Recap of My First RWA National Conference

While I have been writing for most of my life, romance since 2004, this was the first year I attended the RWA National Conference. Once I'd registered and booked my hotel, once I'd accepted the reality of my going, this was me:

(make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif)

I was like: "Yippee-yi-yay! I'm going, going, going!" 

I was finally making it to the Romance Writers of America conference, the national gathering of my people. People who wrote and read and loved books, who actually understood me and my obsession with words, and there'd be books. So many books! 

Once in San Antonio, I made this face quite often to the amusement of my more experienced peers...

I made it is every time I saw the awesome Nora Roberts. When I did speak to her (okay, I fan-girl gushed at her), she was uber gracious and posed for a picture:

Since I had a breakfast date with Nalini Singh, I was up at the crack of dawn. Fortunately by the time we met, I was able to control my fan-girling and actually have a conversation. We both gushed about Sari Sister Sonali Dev's Debut Release:

Then, Nalini showed me how to take a selfie:

I also attended part of her Writing Paranormal Romance workshop and caught this gem:

"Be logical, be consistent, and be passionate!"

Speaking of workshops, they were awesome and there were several tracks to choose from -- craft, marketing, industry, self-publishing, career, writer's life and more. I attended several and learned a lot! 

My favorite was the last workshop I attended -- Reviews: Reaching, Receiving and Reacting to Them. The presenter, Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, did a great job. 

Her straight talk made sense and put reviews into perspective. But, even better, she's freaking hilarious and made me (and others) laugh out loud over and over. By Saturday afternoon, I was in zombie mode and a good laugh was exactly what I needed. I left energized and headed to a donut party courtesy of Carolyn Jewel, one of my co-authors on the Alphas Unleashed anthology.

This next picture perfectly sums up my first RWA experience:

Yes, it was SWEET! Wildfire did me proud...

2014 Prism Award Winner for Best First Book

2014 Prism Second Place winner in Light Paranormal

2014 Published Daphne du Maurier Award finalist in the Paranormal category

Would I attend another RWA National Conference?