Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

GH contemporary single title romance

The winner is Money Honey by Susan Seyfarth.

GH for Romantic Suspense

Best romantic suspense Sweet Deceit by Julie Stevens.

Also Ms. Stevens is walking to the stage to the music of Shaft.

GH Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

The Winner is The Devil You Know by Christa Selnick.

GH paranormal romance

The winner is Soul Provider by Annette McCleave.

GH inspirational romance

The Golden Heart for inspirational romance is delayed by Indiana Jones reading a Vicki Lewis Thompson book.

Running From Trouble by Kit Wilkinson.

GH regency historical romance

The Golden Heart winner for regency historical Mistaken by Moonlight by Susan Gee Heino.

GH - Contemporary Series Suspense

Best contemporary series suspense: The Midnight Effect by Pamela Fryer.

Golden Heart: Short Contemporary

Golden heart short contemporary: Under a Harvest Moon by Joleen Wieser. Ms. Weiser is wearing a beautiful corsage.

sneaking in

I have infiltrated the RITA rehearsal because, well, why not. I am sitting with Jane Porter, who has the cutest author pic ever, and Lisa Kleypas, who is unaware that I name drop like a klutzy fool. And like the lushy kiss-up I am, I brought wine.

Little Item Recap

I have to check out of my room today because I am a doofus, but here’s a brief item highlight of yesterday:

1. I filmed an Author Talk segment with Jane from DA, and one of the following things did not happen: a. I trounced her silly behind in the wall banger competition b. Jane cracked me up retitling different Author Talk member’s books c. We made out on film d. Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter beat me senseless.

Guess which one!

2. I volunteered at the registration desk and ended up helping set up the luncheon instead. But I got to go “backstage” and meet some RWA staff folks who are so cool you can’t even believe it.

3. The Thirsty Bear cocktail party was so awesome, I’m dreaming of the food right now. Readers! Nifty people who read our site! They came! So it was this awesome mix of local reading awesomeness and people from the convention taking a break from the schmooze-fest, and I loved it. Angela James, Zoe Archer, Kate Duffy, and Carrie Lofty have a great idea for some new erotic historicals. Ask them about it - it’s so good lightning will strike.

Good Morning Today Show Folks

Howdy! If you saw me or Jane from Dear Author, Marcella White Campbell, or Kassia Krozser on the Today Show and are checking out our sites as a result, welcome! Nice to meet you!

As is the standard in tv, where there’s piles and piles of tape but the audience sees about seven or eight inches of it, our segment was probably pretty quick. But we were talking then and are here now to say that the stereotype of romance readers is wrong. Romance readers are smart, erudite, clever, and tired of being dismissed as undersexed, overweight frustrated women. I hope that our enthusiasm and love of romance came across. If you like romance novels as much as we do, we’re glad you’re here.

ETA: There is a link to the video online if you’d like to see it for yourself. My comments after I watched it for the first time are below - click the “more more more” for, well, more more more.

RWA: Random Pieces of the Day

I am terrible and boring at entries where I tell everything that I did, because it becomes one long string of ‘And then… and then…. and then…’ and your eyes would glaze over. So here’s a small-paragraph recap in no particular order of The First 36 Hours Of RWA.

So tomorrow AM the Today Show segment will air and I’m hoping they use all of us, because Marcella, Kassia, and Jane were outstanding. Marcella batted that interview right out of the park.

Funny part! During the literacy signing, which raised nearly $60,000 in one night, I was walking around with two authors when the film crew from The Today Show approached us. They were looking for two people to pose and gaze up at the ceiling as if they were thinking of George Clooney and Patrick Dempsey. I happened to be standing with, count ‘em one, two people. So if the Today Show airs the segment with two people posing as if they were dreaming of celebrities, one will be Barb Ferrer and the other will be Lisa Kleypas. They were totally good sports about it, and I hope that Today’s uses the segment, because, awesome!

A Few RWA Conference Items

Item the First: Dost thou know we have zee Twitter? We have zee Twitter. I don’t quite understand the joy of zee Twitter, but I’m going to have some fun with it. If you are at SF, either because that’s where you live, or you’re attending the conference, stay tuned to zee Twitter. I’ll be posting while I’m in SF a trivia question or a secret word. If you’re the first to (a) find me and (b) answer the question or give me the secret password, I’ll have a prize for you in my Big Ass Bag. (No, the bag is not made of actual ass, nor will your prize be ass).

Why am I doing this? Because it’ll be fun, it’ll be a neat way to meet new people, and why not give cool stuff to strangers to make new friends, right? Plus, I get to say “zee Twitter,” like The Giver from Send.com used to say his own name (He was The Giver, from Send.com. Giving was in his blood and muscle tissue) . And I have neat prizes, thanks to Ninth Moon and their very very thoughtful clearance sale.

Item the Second: Remember the accounts… read more »

Marriott Nightmare? Bring Your Flashlight.

From the “Holy Shit I Haven’t Even Packed Yet” and the “There Goes My Hopes of Traveling Carry-On Only” department comes Louisa Edwards’ account of pre-conference mishigas at the San Fran Marriott. Honestly, this does not bode well.

So, looking for alternate accommodations that are walking distance from the hotel? Good luck with that. There’s the Four Seasons across the street but if you’re not familiar with the Fo-Sea, every one of those seasons is damn hell holy shit outta your budget expensive. Same with the St. Regis.

If you’re feeling the first stirrings of a need to make backup reservations, there is a Hilton (which is great if you have points, which I do not) and there’s a few other major player hotels a few blocks from the Marriott. There’s also a feature on hotels.com that will allow you to search for hotels using the Moscone center as your home point - which is next door to the Marriott.

Are you already at the Marriott and having a hell of a time? There’s a comment form on the Marriott website, but my best advice to you is to Document Everything. Every thing that goes wrong, every time… read more »

Informal Head Count Time: Bitches at the Bear!

Thanks to Bitchery reader Jora, we have a heads up on a cool place to meet the San Francisco readers who might not be attending RWA but would like to meet Bitches in person, and an equally cool place for folks at the conference to meet up and have a drink with us.

Bitching Happy Hour will be Friday 1 August at 3:30 pm at the Thirsty Bear bar, 661 Howard Street. It’s on the Bitchery Food & Drink map of San Francisco if you need a visual or you really dig the street view. They have house brews, wine, and tapas, and since I love two out of three of those things, I am there like merde and mon dieu.

We’ll be gathering, drinking, and eating, and we’re looking forward to meeting you. This is open to anyone who wants to come have a drink with us - we hope you’ll come by! To give us a rough idea as to whether you’re going to duck out of work early and drink with the crazy ladies from this here website, leave a comment please so we can get an… read more »