Running With Quills: The Romance Community Unites!

Welcome to Running With Quills, your online newsletter designed to keep you up to date with what your favorite authors (that would be us) are doing throughout the year. Here you will find the release dates of our new books and get information about our backlists. We'll preview our cover art here long before the books hit the stores and we'll keep you informed about works-in-progress and special projects. You'll also receive advance notice of signings and appearances. From time to time we'll give you a peek at our worlds, tell you what we're reading, and introduce you to some new authors.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Romance Community Unites!

What a whirlwind it's been, planning, executing, and enjoying the 4th annual READER AND AUTHOR GET TOGETHER.
I tell you, I finish each weekend with an enormous smile on my face, and a sense of well being.

This really isn't my and Dianne's event.

It's EVERYONE'S event.

Dianne and I couldn't do it without the help of so many people.

So anyway...

Right before the event, I ran downtown to do a photo shoot for our local paper called PAGE TURNERS. (Did a mention of books by Jayne, Dianne, and Kresley Cole. Yummy stuff!)
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20080610/LIFE02/806100402/1035/LIFE

Then I drove to the airport to pick up my good friend Shana, flying in from CA for the event. Shana and I hooked up after she read one of my first mma fighter/romance books, and since she's a big mma fan too... well, the rest is history! (The black T-shirt I'm wearing at the event was a gift from Shana. It has Bas Rutten on it! Whoo hoo!)

THEN we went to Joseph-Beth booksellers to see Tito Ortiz, there to sign copies of his book. Tito is a well-known UFC fighter, for you non-UFC fans.
That's Shana on the left (She and Tito are both from Huntington Beach, CA) and see me with Tito on the right.
He's saying, "Wow! It's Lori Foster!"
(Not! He was just clowning around.)

Shana and I got our pictures taken, bought two books (we put one in a special raffle basket for the Get Together) and got Tito to sign a magazine, too. He was really nice!

Friday morning I met Ashley and her mom, who drove a GAZILLION hours (or so it seemed) to come to the event. Ashley is super nice, as is her mom. Author Kelley Nyrae, also known to me through my message board, had quite the odysee to get there, but I'm so glad she made it! That's a photo of LeeAnn that Kelley is holding, to help LeeAnn feel that she made it to the event. LOL

At 11:00, we joined other attendees to start stuffing goody bags, donated by Samhain publishers.

While we were stuffing, the bookseller, Linda Keller from BN, rallied troops to help set out the GAZILLION books that'd be for sale starting on Saturday. (We had over 100 authors signing, so yeah, there were a LOT of books!)

I looked around, and it made my heart feel SO good to see so many people just pitching in, working hard, doing what needed to be done to make this thing happen.
That's why I say it's not my and Dianne's event.

At 4:00, registration started, and lemme tell you, the line was endless! Dianne and I hadn't anticipated SO much growth! We nearly doubled in size, and weren't quite as prepared as we should have been.

Our poor registration volunteers, Cheryl and Christy, were worked to the bone!

Make a note: TWO registration tables for the 2009 event! (Yes, I've been making notes since the second my last guest was on an airplane home!)

We had an incredible line-up of special guests this year, including, from left to right, Michelle Buonfiglio from Lifetime.com; Sheila Clover from Circle of Seven Promotions; Barbara Vey from the PW blog; Borders buyer Sue Grimshaw; Berkley editor Cindy Hwang; Jennifer Schober from the Spencerhill Agency; Agent Laura Bradford; and Samhain publisher Crissy Brashear.

We also had an incredible line-up of smaller press publishers like Red Rose, Wild Rose, Liquid Silver and Resplendence Publishing.

And we had an enormous amount of authors! Over 100 in fact, ranging from big sellers to those who'd just made their first sale. (That's most of us trying to crowd in close so we'll all fit in the photo. LOL. It was a pretty tight fit! A few of the more shy authors are missing, along with some who had ventured off when we made the call for the photo.)

