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Saturday Sisters
August 19, 2007

What a thrill I had on Saturday morning.  The Wisconsin chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) asked me to be guest speaker at their monthly meeting.    Now I haven't had the opportunity to speak in front of a group since college where I once wore Mickey Mouse ears and an Minnie T-shirt to get my point across.  Fortunately (for everyone), this time I went all natural.  (Although I was tempted to bring posters of male cover models for the audience to look at in case they started getting bored)

I talked about being a readaholic and my obsession with books.  We took a journey through my school days and first face to face meetings with real live authors (really, I'm not a stalker!).  The author cruises (come on Levy, have another one) and conventions (where's the free bookroom??).  And I finished up with my adventures in blogland.  There was a lot of laughter and yes, I'm pretty sure it was with me, not at me.  No one fell asleep and no one yawned, so I'll take it as a good sign.

My favorite part though, was listening to these amazing women speak.  They went around the room, introduced themselves, and told where they were in their writing journey.  And what a diverse group it was.  

Yulia Izbersky talked about her trip to the Czech Republic and showed off her new book, Preconceived Notions.  She took her family to the book store to see her books on the shelf and her father moved them to a more prominent area.  Yulia told him he couldn't do that, but I say, as a parent, let him do it.  For a few minutes he could do something special to show how proud he was of his daughter.

Liz Kreger let everyone know about Write Attitude, a motivational place for writers.  Liz's book Forget About Tomorrow is currently available in e-book form and coming soon as a paperback.  Edie Ramer asked me to guest blog for Magical Muses a site who's tag line is "Five writers who believe no story is complete wtihout a little magic."

Pam Ford author of The Sister Switch was lamenting the fact that a lot of publishers won't even look at romantic comedy.  This surprised me because I've read quite of bit of this genre and have enjoyed it along with many other fans.  

I haven't heard the word dictaphone in years, but it turns out that Sandra Turriff found one and now uses it to plot her books.  Vicky Hinshaw brought in 2 of her books that just got a Portuguese printing.  It has to be exciting to see your passion translated to a different language.  Shari Anton said there is no release date yet on the third book of her trilogy, Sunset Magic.  (Come on people...I read the first two...don't keep me waiting!!)

The moderator of this group, Jody Allen, is currently taking a class translating old Scottish text from a society that had no punctuation and didn't believe in spelling a word the same way twice (I wonder if this is how historians will look at our society's internet speak and text messaging).  Jody will be travelling to Scotland and surrounding areas for a month and I hope I get asked back for the travelog.

Bottom line:  Upcoming classified ad:  Speaker for hire.  Will work for food (key lime pie, yum)
                                                                                                              
















Bottom:  Liz Kreger, Brenda Nelson-Davis, Liz Lincoln, Yulia Izbersky Top:  Beth Watson, Anne Parent, Jody Allen, Maureen Welli







     
    









L-R:  Shari Anton, Pam Ford, Edie Ramer, Sandra Turriff, Vicky Hinshaw, Constance Pirtle                    
                                                                                  



















L-R:  Lindsay Haedt, Ilona Fridl, Marilyn Auer, Karen Miller

Posted by Barbara Vey on August 19, 2007 | Comments (15)