Still with me?
Are you still with me? Sorry this has dragged on so long, it's been a busy month. . .
When last we left our bumbling heroine Ari, she was dancing and carousing with Harlequin authors at a kicking party . . .
Saturday morning we wisely slept in. I hit a few workshops and basically hung out with some friends in the bar for most of the day (I know you're so surprised at that!) Eventually we had to go back to our room and pack up because Kris and I were leaving at 6 in the morning so we planned to stay up all night after the Ritas ceremony.
For those of you who don't know, the Ritas are kind of like the Grammies for romance writers. There are a million categories and everyone dresses up and thanks everyone they know and cries and carries on. It's generally a lot of fun. I like dressing up sometimes and I had some friends up for Golden Hearts (the awards for unpublished authors) and for Ritas. (Oh, BIG SCREAMING CHEER HERE FOR MY FRIEND ROBIN WHO WON A GH!!!!!!! WAY TO GO!! YOU SO ROCK, even if you didn't thank me, hahahahahahha. You totally deserve to win and I'm so proud of you!)
Anyway, a bunch of us crammed into this tiny booth to watch the awards, it was RWA's 25th anniversary conference, so the show went on for quite some time. . .and that's all I'm saying about it. . .
After the ceremony ended, I hung out with kick-butt author Catherine Mann and her flyboy hubby Rob in the bar. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. That crowd started to slow down around 2 in the morning, so I hooked up with other friends of mine and we had "breakfast" if you can call nachos and margaritas breakfast.
By 5 am we were quite punchy and feeling no pain. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport with a bunch of other folks who had obnoxiously early flights out of Reno. (side note here, flights in and out of Reno from the east coast BLOW CHUNKS) We waited in line forever before we hit the self-check in computer. I think I'm all set when low and behold my suitcase is 10 pounds over the limit! (This is all my editor's fault because I took home a bunch of books for her.) So I had to open my stuffed suitcase and move some books out of that into a carry on.
It was the quickest 10 pounds I've ever lost. . .
After the check in, my compatriots and I head to the security check point where guess what happens? I set off the machine. Now I purposly didn't wear an underwire bra or the undies that had little metal rings in them for just such a reason. (Read REVENGE GIFTS by Cindy Cruciger if you want to know why. . .) I take off some jewelry and still set it off. I now have to be "wanded" and patted down.
My friends Lisa and Kris are laughing at me. The poor woman who has to pat me down is more nervous than I am. I get through it with a minimum of fuss and continue on my way to the gate with the rest of the wandering herds.
We get to the crowded gate and there's no place to sit, so the three of us plop down on the floor. It was very comfy actually. As we're sitting there laughing because we're so darn tired, we notice all sorts of high mucky-mucks and editors in the publishing business. Now I should probably be on my best behavior, but I'm so darn tired I don't much care. So I continue to giggle and chortle with my buddies until our seats are called.
Well, guess who had the poor misfortune to sit right next to us? Best selling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips. The poor woman. Here are three obnoxious woman in awe of her, watching her every move and hoping to glean some talent from her by osmosis. My friend Lisa made the mistake of saying how our friend Kathy Love idolized SEP and she would just die if she knew we were sitting right next to her.
I get the bright idea that we should call Kathy at 6 in the morning and tell her. Now here is the ultimate sign of class. Susan Elizabeth Phillips takes the cell phone and askes to talk to Kathy and gives her the wake up call. She talked to an astonished-- and naked I later found out-- Kathy for a few minutes before we had to turn off all electronic devices.
Susan didn't have to even acknowledge our presence, she could have done her work and ignored us completely. I'm sure she had much better things to do than listen to a bunch of idiot woman giggle obnoxiously. I may not have glommed any talent off her, but I sure learned a lot about how to act once you "make it". I've never read any of her books, but you can bet I'll buy every one of them now.
As soon as the plane taxied down the runway, all three of us passed out, much to the relief of the rest of the passengers.
And that's my RWA tale for this year. Lots of laughs, a little learning, a great deal of talking, and as always much fun with my friends. Next year will be in Atlanta, and THAT should be really interesting!!!
I'll be going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week + so you can enjoy some peace and quiet without me!
I'm sure I'll have more stories from the chaos that is my world come September.
Take care everyone!!!
Ari
When last we left our bumbling heroine Ari, she was dancing and carousing with Harlequin authors at a kicking party . . .
