I'm Going To The Conference

I’m getting ready for RWA this week. Romance Writers of America is holding its annual national convention and this year it’s in New York City. I’ll be joining approximately 2,000 other romance writers for several days of workshops, meet & greets, book signings and networking.

It’s a writer’s dream and an introvert’s nightmare. J Seriously. 2,000 in one hotel and having to be “on” all day every day. What I find even funnier, though, is that most writers are introverts; certainly most of my writer friends are. We all talk about it on Facebook for about 50 weeks a year (in between our “buy my book” posts, of course). Yet for two weeks, we all make plans to see as many writers and editors as we can, and make plans to learn and socialize. I guess those other 50 weeks are our recovery time.

I’ll be there Thursday through Saturday and my days are mostly filled with workshops—writing and blogging ones, marketing strategy ones, and ones where we learn about different publishing houses. My good friend and I are rooming together and already making plans to slip away and have dinner by ourselves. I’ve arranged to meet my other agency authors for dinner one evening so that we can get to know each other better. And I’m capping off the conference at the awards ceremony, where several friends are nominated.

My outfits are purchased and planned, along with the most comfy shoes I could find that still look pretty. And I’m told that the conference is very close to the Magnolia Bakery, so I’m leaving room in my schedule for cupcake time.

By the end of the three days, I hope to come away exhausted, but armed with lots of good writing advice. And probably a desire to go hide in a cave for a month!