“Separated, and they weren’t sleeping together.”

                                “According to the adulterer, who is such an honest guy you believed him.”

                                Her face reddened and her eyes blazed. “He was getting a divorce!”

                                His anger bubbled at being put in the same box with her ex. “I am not him. I don’t sleep with a woman one night and look for her replacement the next unless that’s the arrangement.”

                                “Yet you’re bringing a date to my sister’s wedding.”

For more samples from 8 Sentence Sunday, go here.

Last week I wrote about all the cool and fun things from RT. This post will be about the actual workshops and panels I attended. At least the ones that I have something to say things about. As I said, I didn’t attend lots of workshops, but I enjoyed the ones I did attend.

One of the first panels I went to was on social media. The panelists were Sarah Wendell (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), authors Jaye Wells, Liliana Hart, and Shiloh Walker, and Mandi Schreiner (Smexy Books). I wanted to attend this panel because I’m still trying to figure out the social media thing. In general, I don’t worry about numbers when it comes to social media, which was one of the points the presenters made. It’s about chatting with people and having fun. So really, I didn’t learn much from this panel. There was one really important takeaway that I tweeted at the end: When you fuck up on social media (and everyone does), own it and apologize. Really apologize — not “I’m sorry if you were offended.”

I went to two panels on Contemporary Romance both because that’s the genre I write and because I am a fan of the authors presenting. The first was Reinventing the Modern Day Romeo (Beth Ciotta, Victoria Dahl, Sarah Frantz, Erin McCarthy, and Shannon Stacey, moderated by Louisa Edwards) There were lots of laughs in this one. The one I remember most was Victoria Dahl saying that all heroes have to have good aim (in the bathroom — she had just told a story about having to clean her sons’ bathroom).

The second panel was on the many flavors of romance (Roxanne St. Claire, Jill Shalvis, Ruthie Knox, Brenda Novak, and Julie James, moderated by Louisa Edwards). In this panel each author represented a smaller subgenre within contemporary. For example, Jill Shalvis will make you laugh, and Roxanne St. Claire will make you cry. Julie James writes big city, while Brenda Novak writes small town. Ruthie Knox was there as a digital first author. The thing was, even as each author represented one thing, there was cross-over everywhere. Jill Shalvis and Roxanne St. Claire also both do small town. Ruthie Knox has done small town and big city. One thing they all agreed on was that they liked to do series, and series generally do better. It was fun hearing the authors talk about which heroes they liked best and whether that differed from what they heard from readers.

I did quite a few industry-related workshops, like spotlights from various publishers to hear about what they’re looking for in each of their lines. I caught part of RT’s workshop on what RT editors want. While it’s really hard to get reviewed in RT, there are a lot of other opportunities for getting your name out there, especially in the on-line version and daily blog.

Finally, I attended a workshop on self-publishing and the future of publishing by Bob Mayer and Jen Talty. They have their own publishing company, Cool Gus, where they partner with authors. I’ve been following Bob and Jen for a while because I think they have some really good ideas and they’re forward thinking. One thing Bob said, which I think is really true is that publishing right now is run by fear. Authors are afraid to self-publish, agents are afraid for their jobs because so many authors are self-pubbing, and New York is afraid of change. I think a lot of publishers are changing, but they aren’t moving all that fast. Most (if not all) of the Big 6 now have digital first arms that allow them to accept more authors and take more chances. I think it’s a good thing because digital is where it’s at. They also pointed out that having multiple books out, especially a series was the way to go for both discoverability and sales.

In talking with many of my writer friends at RT, I found it fascinating that 75-80% of their sales come from ebooks, not print. We’re talking about some well-known, established print authors.  This makes me happy that I went with a digital-first publisher, not that I ever really doubted the decision, but you know, there’s still that part of me that would like to see my name on a spine.

From A GOOD TIME — Last week, we left Indy and Griffin irritated with each other. Griffin was upset that Indy hadn’t called him to get together and she points out that she didn’t because she found out he was bringing a date to her sister’s wedding. 

                              Before he could rebut, she plowed on. “I know we only slept together once. It was sex. I’m okay with a casual relationship. I am on the rebound, after all. I don’t expect a lifelong commitment, but I don’t share.”

                              He snorted. “Your last lover was married.”

For more samples from 8 Sentence Sunday, go here.

My swag table at RT

Weirdest thing — I had a swag table where I set out freebies for people. I had beer bands (like a bracelet for you beer to mark which is yours), 4-way measuring spoons, excerpt booklets from eKensington, and sticky notes. In order to keep my table neat, I had separate baskets to hold the items. As you can guess, stuff went pretty fast and I had to stop by the table a couple of times a day to replenish. The weird part was that at one point, I went to check on the table and someone had taken one of my empty baskets. I’m not upset. They were all cheap dollar store baskets, but really. Did someone think I was giving away baskets?

