Hey! All you Bitchery members down in Atlanta for RWA 2006 – if you have any field reports from the conference to end all conferences, let us know! We’d love to hear how it’s going.
And – Candy and I are already talking about Dallas in 2007. We might even submit a presentation proposal (this means you’ll have to Join the RWA, Candy! Come on, be cool like me!) and wow you with our ability make no sense whatsoever! Or cuss a lot, whichever comes first.
I wonder, if we were going to make a RWA presentation, what would we talk about? Smart Bitch Titles?
I’ve been toying with the idea of going to Dallas for RWA instead of Worldcon (World SF convention), since Worldcon will be in Japan in 2007.
If I know the SBs will be there, I’ll give RWA some serious consideration.[g]
Oh, and if anyone’s going to this year’s Worldcon, “L.A.con IV” in Anaheim, California (Aug. 23-27), look for me on the program and stop by to say “hi”.
there’s a blog all about nationals.
http://bloggingnational.blogspot.com/
and you two could talk about anything you wanted. Toilet paper, bunnies, books, lasers, tonsils, temper tantrums, chickens. I’d listen.
I’d like to extend an invitation to y’all from the city of Dallas. No, I’m not an official representative of this fine city, but I’m sure they won’t mind. 🙂
I’ll just give y’all some helpful hints for next year.
1. Secret might be strong enough for a man, but it’s nothing up against the hot-as-balls weather we get here. The good thing? We’re big believers in air conditioners. Just be prepared to sweat and possibly pant if you’re outside. I don’t recommend going outside, though.
2. You’re just barely going to miss the annual Mary Kay convention, which really is a shame. Although, they aren’t as much fun since they’ve banned liquor.
3. While everyone is encouraged to “Keep Austin Weird” the phrase for us is “Keep Dallas Pretentious.” What do you expect from the city that houses the original Neiman’s? (Seriously. Go visit. The store is like a dream, even if I can’t afford a damn thing but a tiny box of godivas.)
4. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has the highest restraunt to people percentage in America. Don’t waste your time at chains. Try out Monica’s Aca y Aya. It’s owned by Monica, who was born a man, had a sex change, and then decided she was a lesbian. And she makes hella-good vegetarian mexican food. How can you not love it?
5. There’s lots of crap to see here besides the Kennedy Museum. Venture out beyond the grassy knoll.
6. There will be some of us that you flat out can’t understand. It’s ok. We know that we have accents. We generally don’t mind repeating ourselves. (Seriously. I get harassed so much for my pronunciation of ice and oil. God help me if I need an iced latte outside the state.)
7. Rugged manly cowboys? They don’t exist in Dallas county. If you watch Urban Cowboy you’ll get a good idea of what we’re dealing with. You have to go farther west to find the cowboys. And when you do find them, you figure out real quick that they kind of suck.
Wow,an in-person presentation by the Smart Bitches themselves might be enticement enough to get me to join RWA and start saving my pennies for Dallas.
Of course if this does take place, it will be forever known as: Smart Bitches do Dallas. 🙂 Can RWA handle it?
Okay, seriously, I think a presentation about what Smart Bitches are looking for in stories and on covers would be great. I think you and Candy have a viewpoint that some authors understand, but there should be more of them. Talk about the horrible Poser covers, and show examples of the contest entries. Remind them that for many of us readers, gay is A-OK.
Or you could just make fun of Jan R. “Homophobia is Traditional, and So Are Romances!” Butler for an hour. I’d fly to Dallas to see that, for sure. *g*
A live, on-site spontaneous cover snark? Man, we’d get stoned! As in, people would throw rocks at us!
And I got my RWR two days ago, read that letter in its entirety and about crapped myself. I have to remember that some people really do have their heads up their asses, and no amount of tugging will dislodge them.
oh yes you need to bring slides and go in to detail about the flaws not to mention a whole segment on Johanna lindsey covers. I love her but some of her covers are scary.
Atlanta is good – for me, it’s great. I’ve been asking people I meet if they’re having a good conference, and thus far, no one’s chased me with knives, so I think it’s safe to say that it doesn’t suck.
Wish y’all were here! And dayamn – if the Bitches come to Dallas, I’ll even offer limo service from the airport. Not that I’m bribing you in any way.
I’ve got random crap about the conference up on my blog. But I don’t know any good dish – so it’s mostly blah board/author stuff. I did go this morning to a workshop about hiring a personal assistant – AS IF!!! – ‘cause, you just never know. Well, okay, I pretty much know – but the workshop was interesting, all the same.