Some of the authors from our new benefit anthology, THE POWER OF LOVE, were on hand for a group photo. Back row is: LuAnn McLane, Patricia Sargeant, J.C. Wilder, Lucy Monroe, and Kay Stockham.
Front row is Toni Blake, Lori Foster, Dianne Castell and Janice Maynard.
Not pictured, but also in the anthology: Erin McCarthy, Rosemary Laurey, Karen Kelley.
(All author and agent proceeds from this book will benefit the Hamilton Co. YWCA Battered Women's Shelter.)

And we also took a photo of the available authors for the next benefit anthology, out June 09, LOVE TAILS. From left to right: Ann Christopher, Donna Macmeans, Marcia James, Dianne Castell, Patricia Sargeant, and Lori Foster.
Not shown, but also in the anthology are authors Stella Cameron, Sarah McCarty, Sue-Ellen Welfonder, and Kate Angell.
(All author and agent proceeds from this book will benefit my local no-kill animal shelter, the Animal Adoption Foundation, or AAF.)

Best of all, through our raffles of donated baskets and outright donations, we made a lot of money for a lot of worthwhile causes!

$526 in cash, plus a lot of valuable donations to be mailed off, for our TROOP PROJECT, spearheaded by fabulous volunteer Laurie Damron!

$1064 in cash, plus a lot of needed supplies for the Animal Adoption Foundation. I'll drop that check off soon, and then share a photo of the AAF.

$5452.50 for The Conductive School of Learning, a special learning facility for children with spina bifida and cerebral palsy. A portion of the bookfair proceeds, around $900, is added to our raffle amount to get that total. BN will mail the check directly to the school.

And of course, we sold a LOT of copies of The Power of Love, so there'll be pleny of proceeds joining the advance already sent to the Women's Shelter.

Already we've had some great people committed to a return visit next year. Spencerhill Agency (the one I'm with) is going to send an agent, my editor Cindy Hwang would like to return, Borders buyer Sue Grimshaw and Michelle Buonfiglio from Lifetime.com said to count them in!
Our event in 09 will be June 5th - 7th, so mark it on your calendars now!

This weekend, I have a big Father's Day party planned, and I'm looking forward to it. My Dad is 85 now, and still very young at heart!

Oh yeah, did I tell you that my dad and stepmom dropped in to see me at the event!?

And I took my sister with me. That's her with my hubby, chatting up Sheila Clover from COS while the rest of the nearly 300 peeps were out hitting the lunch buffet. She's the sister that I told you about, the one who had been in the bad car accident. I made Monica a shirt that says, "CAR CRASH!" so folks could identify her - but in truth, even with her bruises, she and I look a lot alike so most figured out pretty quickly that she was my sister.
She's had her eye surgery and now just has to recover from all the breaks and bruises.

So... what did YOU do this weekend!?

If you attended the event, what was your favorite part and how many books did you buy?

If you won a basket, tell us about it!

If you didn't attend, what kind of basket would YOU like to win?

Do you have plans for Father's Day? (Yeah, I'm combining topics here because I wanted to tell you about the event, but I'm also hoping that everyone will have a wonderful Dad's Day!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

46 Comments:

Tee said...: Lori I could never pick a favorite time for it was all fun. It was great to see those from years past and meet many new. I cannot wait until next year!; 4:56 AM
Anonymous said...: What did I do this past weekend? I had a ton of fun! Hung out with my friend Lori in Ohio. Hung out with fabulous authors and friends. I just relaxed and had a blast.

I couldn't buy all that many books because I didnt know how many I could fit into my suitcase. I ended up buying 3 "The Power of Love" books, 1 Toni Blake, 1 Lucy Monroe,and 3 other books I can't remember off the top of my head.

I don't have 1 favorite part because the whole weekend was so much fun. I did win a basket. I got the one I wanted! Yahoo. It had the new L.L Foster Servant book in it. I devoured that sucker on the plane ride home...it was PHENOMENAL!

Wait, I do have kind of a favorite part..mostly just hanging out with my girls Ashley, Kelley and Lori's sister Monica was super cool!

