And they're off!

The conference began in earnest today. My morning started with a great breakfast held by the Hearts through History chapter, of which I am a member. Great food, excellent view, and interesting company. HHRW gave away wonderful goodies for members. I received a couple of certificates for accomplishments - achieving PRO status and finaling in a contest. It is nice to have formal recognition, so it felt good.

After breakfast I headed for the PRO retreat. The speakers offered tons of useful tipson promotion, how publishing works, and the importance of persistence. Historical romance writer Jo Beverley was named PRO mentor. Her speech was wonderful. Not only was it substantive and inspiring, Jo has the most marvelous British accent. I could listen to her talk for hours.

My great morning was made greater because the PRO keynote was presented by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Yup, I got to see her again. She may have given the speech many times before, but it was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in time. Sherrilyn Kenyon rocks!

The afternoon was the luncheon and keynote address by Lisa Kleypas. Can you say, armadillo? Sorry, ya had to be there. :-)

The finish to the day was the Annual General Meeting - AGM. The AGM was...interesting. It was also painful. Painful in the way a room full of scalded cats is and all because of a "Hot Sheet" released by the board. Now I don't say that to be mean, because I admit freely I am one of the scalded cats. Go to the RWA Web site for details and fall out. I'm sure I won't explain it well. Suffice it to say, there will be no erotic romance category for the Golden Heart or the RITA and somehow most or all (still not sure which) e-publishers were designated as "subsidy or vanity" presses. This is baloney. I hope they revisit their definitions...soon.