Romanticon: Saturday

Saturday started with a delicious leisurely buffet breakfast around the indoor swimming pool. When I say leisurely, I mean it. I was there from 8:00 am to 9:30 am chatting, signing programs for various people and asking authors to sign my program. This was one of the neat ideas the EC organizers came up with. There were several pages with authors and models' names followed by a couple of lines for each author to write a friendly word and sign it. A great keepsake of the Romanticon and a nice way to remember our fellow authors.

I am posing here with my editor Helen Woodall who came all the way from Australia.

Around noon we attended the Author Mania. Readers brought their own books and asked the authors to sign them. Betty Hanawa and I brought our bears to show them around. My bear is dressed like a Russian general, General Sergei, the hero of TO LOVE A HERO. It was given to me by my friends at Writers at Play when I signed my first contract. Betty's bear wore glasses and played on his guitar.

Editor Helen Wodall invited her froggies to an Australian lunch of vegemite served on bread and butter. We had Tim-Tam for dessert.

Helen and Tracie, an author from Down Under, sang the Aussie national anthem at the end of the lunch and Helen distributed little gifts, kaola bears and others. Thank you, Helen, for a lovely time.

Did I mention that our videos trailers were playing non-stop in a dark room called Voyer for the occasion? I sat there for a few hours watching many trailers. A big round of applause to my friend Fran Lee who created several of these trailers including the one for my FRENCH PERIL. Before dinner many of us gathered at the bar to chat, drink or munch on snacks and salad.

During each event, Ellora's Cave models pulled raffle tickets for baskets and incredible gifts, and personally delivered them with a smile and a kiss. Those guys were awsome, handsome, fun, and so helpful. Too bad we were not allowed to take one home.

Saturday night's big event was the appreciation dinner. You should have seen the pretty outfits displayed there. Joysann was sitting at my table and took a picture of our group that you can see on Publishers Weekly with her own report.

After a delicious dinner, EC publisher Raelene Gorlinski handed a star trophee-Rising Star-to new authors who published their first books in 2009 and to authors -Super Star-who thrived in a special field. (example Best Matchmaker in a book) ... Later, the authors recognized the fantastic staff of Ellora's Cave with special gifts. Here is Betty Hanawa showing her Rising Star.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat...and introduce you to yummy hunks.