RWA Book Signing

Thanks to all that stop here to read this post!

Since I live only 73 miles from San Francisco I was determined to attend the RWA Literacy Book Signing this year.  I have struggled to save the money but it was worth the waiting, the anticipation and the hassle of driving in downtown San Francisco.  You have no idea how glad I was to leave my car to the valet to park, check into the hotel, then pursue author sightings!  Better than getting to see an actor/actress in person!!

Once I got settled in I went across the street to the hotel where RWA was being held.  They were booked solid which is why I stayed across the street.  When I went over my intention was to just see where the signing was being held so I knew exactly where I needed to be when the doors opened at 5:30 pm.  Little did I know that people had started lining up around 3 o'clock for this fantastic event.  Remember proceeds are going to a literacy charity.  After standing in line for what seemed like forever, my legs & feet were really feeling it, the door opened and the rush reminded me of the early morning sales the day after Thanksgiving!  Who knew!  Around the perimeter of the big ballroom were all the big names, Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts, Suzanne Brockmann, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Vickie Lewis Thompson.  I choose to ignore those lines and headed for Janelle Denison, one of the Plotmonkeys a group of authors that I am very fond of from visiting their daily blog.  Each of them greeted me with a big hug and a warm friendly welcome.  They do appreciate their readers.  After a nice chat with Janelle I moved on to Leslie Kelly, love her Blaze books, Julie Leto and Carly Phillips.  Each of them signed their books with a personal message then included a bookmark or some other little goody.  Carly had some special goody bags for those of us that visit the Plotmonkey Jungle everyday.  After meeting all of them I wandered around to see what other favorite author I could find and see what book was being offered for sale.  Roxanne St. Clair talked me into her two latest books, what a sales person!!   I love her Bullet Catchers, yummy men all!  By the way, the room is huge with the above mentioned authors around the perimeter, the other authors are in alphabetical order at tables filling the center of the room.  I think there were close to 500 authors & many more fans/readers the noise level is incredible.  When I decided I best not buy anymore books I headed to check and realized I had a terrible headache from all the "chatter" in that huge room!  I paid for my books and headed back across the street to drop off the books then find some dinner.  Oh yea, the Today show was there & the signing was featured on the show the next day.  I was able to go to the website & view the clip.

The next morning after a mostly sleepless night I met up with a fellow Jungle Babe for breakfast, Cher.  We enjoyed meeting each other since we see each other at the Plotmonkey blog everyday.  Cher is a writer with published ebooks.  She introduced me to a friend and a writer in progress May.  We had a nice visit over breakfast.  After that I went to wait in the lobby to meet fellow Dream Team member and author Lori Borrill.  Lori and I live about 17 miles apart but had to drive to the city to meet each other!!  It was a pleasure to meet her but we didn't get to a lot of time to talk.  She was there to meet with her editor (I think!).  Anyway, while waiting for Lori I had a Jill  Shalvis sighting, another of my favorite authors, she graciously stopped even though she was running late for a Blaze signing.  Jill kindly invited myself & Lori to the signing.  What a bonus I did not expect.  I saw Cher again & she also came along.  The Blaze books were free, a super bonus since I had none of those books.  Now I have them and all signed by the author.  Sitting right next to Jill was Leslie Kelly, so nice to see her again & she remembered my name.  Once I went through that line of 5 or 6 authors, I realized I needed to check out of my hotel.  I went back across the street finished gathering up my belongings, checked out then headed north to home.  Tired, excitied, so very glad I was able to have this experience.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention while I was waiting to connect with Cher for breakfast I ended up chatting with Jessica Andersen, she writes for Intrigue.  We had a nice conversation.  Everyone was friendly and gracious, I cannot say enough good things about all these people.  My only regret is that I did not get to meet any of the eHarlequin hostys.  There was a PJ party Thursday evening but I had to be back home as I am in the midst of a pet/house sitting job and could only be gone the one night!  I did see Brenda Chin when I was with some of the authors.  She is one busy lady!

All in all, I'm sure you can tell I enjoyed myself a lot.  I would highly recommend attended RWA as a reader if possible.  It was such a pleasure to meet these people that work so hard to give us all these books we read.

Again, thanks for letting me share this experience with you.

Take care, happy reading,
Donna M, Dream Team member