Also went to the Spotlight on Harlequin, which depressed me. Too bad I gave up drinking…
P.S. – I just rode up the elevator with P.C. Cast, who doesn’t know me from Adam. I started to go all fangirl squee on her, but didn’t. That introvert thing overrrode the fangirl thing.
I’m defintely attending 2008 since I live in Frisco.
Great tips Rosemary. I went on a summer business trip to Texas once. I half expected snow to start falling inside the frigid airport only to wish I had a spacesuit when walking outside. I tried touring near my hotel, but was back inside within 10 minutes.
There was also an awful team building trip to the Big-D Western Ranch. The horses had saggy middles and seemed half dead and used plastic utensils were recycled with a quick swish in a pan of cold water before being put back on the food table.
Never again 🙂
SB Sarah – RWR?
Sorry! RWR = Romance Writer’s Report- the publication for RWA members. In it was a breathtaking letter from “Jan R. “Homophobia is Traditional, and So Are Romances!†Butler” stating that romance is defined as one man, and one woman.
you could always do the “how to have a romance blog”. I bet there’s a round table.
I’d love to attend a workshop on how to best use the web: how to best utilize sites technorati, an examination of viral blogging and which Amazon numbers and tools are actually meaningful.
People also need to more aware content ownership issues as so many don’t read the TOS agreements. A good discussion on web archiving might also lead some to exmaine their online behavior. I know the info is scattered around, but I haven’t had time to look for all of it.
I’ve kicked around the idea of presenting an IT bootcamp, but don’t know if it’s worth the liability (no one ever seems to remember disclaimers) or what the interest would be.
Claudia: I was thinking about something along those lines, like “Authors ‘Behaving Badly’ but getting Good Publicity” aka Marketing yourself through blogs, comments, and ads on smaller sites.
So many of our advertisement inquiries come from the authors themselves, who often also request design services (which we are happy to provide!). I’ve heard from more than one source that authors often feel the real onus to publicize their books rests on their shoulders and on their own budgets. Opportunities to advertise on sites like ours and other romance- or writing-centered blogs give a better chance for exposure for not a lot of money (versus throwing a pile of cash at RT or anoher publication) and the exposure of an author writing a comment here might lead people to check her site out based on what she said.
But a session that sounds as gossipy as “We’ll tell you how to behave badly, get attention, and drive up your site hits and possibly sales, too!” could attract maybe 3 or 4 attendees, I would hope!
As an example of how successful web publicity works, I just requested a copy of the lone Kate Rothwell book at our library. I was so happy a real, live Author stopped by my humble blog. Sure, I didn’t BUY anything yet, but now I know her name and I’ll review her book on my site. A whole half dozen extra folks – my readership – might know her name by the August… it’s a start.
I think you’re being too direct and simple here, lovelysalome. An internet campaign that works is more like this:
you review my book and announce it’s a stinker.
I decide I’ve had enough of readers expressing their opinions without repercussions and challege you to a duel. I hold a contest giving away a basket of books to the person who correctly guess which of us will win.
SBTB and Booksquare and bookbuzz mention my contest in passing in a bunch of articles about authors behaving like warriors. People flock to enter my contest.
Bonus points: I lose the duel and posthumously become the most famous and googled dead author on the internet for maybe a week. I’m even mentioned in Dooce (is she still writing?).
In the meantime, I get tons of new traffic to my (beautiful, easy-to-navigate) site where disgruntled readers (who’ve never read your work but stand ready to trash you) rally to my cause. One of them provides me a link to make my own explosives, which I will illegally use in our duel.
My hand in your death will be deemed accidental because some clever reader/lawyer will defend me pro bono (cool – I said Bono). Thereafter, I will make the talk show circuit promoting my own book (about a cowboy and a sheikh) and finally have something to write about on my blog other than clever things my 3-yo says about vaginas. All in a day’s work.
Hey, someone posted the RITA winners list on AAR, and Stephanie Feagan’s One For The Money won for best first book! Congratulations, Stephanie—I guess I need to pull your book out of my TBR pile now!!
Liz Carlyle also won in the long historical category, and while I really, really liked The Devil to Pay, I was hoping that Chase’s Mr. Impossible would win. A lot of the nominees and winners are unfamiliar to me, though.
The nominees and winners can be found here:http://161.58.67.252/Prissy.htm
Duh, I mean Show Her The Money . Will I EVER learn to hit preview? I can’t even keep my Stephanie’s straight!
Robin, thanks much for the congratulations. It really is surreal. I can remember so many Nationals, hanging out in the bar after the awards, watching the winners with their little gold statues, and thinking, man, would that be cool, or what? Then I got one, and – not gonna lie – it is WAY cool! It’s still blowing my mind.