Sara Reyes | Bridging the World | Scenic Travels, Thousand Authors, TONS of books!!!

My trip to California (and back to Texas) is over. On one hand I say thank goodness, on the other, I miss the cool air of Northern California. According to husband it was in the 100s while I was gone. It's "cooled" down to just 100 since I've been home. Just call me "bringer of cool temps" LOL Gwen and I saw lots of the country on our twelve day adventure, and it's a BIG country if you were in any doubt. Still many many miles of beautiful vistas, no houses or lights and awe-inspiring landscapes! It nourished my soul to be able to see it closer than 40,000 feet through a small dirty porthole.

Our main objective on this trip was the annual Romance Writers of America convention in San Francisco. We arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon and spent the rest of day relaxing and getting ready to go-go-go. We closed down on Saturday night after FOUR JAM PACKED DAYS!!! I'm not sure how to cover it all, so I'll just try to hit some of the highlights.

Fresh Fiction staff - Sara, Gwen, Suan, Mindy, Faye, Tanzey
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Wednesday, July 30th. The Fresh Fiction team met, some of us for the first time face-to-face, and had dinner before the big literacy signing on Wednesday night. We were all in pink -- except for Gwen who had an incident with a tire and "gup-covered" luggage at the airport -- so we were easy to spot! And had our gold name tags! I think was a first no one forgot theirs (since I'm usually the culprit, I've gotta mention this triumph!). From dinner it was off to the signing, a MASSIVE crowd in the main ball room!

The GIANT Literacy Signing on Wednesday
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

We missed the long lines but arrived by 5:50pm so no one had left as they tend to do when they've sold all their books, or don't have any to sell. We've gotten smarter over the years and have our lists all ready so we can cover most of the authors. So if we missed any, we're sorry, we did try really really hard! And then of course, our first catastrophe of the night struck. The battery on Gwen's camera gave out. As it's one of those rechargeable ones, we had to rely on Mindy, Faye, and Tanzey to carry with the rest of the evening. I'd type up a list of authors I saw, but that would take the rest of the space. So check out our RWA photos on Flickr and get an idea! Also we're missing some names for the photos, if you can help us match them up, we'd be grateful!

After the signing, and YES THEY TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS ON US, we went up to the bar to regroup. Tanzey and Suan headed for bed as they'd been at the librarian meetings all day, but Gwen and Mindy went to a few parties, Sherrilyn Kenyon's, the Romance Bandits and another they can't remember. Faye and I rested at the bar -- do NOT ever get a green tea tini, it tastes worse than bad cough syrup -- and chatted with authors.

Broken Hearts quilt by Marie Bostwick
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Thursday, July 31st Meetings, workshops, luncheons and dinners. It was jam packed from 8am to midnight. The editorial staff (editor Mindy Ewing, editor Tanzey Cutter, reviewer Suan Wilson plus content manager Faye) met with some authors for a coffee break in the morning. Authors included: Sabrina Jeffries, Melody Thomas, Elizabeth Boyle, Mary Burton, and Roxanne St. Claire as well as others. It was a great time for authors and reviewers to meet and chit chat about publishing trends and their books.

Faye, Tanzey and Suan joined the fabulous Nancy Berland team for dinner! They are all TRULY a delight to work with. Gwen, Mindy and I went to Famous John's Steak House where Gwen managed to confuse the server with her cowfish request. She was tired, and wanted "meat." A fun time was had by all!

Ally and her date D'Alessandro
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Friday, August 1st More meetings, publisher meet-and-greets, meetings, and PARTIES!!! We split up with all the team members doing different things: attending some workshops, one-on-one with authors, publishers and others. In other words, work work work. But Friday night is the traditional evening for networking and celebrating. We did some of that on Friday night at the Ballantine party, St. Martin's party -- I missed the St. Martini their signature drink. I am assured it was deLicious! On to the Berkley / NAL party -- crowded and noisy but fun seeing Angela Knight, Christine Feehan and Celeste. Then it was on to the Harlequin Party at the Four Seasons. With dancing, great food, decadence chocolate and a great crowd of people, the HQ party is the one not to miss! Check out the infamous tree falling as well as the conga line. I'm only sorry I can't find photos of the handsome men in kilts! A great time was had by most!

