First Official Conference Day

Well, yesterday was the first official day of conference and it kicked off in a bang. First I had some breakfast with my friend Colleen. The hotel breakfast was lousy and expensive ($15 for fake eggs and some misc. other stuff), but what are you going to do - that's higher end hotels for you. Then I headed off for Nelson Agency Spa Day. My fabulous agent, Kristin Nelson, took her clients, our editors (if available, and mine was - yeah), and her best bud Deirdre Knight (and company) to the Crescent. The Crescent Hotel has a top five nationally rated spa and it was fabulous! Plus, I finally got to meet Kristin's assistant and fantastic woman that organized the spa day, Sara Megibow!

I started off with a one hour Swedish massage, then went for a one hour pedicure, then had a light lunch and finished up the day with a manicure. All the time sitting around in these fluffy robes and being offered lemon water or champagne from spa employees. It was an extraordinary treat! But then, I have always said Kristin is the best!

After spa day, I headed back to the hotel and joined my friends in the bar. I will try to remember who wandered in: Cari Manderschied, Cindy Taylor, Patrice Luneski, Colleen Gleason, Jaye Wells, Esri (and I cannot remember her last name - but she is a Wet Noodle Posse girl) - and a ton of others that I can't even remember. Saw Nora stroll through a couple of times and I always laugh because I wonder if she thinks we won't recognize her wearing sunglasses. Oh well, can't blame her - I'm sure crazy people bother the heck out of her if they get her cornered.

Things were going fine until my friend Colleen came back from checking stock at the booksigning and told me that they did not have my books and could not find them. Yikes!!!! I called my editor and the race to find books was on. Here's the really awful news - someone at RWA screwed up and put all the Dorchester author books and some of the Warner author books in the goody room and they all got given away. None of the authors had stock to sign and there wasn't a damned thing to be done about it. I was the only one with books because I live locally and always keep a stash at my house. I called my hubby, Rene, and he loaded up a container and brought them to the hotel, thus saving the day for me.

My parents came with Rene also, so they all got to see a national booksigning event. And even more important, since they were carrying my precious cargo, I got to sneak them in the backdoor early and my mom got her Nora autograph before there was much of a line - yes, there was already a line before they opened the doors. :) They all got to meet my editor and agent and my writing friends that were at conference. I got to meet Erin and Brooke, two fabulous Dorchester employees that I had not met yet, and book sales went well. Plus, I had a lot of people stop by and say they'd already read the book and loved it.

After the booksigning, I was starving, especially after eating somewhat healthy all day, so a group of us walked over to the West End in downtown Dallas and finally found a restaurant that was still open and had some much needed food! Then we caught a cab back to the hotel and I went straight to my room and crashed. Day Number 1 was officially over.