six weeks.

That night was a dinner at Azio’s with the Romance Divas. More than 40 of us were there, and I didn’t get any pictures of the table. I did manage to get pictures of all the Cobblestone Press authors who attended the dinner.

Back row, left to right: Eden Bradley, Loribelle Hunt, Me, Emma Peterson, Crystal Jordan; front row, left to right: Stella Price, Audra Price, Shelli Stevens

After dinner was the Midnight Madness Bazaar, where RWA chapters and other groups sold T-shirts, jewelry, bookmarks, lanyards, and all sorts of other fun stuff. I bought a T-shirt, handmade card, and a ribbon asking “Anyone seen my muse?” Sasha White had a table with twisted glass jewelry and book thongs. If you bought $20 worth, you got a free book. I bought a necklace, three book thongs, and got her book, Gypsy Heart, free.

Later a group of us went to Champion’s once again. Tonight there was a lot of dancing. I consider myself a decent dancer, but some of these women can move, let me tell you. A few people also did karaoke. Here are some pictures.

Left to right: Eden, Jax, Kristen

Left to right: Lacey, Loribelle, Shelli

Shelli sings I Will Survive

Michelle and Amanda sing Like a Virgin

My smart roommate went to bed before midnight; I stayed for a while longer to dance. I did get to meet another Cobblestone author, Susan Greene. I went back to the hotel room before 1:00 AM to try and get some sleep before the next day.

Number of Books Acquired on Thursday: 4
Total Books Acquired through Thursday: 60

On to my report of Wednesday. This was the one day I slept in, since there were no classes being offered this day and I didn’t need to check out of the hotel until 11:00 AM. So I had a relaxing morning and checked out right around 11:00. Then, I headed over to the Marriott Marquis hotel, which was (thankfully) right across the street from the Hilton. I was a little concerned that they wouldn’t let me check in until 3:00 PM, but I checked in early with no problem.

The hotel was amazing–very large and elegant. I wish I had pictures to show you, but I kept putting it off, thinking I would take photos later. Sorry. In any case, I shared a room with Ember Case, who is just fabulous, the best roommate I could have had.

After settling into the room, I went down to the conference registration desk and got my name tag. A good reminder that I needed to learn to answer to Lia. LOL! Then I wandered over to get my conference bag, which was offered by William Morrow. It was filled with books: 18, to be exact. And this was only the beginning of the book pile I managed to accumulate.

In the afternoon, I wandered over to the Goody Room, where authors leave goodies such as bookmarks, pins, pens, cover flats, postcards, etc., for conference registrants to take. There was no limit to the number of times you could go into the room, so I made sure to visit it Thursday and Friday as well, since more authors would come and set out new items. I came home with a bag of goodies, including a few books. The most practical item I picked up was a fan, which came in handy later (more about that later).

I also dropped off my goodies, which were magnets for my two books to date: Office Relations and Between Floors. I spread them out over several tables so that someone who might miss them on one table would notice them on another. I also stopped by the Bookfair and bought two books about writing.

That afternoon, I took a nap before getting ready for the RWA literacy signing. I didn’t have books to sell, but I’ve been limiting my book purchases for months and was ready to spend. That’s exactly what I did. After waiting outside the ballroom for half an hour, the doors opened and I walked up and down the aisles collecting books I wanted to buy. I had a cart with me, so I wasn’t limited to what I could carry.

The result? I left with 34 books, many of them trade paperbacks. It turned out that quite a few of them were books that weren’t available at the publisher signings (where attendees could get books free as long as they were willing to wait in line for them). Can you tell I’m trying to justify the amount I spent? OK, I’ll tell you, but remember, I saved up several months for this. (Yep, still rationalizing the fact that I spent almost $400.)

Here’s the full cart, though you can’t see all the books I bought.

The signing was a lot of fun. I ran into several Romance Divas, including my roommate. It was so great to finally put faces to some of the names I’ve seen so often.

After the signing, I took the books back to my room and went with several Divas to a restaurant named Ruth’s Chris. Their specialty is steak, and it was pretty good.

Clockwise starting from front left: Shelli Stevens, me, Ember, Emma Peterson, Jax, Kristen, Sherice

We returned to the hotel after dinner and went to Champion’s, a bar and grill. A certain Diva (not me!) showed off her corset, which earned free drinks for her table and ours! LOL! I stayed and socialized for a while, then went back to the hotel room to get some sleep before the next day.

Number of Books Acquired on Wednesday: 56

I want to let you know about two upcoming chats. The first is tonight at Romance Divas. You will need to sign up as a member of the forum (it’s free and doesn’t take long to register), and Java is required. It starts at 9:00 PM Eastern, and many of Cobblestone’s authors will be there.

The second chat is next Tuesday in the Cobblestone Press chatroom. You need Java for this chat as well. It begins at 9:00 PM Eastern. I’ll have prizes people can win.

I hope you can make it to one of the chats!

I entered a query letter contest at Romance Divas. Tonight, I learned I am one of the finalists! I have a day or two to revise my query before it will be sent to Kate Duffy at Kensington for final judging.

The funny thing is I had put the contest out of my mind. I scored low in one particular area, so I figured I was out of the running. I’m glad I was wrong! I’m also glad I can revise that section before sending the final query.

In other news, I finished The Seventh Sense. Now I’m in the process of cutting out junk words (that, then, just, so). Once that’s done, it’s off to the test readers. I’m excited to see this story a step closer to submission.

The Pink Posse chat on Monday went quite well, I thought. I did go overboard when it came to prizes, but that’s not a huge surprise. I tend to be excessive. I was hoping to make it to the group to chat more today, but things were flowing with The Seventh Sense, so I stayed with it and finished.