Saturday, August 07, 2010

Remember me? Recap of RWA Nationals and the Hectic Summah of 2010

Hey Buzz Readers!

Remember me? I'm the Bee who's been AWOL pretty much all summer. Sorry about that. In addition to traveling the country for conferences and booksignings in my RV, my boyfriend and I have also had his two boys (11 and 9) with us the entire summer and we've had a major adventure!

We started in New York City, worked our way over to Michigan and the U.P. and then a long stint in the north woods of Wisconsin with their grandparents, a visit to Mt. Olympus water park in the Wisconsin Dells, a five-day conference in Hohenwald, TN investigating several haunted locations, selling books, and doing lectures, and then down to Orlando, Florida, for the 30th Annual Romance Writers of America Conference.

Are you tired just reading all of that?

But, I'm back and I want to share some of my pics from RWA.

It was great seeing my fellow Buzz girls Tina, Steph, Wendy, and Tera, and we very much missed having Heather and Dona in our ranks.

As Tina has reported, we had a lovely dinner at Shula's (and yes, I was horrified that people don't know who Don Shula is...not just the winningest coach of all time in the NFL, but also the father of former Bama quarterback and coach, Mike Shula. LOL!) and the food was absolutely delicious, as seen here by my plate of food. What was I thinking ordering a 16 ounce steak?



I did a panel with my non-fiction editor, Rose Hilliard, from St. Martin's Press, and buddy, Louisa Edwards on "Creating a Symbiotic Editor-Author Relationship."



And here I am with Rose at the St. Martin's party on the Disney Boardwalk.



Met some famous ladies on my trip...

The fabulous Heather Graham, who can sing "Bobby MaGee" like no one's business and is also into ghosts and SCUBA diving.



The ever-amazing Suz Brockmann, fellow New Englander.



And WOW...THE Meg Cabot, queen of YA. She's a total doll and so very nice.



And here's our very own former Buzz girl, Simone Elkeles, and her brand new friend, Rita...for Best YA! So proud of Simone!



Of course...time cutting up with Buzz girl Wendy...



Hanging with fabu YA author (and critique partner), Jenn Echols...



Fellow Knight Agency sistah and YA author who sat next to me at the Literacy Signing, Linda Gerber...



And, with my sweetie, fellow author, Patrick Burns...



Despite coming home with a severe cold and sinus infection, it was a great conference and I loved every minute I spent with the Buzz Girls!

Hugs,
Marley = )

6 comments:

TinaFerraro said...

Yay for your wonderful time and all these terrific pictures!

Bidisha said...

Amazing pics. Love them!

nymfaux said...

Sorry to hear about the head cold!!! But everything else sounds amazing!!!!

Just hearing you talk about your trip through the U.P. and the north woods makes me homesick!!!--Mostly for the WI side of the border :)

And I hope you had fun in the Dells!!!--Make sure and ride the Ducks if you ever get a chance--One of my favorite family memories :) I don't really know this Mt. Olympus place--have I been gone too long? Noah's Ark always used to be the place to go???

Did you have cheesecurds?????

And the RWA--OMG your steak is gorgeous!!!!

Happy to hear you had such an amazing summer!!!

Hope the family is recovering well :)

Heather Davis said...

Sounds like a great time, Marley. What an adventure!

Heath

stephhale said...

We stayed at Mt. Olympus about two years ago! The picture of your dinner is making me crave Shula's twice baked potato. YummY! Great post, it was a blast seeing you!!

Wendy Toliver said...

it was such a great conference and I loved getting to hang out with the buzz girls! thanks for the great pix, Mar!