I don't have many plans for fathers day. My dad is super busy so I'll just call him and we will go out to dinner at another time. I will be bowling and then see either The Happening or The Hulk. I think they both open tonight.

Shana; 5:03 AM
braible said...: Great Post!!!!!
I stayed home this weekend and read all the posts about how much fun you guys were having!! Oh yeah, I did landry, not much fun. Went to Busch Gardens for the afternoon, THAT was fun!! Going out to dinner for Father's Day. Dad's 87. I'm going to try to get there next year, in the meantime, I have POL with signatures compliments of the lovely and wonderful TEE!!!! And I think the best basket would be one with a little something from a bunch of different authors. That way you get lots of variety. And I'm gonna win one of Kate Douglas' wolves eventually. I swear to it!!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful event and thanks so much to you and Dianne and all the helpers who make it happen!!!
Hugs all
Becky; 5:05 AM
DianneCastell said...: Hi, Lori.
We sure had a blast. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to make the get-together a success. It truly is OUR event, we couldn't do it without everyone's help. My fav part is meeting new friends and visiting with old ones. Can't wait for next year.
Dianne; 5:07 AM
mcrowley41 said...: Lori: The event was - as it has been the last years - wonderful. It might be everyone's but you, Dianne, Lady B and countless others put in plenty of work! Thanks. And Sunday is my Dad's b-day as well as fathers day - so lots of cake here!

Margaret; 5:07 AM
Stacy~ said...: This was my 4th year and I just loved it. I didn't buy as many books as I thought I would, but that just meant I could buy more raffle tickets :)

The baskets were fabulous again this year. I always make one myself, and hope the person who won it enjoyed the book (Black Jewels trilogy) and the Bath & Body products and Fannie May chocolate. I was lucky enough to win Ann Christopher's basket, with 3 signed books and a gorgeous sterling silver bracelet. I can't wait to read her books.

Best moments? Wow, too many, but highlights:

- meeting Lucy Monroe in person! LOVE her.
- chatting with Toni Blake because she's so sweet and fun to talk to

- chatting with your sister Monica and your dh Allen, who both know how to make people feel comfortable and part of the group.

- having dinner with the girls (Laurie, JudyF, LisaF, Niny, MichelleB, BarbS, Carolyn, Chris S, Jennifer A) and Michelle Buonfiglio & Susanna Carr at Max & Erma's then going over to B&N and helping a fellow reader spend her gift card.

And those were just some of them.

This weekend I'm heading down into the city for the annual Chicago Serve-athon, where companies paint and help improve under-privileged schools in the city. Usually it falls on the same weekend as your event, but this year it didn't. It's a great project, and I'm glad to be a part of it. I'll send Dad some lottery tickets for his day.; 5:17 AM
Lisa F. said...: I loved the get together this year! Yes it was super busy and kind of hard to find the authors because of the record number attending. Maybe next year they could all be lined up like the authors who were selling their books separately from the BN bookfair?

I won a great basket that Pat Rouse had put together - lots of books and EC stuff, and one thing in there that I can't figure out what it is!

I bought all the books at the bookfair that I had planned on purchasing (about 10 I think), and picked up 12 more at the book trade. My suitcase was stuffed coming home, but luckily didn't go over the weight limit the airline imposes.

It's hard to say what my fav part was, but it was especially nice to hang out with online friends and talk about our families as well as what books we have or plan to read. Romance book lovers are such a great group of people!; 5:47 AM
Lori Foster said...: Shana, after putting in some power writing (LOL) I'm going to see THE HULK with family. Can't wait! It looks fab.

Lisa, next year we're going to (I think) put a scarf on all the authors! I like the idea of RED! The authors can wear one in their hair, around their necks, like a bandana, or a belt. Or shoot, they can tie one around their knee for all I care! I just think it'll help to distinguish the authors from everyone else, and make it easier to find them.

Those who liked the baskets, well, already we have a ton of other people volunteering them. THe Marriott - our hotel - is donating THREE! She promises they'll be really cool.

