I'm Your Number One Fan

This past Friday I headed off to Burlington, Massachusetts for the annual conference of the New England Chapter of the Romance Writers of America (NECRWA). After meeting my friend Abby (see previous post for more on her) for lunch we headed off to the master class on dialogue led by Julia Quinn, who looks and sounds like Mary Louise Parker at her West Wing sassiest. That class, and the other workshops on craft, are one of the best things about the meeting. While you're sitting there you get these "aha" moments where you suddenly think of something great to do with your story, and you leave actually knowing more.

Then there's meeting authors you've been reading or hearing about for years, like Marie Force and Judith Arnold, and discovering new authors and contacts. These meetings are basically hundreds of generous women hanging out together talking about romances. What could be more awesome?

Here's who else I saw there: Cara McKenna. If you follow my reviews on Goodreads, you know how I feel about Cara McKenna. So when I saw her walk by my table before dinner Friday night, I jumped up, ran over, interrupted a conversation she was having and told her how much I love her books. Hopefully I didn't scare her. I'm kind of tall and I felt like I was sort of looming over her like a crazed fan. But she thanked me and I left her alone to eat her dinner, having accomplished one of my goals for the meeting.

I drove home Saturday afternoon energized and ready to make the second book in the Sin City series totally awesome. I also may have a title for it: Set Free. Get it, Set Loose and then Set Free? But if I did that, what would I name the third book?

If anyone has an opinion about this, please feel free to comment.

I also thought up an idea for a new series based on a Maine town where my husband and I have gone on vacation. So I'm psyched about that. And to top it all off, this morning I dressed up in my best business casual and went to court to fight a ticket I got back in February (to the tune of $100), and it went in my favor. Now I have the rest of the day left to write, watch the last "New Girl" and "Mindy Project" episodes and meet my husband for sushi. No complaints today.