By Thursday I’d recovered from Disney and could finally enjoy the workshops. I’d only stayed up until 1 or so for Diva Karaoke. (I distinctly remember strolling out singing Like a Virgin… Or was I dancing out to Material Girl…? Eh, either way it was some Madonna song.) I was beat, but I had fun waiting in the Swan hotel: the YARWA Breakfast gathering. I took a moment after I got there to snag a seat and then snap some pictures. I got a chance to talk with so many folks including Tera Lynn Childs, Sophie Jordan (be sure to check out her YA debut of Firelight — the cover is the BOMB), and the outgoing President of YARWA the fabulous Rosemary Clement-Moore. I made so many friends. I hope to get things going for YARWA and get my plans in place for the website and things.
After the breakfast I walked with Tera and Sophie to the Goodie Room. From there I hung out until the first workshop I attended: Pansters, Plotter, and Plotsers. OMG, the presenters were so much fun. (By the way, I confirmed I’m a Plotser. And thus a hybrid model.) After that I went to the next workshop which I loved, loved, loved. How to Mend a Broken Scene by Roxanne St. Claire. The room was packed–I mean we had authors sitting on the floor in the back, me included. I managed to snag the coveted handout and boy was this workshop worth it. She broke her scene down and then showed us how she added back in the missing elements. I had my “ah-ha” moment when thinking about my own materials. (The ah-ha resulted in a 50 page edit, but hey, books are made to be edited, right?) After that workshop I had planned to go to the Shitty First Drafts one, but I met up with some Divas and we headed on over the Paranormals workshop with Kelley Armstrong, Jeaniene Frost, Terri Garey, Colleen Gleason, Juliana Stone, and Cheryl Wilson. Not too bad. A few of the questions left me scratching my head but overall a decent workshop.
Thursday is a busy night at the conference. Many chapters have events as well as different publishing houses. On that particular night I had the YARWA general meeting and I was Amanda S. Berry’s date for the Finally a Bride awards ceremony. Amanda won first place last year for the Paranormal category (yay Amanda!) I hung out with her for a while. I even had a chance to see Michelle Rowen again as well as a chit chat with Romance Divas Rachel Jameson and Sabrina Darby.
Eventually like Cinderella I had to ditch my date and head to the YARWA meeting. I snapped many photos as you can see and had a blast listening to Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk. I rubbed elbows with the members and afterwards I thought the evening was over. Yeah right! I meet up with some Divas including Jeannie Lin, Gwen Hayes, December Gephart, and Bria Quinlan to head to some room parties. At our first stop we had some wine and donuts. I had a chance to meet Ann Aguire (she even has a YA coming out!) Victoria Dahl and several others.) After that shindig, we bounced to Courtney Milan’s suite. She’s a really sweet HQN author who writes Regency. By that point I had lost my shoes and had a chance to chill. While there I met Regency Romance author Tessa Dare, YA author Jennifer Echols, and even managed to talk to Lindsey Faber, the Managing Editor at Samhain Publishing. Whoa, what a night. No wonder I’m writing this several days later. I stayed up way too late that week!
YARWA Breakfast Get Together
Another Breakfast shot. (I tried to make sure folks didn’t have their mouths open with food.)
YARWA Breakfast (I see Tera Lynn Childs and Laurel Wenrow there…)
YARWA Breakfast
YARWA Breakfast
Our Keynote Luncheon With Nora Roberts – Great Speech. But also the beginning of the chickenfest at the conference.
Post Luncheon Pic with MORWA Authors
YARWA General Meeting
YARWA General Meeting – The new Treasurer Micki Gibsen and President Jennifer Hilt
YARWA General Meeting – Folks lining up for goodies
YARWA General Meeting
YARWA General Meeting
YARWA General Meeting
YARWA General Meeting
YARWA General Meeting – Jennifer Hilt and Rosemary Clement-Moore
Me and YA Author Gwen Hayes
Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk.
Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk. (Another angle!)
Wine and Donuts in a hotel room party. I wish I could remember what made Bria laugh… That’s Jeannie Lin and Keri Ford across from her. And then I spy Rachel Jameson as well.
Gwen Hayes and Decemeber Gephart
Ann Aguire and Gwen Hayes
Ann Aguire and I
Why yes, that is Gwen Hayes, Courtney Milan, and Bria Quilan playing Operation at the hotel suite party.
I wonder who will trigger the buzzer first?
Dude, you totally forgot our plan to come back next year to YARWA as En Vogue!
I was laughing at your brilliance 😉 I was trying to get a receipt for those drugs
I was totally just saying to Wine Guy that all the pictures on my no-hair no-makeup night 🙂
Once again, great pics, Shawny! What fun you had!