Lady B, Christy and her mom Cheryl, are our hardest working volunteers. They definitely put labor intensive time!
Kathy, our photographer, does a lot too. Then we have all the other people who pitched in a gazillion different ways.

And I can't forget the publishers who donated books, and Samhain who donated those awesome goody bags!

Wow, too many people to thank.
Hugs to all!

Lori; 6:23 AM
realllybadbarb said...: I had a blast as usual. The used book trade we had was a huge hit as well. At first I had all the books in the closet (it seemed appropriate :))and at first didn't seem that much but we ended up with 8 tables of used books.
I really think my favorite times were the ones just sitting around and talking to people. I think Monica looked great and I really loved Lori's dad and stepmom.
I didn't win a basket, but I am hoping to end my losing streak next year.
Cindy and I did get a chance to talk a little about Spamalot, which we both saw with Clay Aiken in it.
I ended up buying 5 books, which wasn't bad, but then we went to BN Saturday night and found 5 more that I wanted to getso I am heading to borders today.
Barb; 6:24 AM
Marcia James said...: This was my fourth year, and the event keeps getting better! My favorite part is networking and meeting new authors and readers. I love putting faces to the names I see online, and I like making baskets for the raffle. ;-) I bought 16 books this year and participated in the used book swap. I'm glad I drove my SUV down so there was room for my stuff, as well as my two passengers' things. ;-) I can't wait until next year! And I'm thrilled to be part of the 2009 charity anthology, TAILS OF LOVE!
-- Marcia James ;-); 6:26 AM
Joni said...: My plans for Dad's Day include celebrating hubby's and my 24th anniversary at my MIL's house in PA, since it was spent driving all day after the Ohio get-together and had only enough time upon arriving at home to unpack, a quick kiss to my main squeeze and son and then crash for the night. We'll also be celebrating my MIL's 74th birthday which fell on June 12 and the rest of what's left of the weekend will spent relaxing and reading to, from MIL's house and at home before the start of another work week on Monday! I had yet another Fantastic time at the Ohio Get-together. My favorite part was the games played Friday evening while eating pizza and drinking soda! Thanks once again for including me on the Instant Friends committee and eating the four dozen Krispy Kreme donuts I am honored to provide for this particular occasion! :-)

Joni; 6:47 AM
Anonymous said...: As being one of the original from the beginning I can testify that the get together just gets better.
This is my weekend of the year. It the only time that I do not have anybody to think about but me (and of course my kindred friends who love books as much as I do). I love that we have such a good time and in doing so raise lots of money for great causes.

Lori - the bookjunkes and I decide next I'm going to make the book throngs again using dog and cat beads for the focus bead. So I already looks for the beads.

Thanks again for starting the gathering. It has a life if its on.

Carolyn; 7:11 AM
Anonymous said...: Fantastic blog Lori!! I have been reading anything and everything about the event! And everyone is in agreement**the best event to attend** So I am keeping all body parts crossed in hopes of going next year! We have to meet!! (did that sound stalkerish **hope not**) LOL Really I am just a Big Fan Girl!! I did get a wonderful email from Pat Rouse who won one of my baskets! I like to think I attended in spirit!! LOL
big hugs
***Tara***; 7:41 AM
Genevieve said...: Thanks Lori, and everyone else, for sharing all the photos and other tidbits about the weekend. Some day, in the fullness of time, I'll make it to one of these.
--Geneviève; 7:51 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: Looks like an all around fabulous event, Lori. Congratulations! And thanks, again, for the mention of my book in the newspaper interview. Thanks to you, I can now say that I've been "featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer"!; 10:01 AM
Lori Foster said...: Barb, we couldn't do it without you! Thanks for handing the book trade again this year.

Marcia, you ALWAYS end up as a time-keeper for us, don't you? LOL And yeah, the baskets are always muy appreciated.

Joni, those sugared-up donuts gave me just the boost I needed!
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the games this year. How fun!

