Jayne Drops a Few Names from RWA

I'm back from the annual Romance Writers of America conference in Dallas -- the only Quill to go, I might add -- and I'm here to tell you that our favorite genre is alive and kicking! The convention was the usual mad energy rush, a whirlwind of greeting friends, editors, agents, booksellers, etc. etc. whom I see only once a year.

I took four pairs of truly fab shoes this year, but, as usual, my feet gave out the first day. By Day Two I was back in flip-flops. Tragic. Not that they weren't cute flip-flops, still, the four pairs of shoes I packed were far cuter. (Note to self: Next year take sensible shoes. Oh, sure, like that's gonna happen).

First a little name-dropping. Had various meals with various Names: Kristin Hannah, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jill Marie Landis, Cathie Linz and my brilliant web goddess, Cissy Hartley, founder and proprietor of www.writerspace.com. (Not all at once, I should make clear). Tea with Christina Dodd and Teresa Medeiros, among others. Also saw Nora Roberts in the ladies restroom!

The annual Literacy Signing was a crush, as usual. Four hundred authors and tons of people buying books and getting them signed and all for a terrific cause. Super long lines for the paranormal authors such as the terrific Sherrilynn Kenyon and, of course, for the incomparable Nora Roberts.



Got a jolt when my very first editor, Vivien Stephens (who bought my first book, Gentle Pirate for Dell Ecstasy -- anybody remember that line?) showed up at the Berkley signing. It was a little like running into your first grade teacher. Let's just say I sat up very straight in my chair. For those who aren't aware of their romance genre history, you owe more than you will ever know to Vivien Stephens. With the Dell Ecstasy line she pretty much single-handedly defined the modern contemporary American romance novel, buying so many first books by so many names that you know today, including moi.

There was a lot of talk at the conference about how historicals are poised for a come back. The feeling is that it is a hungry market that has been starved for too long because so many writers have gone off into the paranormal and contemporary romantic-suspense worlds. The recent death of Kathleen Woodiwiss prompted a lot of these conversations Over and over again I heard people say that she was the writer who got them started reading historical romance.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips and I gave our annual workshop "Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood" (otherwise known as the Susan & Jayne show) in which we pretty much tell aspiring authors to forget all the rules they've heard in the other workshops. Those of you who know this workshop will remember that Susan always starts things off by reminding folks that no two authors take the same road to success. Then (because she can't help herself) she always points out that SOME AUTHORS (that would be her) win lots of awards for their writing while OTHER AUTHORS (that would be me) never win any awards. But this year I was ready for her. I doctored my bio which the moderator read at the beginning of the session. Suffice it to say, SEP never saw it coming.....

Everyone agreed that book trailers are hot-hot-hot but several people felt that there are so many trailers running now that they have lost their impact. I heard the same observations about blogs. Everyone was looking for the next new thing to bring books and readers together on the Internet. If you've got any ideas, by all means, please share them!

All in all, it was a great conference, as usual. It reinforced my idea that ours is the best genre, the most innovative, the most creative of all. I wouldn't want to write anything else.

Sincerely,
Jayne