Saturday, August 2nd More meetings, publisher meet-and-greets, dinner with one of my favorite authors, Marie Bostwick and then the sad departures. We admired our friends in their festive RITA outfits and wished them all the best! Bringing us books we love to read and talk about is the top in our minds!

See all the photos from our RWA SF Adventures Be sure to comment and help us fill in the blanks!

Sara Reyes
Fresh Fiction.com ...for today's reader

Don't miss THE Fresh Fiction Readers Conference on October 11th, 2008! With Sherrilyn Kenyon and many other favorite authors. Details at Readers-n-ritas.org -- celebrate passionate literary obsessions

Jacquie D'Alessandro | Time for the TOP Three Questions -- Author to Reader!

Hey everyone! I’m really excited to be here blogging with you! I thought it might be fun to reveal to you the top three questions I’m most often asked by readers. Starting at number three: What made you want to become a romance writer? The answer is, my love of books. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love books. As a kid I loved Nancy Drew. Thanks to Nancy I wanted to solve crimes, travel to exotic locations, and find a guy like Ned Nickerson—smart, loyal, and heroic. I also loved the Cherry Ames series. Thanks to Cherry I wanted to join the Army and be a nurse. Then came Vicki Barr, the airline stewardess (bet you can’t guess what I then wanted to be??). Then I graduated to Agatha Christie and my family was grateful that those books didn’t inspire me to become a criminal, although reading about Miss Marple did inspire me to learn how to knit—not with very good results, I’m afraid. I managed to eek out one very crooked, bunched up scarf and half of an argyle sock. (have you ever tried to knit an argyle sock??? There’re like 12 bobbins hanging off the needles—nothing but knots, it gave me cramps and stress and ugh—awful. But I digress:) .

As a teenager, I discovered romance novels, which inspired my romantic imagination. I spent hours lost in the glamorous worlds those romance authors created. Even my favorite mysteries soon became the ones that had a romantic element weaved into them. Looking back, I can see how all these book influenced by future career choice. As a teenager, I was a candy striper at the local hospital for four years—a very rewarding experience that proved beyond any doubt that I did not want a nursing career. I spent two years during college in Army ROTC. A rewarding experience that proved beyond any doubt that I did not want an Army career. (are you seeing a pattern here?). After college, I spent the next ten years working in the airline industry—thank you, Vicki Barr--not as a flight attendant, but I still got to visit those exotic locales Nancy Drew had planted in my mind. And even though I never dated anyone named Ned, thanks to my romantic notions, I did manage to find that smart, loyal, heroic guy. After loving romances so much for so many years, a light bulb finally blinked on in my brain and I wondered if I could actually write one myself. Turns out—after much trial and error—that I could.

The number two question readers ask me is: Where do I get my ideas. The answer is: everywhere—TV, newspapers, radio, songs, overheard conversations. Everything is fodder. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. :)

And the number one question I am most often asked by readers is: What is the best thing I’ve ever written. I always answer this question the same way: The best thing I’ve ever written is “the end.” For the writer in me, there is no greater sense of accomplishment than typing those two words 400 some-odd pages later. It’s a euphoric feeling (always accompanied by a boatload of tears!) of Yes! I did it! Unfortunately, soon after that euphoric feeling, reality thumps me on the head and I recall that now that I’ve typed “the end”, I’m going to have to do some laundry because my family has named the mound of accumulated dirty clothes “Mount D’Alessandro.”

Well, those are my top three questions—and I’m hoping you’ll have more for me! And I have three for all of you: 1) What was the first romance you ever read? 2) What are your top five fave books of all time (doesn’t have to be romance), and 3) If you could have dinner with any person (be they dead or alive, famous or not), who would it be?

Jacquie D'Alessandro

http://www.jacquied.com/