Saturday morning we wisely slept in. I hit a few workshops and basically hung out with some friends in the bar for most of the day (I know you're so surprised at that!) Eventually we had to go back to our room and pack up because Kris and I were leaving at 6 in the morning so we planned to stay up all night after the Ritas ceremony.
For those of you who don't know, the Ritas are kind of like the Grammies for romance writers. There are a million categories and everyone dresses up and thanks everyone they know and cries and carries on. It's generally a lot of fun. I like dressing up sometimes and I had some friends up for Golden Hearts (the awards for unpublished authors) and for Ritas. (Oh, BIG SCREAMING CHEER HERE FOR MY FRIEND ROBIN WHO WON A GH!!!!!!! WAY TO GO!! YOU SO ROCK, even if you didn't thank me, hahahahahahha. You totally deserve to win and I'm so proud of you!)
Anyway, a bunch of us crammed into this tiny booth to watch the awards, it was RWA's 25th anniversary conference, so the show went on for quite some time. . .and that's all I'm saying about it. . .
After the ceremony ended, I hung out with kick-butt author Catherine Mann and her flyboy hubby Rob in the bar. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. That crowd started to slow down around 2 in the morning, so I hooked up with other friends of mine and we had "breakfast" if you can call nachos and margaritas breakfast.
By 5 am we were quite punchy and feeling no pain. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport with a bunch of other folks who had obnoxiously early flights out of Reno. (side note here, flights in and out of Reno from the east coast BLOW CHUNKS) We waited in line forever before we hit the self-check in computer. I think I'm all set when low and behold my suitcase is 10 pounds over the limit! (This is all my editor's fault because I took home a bunch of books for her.) So I had to open my stuffed suitcase and move some books out of that into a carry on.
It was the quickest 10 pounds I've ever lost. . .
After the check in, my compatriots and I head to the security check point where guess what happens? I set off the machine. Now I purposly didn't wear an underwire bra or the undies that had little metal rings in them for just such a reason. (Read REVENGE GIFTS by Cindy Cruciger if you want to know why. . .) I take off some jewelry and still set it off. I now have to be "wanded" and patted down.
My friends Lisa and Kris are laughing at me. The poor woman who has to pat me down is more nervous than I am. I get through it with a minimum of fuss and continue on my way to the gate with the rest of the wandering herds.
We get to the crowded gate and there's no place to sit, so the three of us plop down on the floor. It was very comfy actually. As we're sitting there laughing because we're so darn tired, we notice all sorts of high mucky-mucks and editors in the publishing business. Now I should probably be on my best behavior, but I'm so darn tired I don't much care. So I continue to giggle and chortle with my buddies until our seats are called.
Well, guess who had the poor misfortune to sit right next to us? Best selling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips. The poor woman. Here are three obnoxious woman in awe of her, watching her every move and hoping to glean some talent from her by osmosis. My friend Lisa made the mistake of saying how our friend Kathy Love idolized SEP and she would just die if she knew we were sitting right next to her.
I get the bright idea that we should call Kathy at 6 in the morning and tell her. Now here is the ultimate sign of class. Susan Elizabeth Phillips takes the cell phone and askes to talk to Kathy and gives her the wake up call. She talked to an astonished-- and naked I later found out-- Kathy for a few minutes before we had to turn off all electronic devices.
Susan didn't have to even acknowledge our presence, she could have done her work and ignored us completely. I'm sure she had much better things to do than listen to a bunch of idiot woman giggle obnoxiously. I may not have glommed any talent off her, but I sure learned a lot about how to act once you "make it". I've never read any of her books, but you can bet I'll buy every one of them now.
As soon as the plane taxied down the runway, all three of us passed out, much to the relief of the rest of the passengers.
And that's my RWA tale for this year. Lots of laughs, a little learning, a great deal of talking, and as always much fun with my friends. Next year will be in Atlanta, and THAT should be really interesting!!!
I'll be going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week + so you can enjoy some peace and quiet without me!
I'm sure I'll have more stories from the chaos that is my world come September.
Take care everyone!!!
Ari
posted by Arianna Hart @ 4:09 PM
1 Comments:
At 5:23 PM,
Breezy said…
You hve presents for your editor? REALLY??
Um...don't suppose you could swing by here on your ay to NC could ya ;)
Just kidding, Ari!
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