Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

This year, for the first time, I'm attending the national Romance Writers of America conference. But I'm not going to talk today about how excited I am to meet my editors and agent in person (for the first time ever!). Or how many authors I'll be fangirling over. Or the workshops, or the chance to talk with author friends, or the books galore. Nope, today I'm just going to talk about getting there. I live in the Midwest, but not near any travel hubs. So flying can take quite a while, especially since I can make flights get canceled with my mere presence. (It's a gift.) But with relatives at each coast and to the far north and south, travel is a necessity. I just prefer to go by car when I can. So I'm road-tripping to RWA--today, actually. I've scheduled this post ahead of time, because when you read it, I'll be cutting my way southward to San Antonio. I'm bringing music, snacks, and--courtesy of my library--a few audiobooks. My hope is that ...

I couldn't help but blog about RWA Nationals! And this year was an AMAZING year for Sourcebooks Casablanca and our authors. We sponsored the conference bags and it was so cool seeing our logo literally everywhere. Our spotlight was phenomenal--so many of our authors came, and the room was full of people. The author dinner was so lovely, and we had an even bigger private room because so many people were there! And our signing, well, it was literally a MOB. Sourcebooks Casa author Carolyn Brown (Her new books, I Love This Bar and Hell, Yeah , are in stores now!) sent me a CD full of pictures that her husband was kind enough to snap of the entire conference and here are some of my favorites: Our very own RITA nominee, LAURIE BROWN at the Literacy Signing. Laurie Brown, Carolyn Brown and Cheryl Brooks all in a row at the literacy signing--how fun! Here they are with Deb. Naturally, we took limos to dinner. Of course, a BUNCH were taken at the signing--take a look and enjoy. (Cheryl ...

by Danielle Jackson I've always loved to learn—I was that overachiever that wrote 20 page papers when the requirement was only 10, because I found out so much great information that I believed was entirely necessary to make my point. As I’ve grown, though, learning has always been a part of my life. Whether it’s researching new publications to pitch books to, or finding out interesting facts from the information in your romance novels, I’m lucky to be in position to literally learn something new everyday. At the end of the month, many of us will be at the annual Romance Writers of America National Conference in Orlando, FL (at Disney World!), and I get to do a whole lot of learning! Meeting new authors and their visions for their careers, attending a couple of workshops on promoting romance novels, and of course, hopefully learning how NOT to get burnt out too early. It’s a wonderful way to become acclimated with the world of romance novels, and I think a lot of people are surpri...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com www.LibbysBooks.blogspot.com A funny video by mystery author Parnell Hall (like moi, an Edgar nominee!) has been making the rounds. Maybe you've seen it. If not, here 'tis: Whew -- that's the first time I embedded a video. Hope it comes through okay. If not, you can go to this link to see it. Parnell's poking good-natured fun at challenges all authors who aren't bestsellers face--how do you get the word out and draw crowds to book signings and to buy your book in general? Here's the secret -- Okay, you didn't really think I'd give away the secret, did you? Especially when I don't know what it is myself! :-) Seriously, most authors do their best to attract folks to a book signing with the usual tricks of the trade. Personally, I send out postcards announcing the signing to a growing list of folks interested in my books. I have one list of all the folks in my neighborhood and I'm sure to add a little label on th...

Let’s start with a heartfelt, very loud, “Whew!” That is how I felt after my first solo book signing this past Saturday. I was also strangely exhausted and my jaws hurt from continuous smiling and talking. But it was all good. Really! No complaints are intended as it was loads of fun and very successful. But let me just say I am glad I am not expected to do this every weekend! So far in my 10 months of being a published author I have been a part of four signings. The first two were while in Washington at the RWA convention and I was in a room with lots of other authors and lines of ecstatic ladies dying to get their hands on free books, in some cases no matter who the author was! My third was a group signing in Sacramento with several romance novelists – including our own Loucinda McGary – and a few other fiction and non-fiction writers. In each of these cases I was among friends, surrounded by other authors to socialize with, and in a setting where people knew what was happening. Ther...

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Um… yay ? The moment Halloween ends, we get inundated with Christmas. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love December. I love the whole deck-the-halls thing. Peace and goodwill. December, for all the holiday-shopping craziness, always seems like a “soft” month to me: mittens and scarves, hugs, warm hot chocolate, snow… Back in the day, (i.e. the Dark Ages) we used to have snow all winter. I could make snowmen in December. The nights got dark early. It was cold, and we all cuddled up in our down jackets that made us look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man or the Micheline Man. Remember the plastic bread bags we put over our socks before putting on our boots to go out in the snow—which ensured you’d end up with frostbite from all the sweating your feet did in them. That scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphy can barely walk for all the “huddled up”-ness cracks me up. That was the December of my childhood and I loved i...

No wizard. No ruby red slippers. No yellow brick road. No Wicked Witch of the West. Well, there could have been the latter. Except this Emerald City was Bellevue, Washington and an annual writer’s conference that was put on last weekend. I was up there to hook up with friends such as the awesome Yasmine Galenorn and Maura Andersen and meet other writers. I also gave a workshop titled ‘My Bunny Slippers Ate My Homework – How To Create Memorable Creatures’. What can I say? Fluff and Puff insisted I do it. I sat in on fun workshops, connected with old friends, made new ones and drank lots of coffee. Tullys Coffee in the hotel lobby could do peppermint mochas, so I was there as often as an overly caffeinated person could be. And a fun bookfair open to the public. They had three of my books and I had a lot of people asking for 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover. I enjoy talking to readers, because I tend to pick up new authors to read from them and it’s fun to hear what they like about my books and ...