First off, a big congrats to Maven Linda Winstead Jones for double finalling in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. The Star Witch is a finalist in the Paranormal category, and Lucky’s Woman is a finalist in Long Contemporary. Yay, LJ! We knew they were super books!**********
May is fast approaching, which means the Playfriends are gearing up for our RWA chapter’s annual Romance Readers’ Luncheon. (They probably wouldn’t be half as geared if I wasn’t the Event Coordinator, and they were all, therefore, pressed into service, willingly or not…).
I could bore you all with the details behind the luncheon, but you really don’t want to get me started…Instead, let me tell you how totally cool this will be! If you are at all within travel distance of Huntsville, AL you should make plans to attend this event. (And I’m not just blowing our horn because it’s our event…it really is going to be that great.)
First off, we have New York Time’s bestselling author Karen Robards as our guest speaker.
Joining Karen are our Mavens (Linda Howard, Beverly Barton, and Linda Winstead Jones), special friends and guests on the Playground (Rhonda Nelson, Sabrah Agee, Kelley St. John, Jennifer LaBrecque, Lori Handeland, Janice Lynn, Debra Webb, and Paula Graves) AND our own HOD authors whom we love (Bonnie Gardner, Kate Lyon, Deborah Matthews, Lyn Stone, and Peggy Webb).
Plus we have new friends to meet—authors who are coming in from all over to hang with us for the first (but hopefully not last) time: Melanie Atkins, Delores Fossen, Debby Giusti, Rickey Mallory, Elizabeth White, and Lori Wilde.
Then there’s also our good friends who we’re still trying to get come visit us on the Playground: Anna DeStefano, Tanya Michaels, and Dianna Love Snell.
See, I told you all the cool kids would be there….
The $25 registration fee covers the cost of lunch at a table hostessed by one of these fantastic and fun ladies, a goodie bag stuffed full of books and promotional items from authors all over the country, and a chance to win gift baskets provided by the authors as door prizes.
We also have raffles for additional gift baskets and the chance to be a character in an author’s upcoming book.
Waldenbooks sets up a bookfair representing all of our authors who are there to personally sign your copies. Waldenbooks donates a portion of the profits to HOD for us to donate to a local literacy program. (So it’s guilt-free shopping! Stock up for yourself or do some early Christmas shopping and feel good about it!!)
And if that’s not enough, all five Playfriends will be on hand as well. J
Mark your calendars now: May 5, 2007; 11am –3 pm, VonBraun Civic Center, Huntsville, AL. Registration information is available at the HOD website, http://www.heartofdixie.org/.
I hope to see you there! It's going to be an awesome event!~~~~~
Now that I've finished my shamless plug, let me ask you this: Which author (not listed above) would you really like to meet?
PC
14 comments:
Gee, I've met so many.
All right! Stop throwing things.
I would love to meet Janet Evanovich, the creator of one of my favorite fictional characters Stephanie Plum.
And oh gosh it IS going to be a great luncheon.
I'm tossing in with Rhonda -- J.K. Rowling. ;)
Y'all don't ask for much, do you?
I'd have said Harper Lee too but I know she doesn't do public stuff (though she did recently attend a high school production of To Kill a Mockingbird -- do any of you act???).
PM
Wow! I'm getting more excited by the moment. Can't wait until May.
Congrats, LJ!!!! We're so proud of you.
I think I've met a lot of the authors I've been reading long-term, thanks to RWA. But I always enjoy meeting authors, no matter what they write, and hearing about their take on writing, creativity, and the industry. Not to mention that so many of them are just really cool people.
Thanks for the congrats! I'm excited, especially since I get to be at the Southern Magic conference this year.
The luncheon is just plain fun. We always have such a blast. I love putting together the author baskets. I usually play with them for weeks before the luncheon. This year Lori Handeland and I are putting together a raffle basket with all the Rock Creek Six books. Since very few of the last two were printed, this is a special collection. I've already found one perfect addition for the basket. It's bath salts appropriately called "Cowgirls Will Only Put Up With So Much Horseshit Soak." I also have a notepad shaped like a corset. (one can never have too many notepads)
Anyway, it's always so much fun. I look forward to it every year.
LJ
I'm so excited for you, LJ. You deserve to place first in both categories!
I'm getting so excited about the luncheon! It is going to be absolutely fabulous.
Like Angel, thanks to RWA I've met most of the authors that I've been reading for years. But I just started rereading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and I have to say I'd love to meet her.
Sassy, Lori is my crit partner. She is fabulous isn't she?
Instigator
Sassy, thanks so much for the kind words. I'm glad you liked the book! Hopefully one of these days we'll be able to hook up. Eventually, I'm going to have to crawl out of this shell I live in ;-)
Congratulations again, LJ! Your Witch trilogy is fabulous!
Wow! PC, you did a great job advertising our next luncheon. Everyone make sure and come. Believe PC, it's going to be great!
Now... I'm about to wet myself because there's no way on earth I can follow this.
Kathy
(Shivering with self-doubt.)
Lori, I absolutely can't wait for August until your new book "Underneath it All" comes out. If it is anything like the first I know it will be amazing.
Instigator, I know you'll soon be among the published ranks also, soon.
Sassy35803
Last year at the first author anything that I went to (NJ in October) I got to meet Victoria Alexander. So that's one author off my virtual list. Now this year it looks like Julia Quinn's going to be there, and it figures that by then we should have moved away. LOL
But anyway - Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, Jackie D'Alessandro, Sabrina Jefferies, Candice Hern, Amanda Quick, Mary Jo Putney and Lauren Willig.
Ah, can I also put Jane Austen, Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare too? I mean, you didn't say they had to be alive. . . LOLOLOL :)
Lois
Ooh, so many -
SEP
Catherine Anderson
Erin McCarthy
Debbie Macomber
Susan Mallery
Maureen Child
Rachel Gibson
HelenKay Dimon
Jill Shalvis
Donna Kauffman
Unfortunately I've never met any authors. I'm going to say Jill Shalvis because she seems to have the greatest sense of humor.
Lois-
Sabrina Jeffries was the guest speaker at the luncheon a few years ago, when I was in charge (and 7 months pregnant at the time).
Let me tell you, first of all, that she's a hoot! Great speaker and nice lady, but also an inspiration.
I've heard Susan Elizabeth Philips speak a few times at Nationals and if I get the chance, I never miss it! She's great.
And the reason Kathy is about to wet her pants is because next year SHE gets to be in charge of the luncheon!!!
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