Let's continue the recap :) Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze the whole RWA conference in to this post :)
Day 4
Tuesday was
THE day LOL. The day where I was moving from
Hils' place to the Marriott Marquis where the conference was taking place. The day the Literacy Autographing event was taking place on. The day the conference was starting.
Hilcia's husband was a darling and helped us arrange car service to get from their place to the hotel. The pick up was scheduled at 1pm and I spent the morning... re-packing everything. LOL, I'm a very messy traveler ^_^; I'll try to keep stuff in order, but yeah, at the end, the quickest way to be sure I have everything and that it'll fit in the suitcase will be to re-pack. The good news is unlike when I'm getting ready to leave home, I knew exactly what to bring or not to bring so packing was fast :) Car service was right on time and it didn't take us long to get to New York City. Actually, the difficulty was finding the car entrance to the hotel with all the one-way streets LOL. In any case, we made it to the hotel just on time as when I called
Kristie to see if she'd checked-in yet, turned out she was heading out for lunch with
Rosie and
Lisabea. So we stashed our stuff in
Wendy's room and then joined them for lunch to Junior's - a restaurant renowned for its cheesecakes which just happened to be across the street :)
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel where Kristie and I checked in. After we were settled in, I went to register for the conference. I had all my paperwork ready - the registration form, the receipt, etc. - but turns out all they needed was my name LOL. Ah well, it's still good to be prepared. So I got my badge and my registration bag which contained some books, some goodie and the conference schedule :) Before heading back to the room though, I decided to hit the goodie room :) The goodie room is where authors leave their promotional items. Personally, I think the room is a lot of fun because you can find a bit of everything: pen, bookmarks, pins, book covers, candies, chocolate, lip balm, nail files, etc. And as the conference goes on, the room gets replenished until the authors run out of swag :)
By the time I finished touring the goodie room, it was time to get ready for the Literacy Autographing event. After discussing it with Kristie, we've decided not to do the line-up for the event. Did I mention that when we headed out for lunch which was around 2pm, the line-up for the signing event had already started?!? And that they had to wait outside?!? Yeah, didn't relish the idea... Also, from my experience last year at RT, I figured once the doors were opened, it wouldn't be long that everyone would be in and the line-up would disappear. Coincidentally, Wendy called Kristie at that moment to let us know that she and Rosie had decided to skip the waiting line as well. Therefore we decided to meet at the bar which was perfect with us :) On my way to the bar, I ran into
Christine!! LOL, that's the fun thing at the conference - you never know who you'll run into and it can be anyone :)
So we joined Wendy, Kristie and Rosie at the bar and hung out a little :) It was a good thing because
Meljean Brook and her daughter showed up!! It was nice to finally meet Meljean :) My first reaction? She's way taller than I thought!! LOL. Meljean spent some time with us before and after her appointment and we each got a set of those very popular trade cards! But seriously, it was really nice to meet her... Of course, I was tongue-tied and didn't really know what to say to her ^_^; Luckily, there was Christine to engage conversation :) Also, Meljean's daughter? She's a sweetheart :)
The signing was starting at 5.30pm... and Christine and I managed to wait till 5.45pm LOL. We were just too impatient to wait further! I mean, there's this room full of authors and books a few floors below... how to resist?!? LOL. As a result, Christine, my sister and I headed down to the signing while Kristie, Rosie and Wendy played it cool and decided they could wait a little longer LOL. We were admitted into the room almost immediately and almost as fast, Christine and I went our separate way LOL. The signing event was in a word? Wow. Lots of people, lots of books and it was fun :)
Now, according to Wendy's intel from the Librarians' Day Event, publishers haven't brought as much books this year to the signing. Thus, Wendy's advice was that if we really wanted a particular book from a particular author, not to wait to get it later at the conference. And so I took the advice to heart :) When I entered the room, I knew right away who I wanted to see first:
Lorraine Heath. It did take me some time to orientate myself in the room as the first tables we saw were not "A" but "Z". On my way looking for Ms Heath, I found
Elizabeth Jennings. While getting her book, I also had the opportunity to speak to
Sabrina Jeffries who was sitting next to her. After Ms Heath, I start going through the authors alphabetically... and at the end, to be sure I didn't miss anyone, I re-did the whole room two times... Just in case, you know LOL. The good thing is I came prepared and had a duffel bag. Ms Jeffries was also very nice and had given me a tote bag when I met her. Through the whole signing, I did run into Kristie and Hilcia... and I think I saw Wendy ^_^; Yeah, I was pretty focused on my own list...
Elizabeth Jennings, Lorraine Heath, Jacquie D'Alessandro
Jennifer Estep, K.A. Mitchell, Jodi Thomas
Nalini Singh, Jayne Ann Krentz, Victoria Alexander
I have to thank my sister for sticking with me throughout the signing event and taking pictures of me and the authors!! She was definitively a trooper! So big thank you little sis!
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| Hilcia, Kristie and Lusty Reader |
After the literacy signing, I went to the room to dump my haul and headed to the bar for Wendy's Blogger Bar Bash :) Meanwhile, my sister decided to take off - we needed shampoo. As soon as I arrived at the bar, Rosie asked me where my sister was... and when she found out my sister went out on her own... LOL. Hmmm, let just say Mama Bear came out and for the rest of the week, my sister had to report in LOL.
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| Mariana and me |
I had a great time at the bar bash. It was just fun to hang out with bloggers and authors. We talked and everyone was able to come and go :) I had the chance to meet
Mariana and
Lusty Reader. Hilcia, Kristie, Wendy, Christine and Katiebabs were also there. Rosie and Lisabea had jet off to an event, but joined back later on. Oh and I also met Pearl who came from the Netherlands! I'm sorry if I forgot anyone ^_^;
All in all, we had a great time. It was lovely and definitively a highlight of my trip :) And now, I'll stop... because this post is really getting long :)
