Hey, y'all! If you're going to the RT Book Lovers Convention in Chicago in April, or even if you're not but you happen to live close by, be sure to come to Milwaukee (only 1.5 hours away!) on April 10th and attend Barbara Vey's Reader Appreciation Luncheon. There, you'll get to have lunch with 38 authors. There will be prizes. And books. And fun!
You can even buy a ticket to sit with me specifically. 🙂
Click here for more info. Hope to see you there!
Have you heard of the romance novel trading cards that will be available at RT and RWA? See this site for details. Basically, authors are making character trading cards for their novels — and readers can collect them all! I thought this was such a cool idea that I had two cards designed.
Here's the card for The Devil's Heart:
And here's the one for Behind the Palace Walls:
These are side by side views. The cover will be the front, and the hero will be the back. If you're at RT in a few weeks, come and visit me at the booksigning and pick up your trading cards! When I get them in, I may offer to mail some out to readers who can't attend. Stay tuned for details!
There will be an RT2010 post with pictures very soon, I swear. But today I've been recovering from the travel ordeal of yesterday (not to mention the non-stop pace of being at a conference, attending workshops, meeting people, having impromptu interviews, etc). Kimberly Lang and I drove up to Nashville, left a car, and boarded a flight on Tuesday of last week. You can pretty much figure out what happened on Sunday.
With the Cumberland River overflowing, the interstates shut down, and Nashville dealing with a torrent of water, flying into the city quickly became impossible. Kim and I had an evening flight, so we were spending our time in the Hyatt and the convention center in Columbus, surfing the web, watching the news, and waiting until it was time to go to the airport.
When we got the text message that our flight was canceled, we grabbed our bags and headed for the airport. The very helpful man at the Southwest counter, a gentleman named Russ, went into action when we told him all we wanted was to get close to Huntsville. Within moments, Russ had us booked into the last two seats to Birmingham, via Baltimore. He helped us rush our bags straight to TSA, told us there was a good chance they wouldn't make it to Birmingham when we did, and then called the gate to tell them we were coming.
We made it to the flight, which was late boarding, made it to Baltimore, and then had another delay. Finally, the Birmingham flight boarded (both flights were jam packed) and we were on our way. We made it to B'ham in a driving rainstorm where Kim's husband picked us up, then had to drive about an hour and a half home (did I mention the driving rainstorm?). I still have a car in Nashville; I've been told the long-term parking at the airport didn't flood, so hopefully it will be fine when I can finally get it.
Kevin Smith may not like Southwest, but I'm very happy with them for doing their damndest to get us home. They succeeded–and the bags made it to B'ham when we did. I can't complain at all. Southwest really does love bags. 🙂 (You will notice there were no trains in the story, but it wouldn't have surprised me if there had been. It was that bad trying to get home.)
I made it home by about 11, then fell into bed and slept like a rock. There's nothing like being back in your own bed, is there?
This has been one jam-packed weekend! There was much packing to do, much shopping to get done, and an unscheduled trip to the doctor. The hubby made me go see a doctor about this cold. Turns out I have a sinus infection, and I now have industrial strength drugs to see me through the week. Thank goodness the hubby cares, right? 🙂 Otherwise I'd have probably developed walking pneumonia or something during the next week, because I kept thinking it was just a cold that was going away soon.
This is my first RT Convention. I'm looking forward to meeting with readers and other authors, dressing in costumes, and getting to sign my books at the Giant Book Fair on Saturday. I hope I packed enough clothes. Hubby would say I over-packed, but you always need extra outfits, right? And shoes. I typically travel with at least 5 pairs. Not sure how many I packed, but it's hovering around 5. Might be a little more when I finish tomorrow. I love my shoes.
But it's not all play. I have a book due June 1st, and I will be taking my computer along so I can work on it. If you're going to be at RT, look me up! I'd love to meet you. 🙂