Really cool thing — I got to meet lots of book bloggers that I only knew online. The best was that I finally got to meet Kindle Gal, whose blog is Kindles and Wine. If you don’t know her, check it out. She and her staff review many books and they do awesome giveaways. Right now she’s doing a MASSIVE giveaway of books she got at RT.

Lots of fun things — I had a chance to meet many of the Kensington authors (both digital first and print), which was fun. I spent one night in the bar talking with Melissa Cutler who writes for Kensington and Harlequin. We share an editor at Kensington and while we both planned to have a drink and chat and then go back to our rooms to write (we still have deadlines!!), we ended up hanging out in the bar for hours. But it was fun. I also got to have dinner with some of my Chicago pals that did Girls Night Out with me in February: Julie James, Julie Ann Walker, Beth Kery, and Kate Meader. It’s pretty cool that I get to hang out with such talented and busy savvy women.

Most nerve wracking thing — On Thursday morning, I had some time to kill before heading to a panel on Contemporary romance, so I sat in the lobby playing on Twitter on my phone. Then, Jaci Burton sits down on the couch adjacent to me. Moments later, she is joined by Vivian Arend, Lauren Dane, and Shannon Stacey. At this point, I’m having a bit of a fangirl moment, but I’m cool and I keep it to myself. Then (as if this wasn’t enough), Jill Shalvis, Shiloh Walker, and Helen Kay Dimon join. Well, as you can imagine, an L-shaped couch and a couple of chairs really don’t hold all that many people, so I gather my things to leave. This is obviously a group of friends that wants to hang out together, so I’m going to give them space. I stand up and Shannon Stacey introduces herself, which made me kind of laugh because of course I know who she is (and we do share a first name). They were all gracious and told me I didn’t have to leave, but I wanted them to sit together. Then Helen Kay looks at me and orders me to sit down. I was a bit startled, but I listened. She is pretty bossy (per Shannon Stacey). I sat and once we got rid of some of the pillows all over the couch, everyone got a seat. And Lauren Dane gave me one of her cool water bottles. I still didn’t talk, but it was enough to be sitting with that group, hoping their brilliance would be contagious.

Most AWESOME thing  and why I suck — Thursday was a really packed day for me. In addition to Kensington holding a book spree where they gave away books and we all got to sign, there was also RT’s book Expo signing for ebook, small press, and self-published authors. Since I’m a debut author, I didn’t expect much for the Expo signing. I had some people who I knew stop by, which was fun. Then one woman came up to me and handed me her Kindle. She said she read my book and really liked it and wanted me to sign her Kindle. I was so taken aback, I was flustered. I signed her Kindle and then she left. This is why I suck. I didn’t get her name or a picture or anything. I was just so surprised that someone wanted me to sign her Kindle that I was speechless. So, if it was you, please know that you are totally AWESOME and I suck.

I’ll do another post about some of the panels and interesting conversations I had last week. 

Given the chance, who would you most like to meet at a conference?

First up, my post about my unexpected love for beta heroes is really posted over at RomCon. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of MORE THAN THIS.

Then, I’m being interviewed over at Andi’s Book Reviews (and I have the recipe for Comfort Cookies). Leave a comment for a chance to win a gift card.

                               Indy stepped around him and went to the kitchen. He didn’t wait for further invitation. She drank a glass of water while standing at the sink.

                               “I’m not in the habit of waiting for a woman.”

                               “You made that perfectly clear.” The ice in her voice could’ve chilled the glass she held. 

                               “What’s that supposed to mean?”

                               “Quinn told me you’re bringing a date to the wedding.”

For more 8 Sentence Sunday samples, go here.

I’m equally excited and nervous about going. Part of the nerves come from leaving my kids and my husband (who’s never been in charge of them for more than a few hours at a time), but most of my nervousness comes from being shy and socially awkward. I’m genuinely excited to meet people that I only know online by their Twitter avatar and this will be my first official signing as an author.

I’ve been over the RT schedule a bunch of times and I have workshops picked out to visit as a writer, but I also have a few chosen as a reader because some of my favorite authors are talking too. (I’m not above a fangirl moment myself)

If you’re at RT and see me, say hi!

I’ll be at Club RT on Thursday from 9-9:30 am and on Friday from 3:45-4:15 pm (I have homemade Comfort Cookies if you want to try one). I’ll also be participating in Kensington’s Afternoon Book Spree on Thursday from 12:20-1:20 and the Ebook expo on Thursday from 4-6 pm. Plus, I will have fun swag set out to take — beer bands for your drink, 4-way measuring spoons for when you want to make Comfort Cookies, and sticky notes (because you can never have enough)

If you’re not able to go to RT this year, I’m also participating at The Romance Studio’s Staying Home Party, where I’ll be giving 2 lucky commenters a swag pack from RT! Check it out from 5/1-5/5

Then, I’m being interviewed at two other blogs, Rachel Brimble Romance and Straight from the Library. Comment here for a chance to win a gift card.