Eat Hard for Breakfast

I still feel in celebration mode, so I'm mostly going to post some more photos of Molly on her big night, but I thought I'd mention one of the messages I took away from the conference, one that came from none other than la Nora herself. "Eat the hard." "Ride the hard."

Tittering over the possible sexual connotations of "romance writers eat hard for breakfast" I completely got what she was saying. Suck it up. Stop complaining. If writing and publishing were easy, then everyone would be doing it.  You can't beat Nora Roberts for telling it like it is. At past conferences I've also heard her say that there's no such thing as writers' block, just lazy writers. And you can't argue with the woman's success or work ethic.

But back to the fun stuff.   :)

I really did have a great time this year, in spite of the football-field-long steam room that those of us in the Swan had to walk through to get from our hotel to the conference. And in spite of the fact that I went to the conference in limbo about whether or not my First Sale ribbon was actually going to pan out (no pun intended) into actual books on the shelves (more on that next week, or soon).

Some highlights. One was the chick lit chapter's party on Wednesday night. I remember their parties in Dallas (2004) and Reno (2005) where there had to have been 200 writers in attendance, plus numerous agents and editors. I actually first met Eileen (she doesn't remember) at the chick lit party in 2004 and I met my former agent at the chick lit party in Reno in 2005, where Diana Peterfreund, whom I'd just met but who's now a great friend, pitched my book to her agent -- the first step to her becoming my agent, too. Here's a photo of Diana, Molly, RITA and me. (Diana had read my work, even though we hadn't met. It wasn't some random pitch. So don't hunt her down and tell her to pitch your book to her agent. LOL.)

This year, as a reflection of the current market for what a few weeks ago Eileen so wittily called post-feminist-humorous literature, there were about 20 of us at the chick lit party, I think. But it was really fun and great to catch up with some people I haven't seen for a long time and meet some new friends, too.

Next highlight was the Daphne awards where one of Molly, Sinead and my critique partners won her category!! Here's the lovely Ann Lethbridge at the Harlequin party. I didn't have my camera the night she won her Daphne for best historical with a suspense/mystery element, but did manage to take some with her camera you can see here.


And then the GH/RITA awards! Here's a snap of the four drunk writers in attendance, after the RITAs. The only thing that would've made this conference complete would be if Sinead could've been there. :( We missed you, Sinead. Sorry for the drunk messages and calls during the conference. :) Or you're welcome?

And then my all time favorite picture I took this year, Eileen gettin' some from Molly. :)

Or is it the other way around? Hmmm...

Anyway, great times. And so, so, so, excited about Molly's big win!