Lori; 10:35 AM
Lori Foster said...: Carolyn! What a fabulous idea for the book thongs!
For anyone who doesn't know, Carolyn made a LOT of book thongs and slipped them into copies of THE POWER OF LOVE so buyers got not only a book, but a beautiful book thong too!

Hugs,

Lori; 10:36 AM
Lori Foster said...: Tara, are you THE Tara who donated that truly beautiful jewelry!? I saw a lot of women coveting those prizes! LOL

Gen, it'd be awesome if you attended some year. I'll look foward to it!

Jayne, I was asked which awesome books I'd read lately - and you were it! LOL

Hugs to all,

Lori; 10:38 AM
Marcia James said...: Lori -- This year I was timing two sets of pitch sessions at a time, but since they didn't start simultaneously, I had my watch on one arm and Dianne's watch on the other. ;-D I like chatting up the pitchees and trying to help them be less nervous.

Next year, I'll be first in line to get TAILS OF LOVE books with those cool book thongs in them!
-- Marcia James ;-); 10:40 AM
Stella said...: Obviously the event was a huge success--but I wouldn't expect anything less.

Congratulations!

Stella; 11:10 AM
susan andersen said...: Lori, sounds like the event turned out FABULOUS!!! My weekend was quiet, which I very much enjoyed. Got caught up on a lot of stuff that had been piling up.; 11:59 AM
braible said...: Carolyn,
I found dog and cat beads on ebay. LOTS of them!!
:)
Becky; 1:28 PM
Lori of Canada said...: I didn't attend but am so hoping to be able to next year. SOOOO hoping. I think I will be able to swing it... ;)

I would have loved to win the one Shana did with the new Servant book. So jealous she has read it. :)

What did I do on the weekend? I think I marked most of it. The en dof the school year is fast approaching and so much to do in such a little amount of time. My plans for this weekend are similar. But, I am two weeks away from summer vacation so that is always a good thing

Lori M.; 2:39 PM
Judy F said...: Hey Lori, I had a great time last weekend. It was great hanging out with old and new friends. Got lots of hugs, that really made my day.

I guess a highlight for me was meeting Lucy Monroe after talking to her for years it was a joy to met her. She is a total sweetie.

Yes I won about 4 baskets. Still can't figure out how with only one ticked in each dog bag and 8 in the cat bag I won a dog basket. LOL I won a southwestern one, one with smelly stuff and one with homemade candles. I try to send some of the stuff in the baskets to people that can't attend.

Lisa and I had talked about a parade of authors or something to identify them. I never did see Cait London and I know she was there.LOL

All in all it was an awesome weekend.

No real plans for fathers day. Its my turn to sit with dad tomorrow so that will be my time with him.; 3:51 PM
byrdloves2read said...: I had a great time for the 3rd year in a row. A group of us meet on Thursday (a day early) because it's the only time we get to see each other each year.

Highlight of the weekend was probably meeting Liana Laverentz. She had asked me to review her book Thin Ice and I loved it. It was a real challenge to find her; I looked everywhere many times. In the end I ran into her by chance and if I remember, she recognized my name. heh

I haven't won a basket YET, but I put a bunch of tickets in all the ones with a lot of books. As it was, I came prepared to take home bunches of books. So on my return, my suitcase was filled with books, lots and lots of books. Had to put my clothes in a tote bag.

Oh, BTW, loved the tote bag from Samhain - it's super for shopping.

Thank you Lori and Dianne and all the volunteers. I'm looking forward to next year!; 5:00 PM
Anne said...: Hi Lori,

I wasn't able to make it to the get together this year as my son graduated that weekend, but I heard it was fabulous! I plan to be there next year. It's my yearly get away with my gal pals. :-); 5:58 PM
Magdalena Scott said...: Lori, Thank you so much for posting pictures. I missed being in the group shot since we were setting up our tables for the signing. *sigh* I'm having ReadersAndAuthorsEvent Withdrawal. This was my first time to attend, and I absolutely loved it!

Fave parts--(1) Spent a lot of time with my Resplendence Publishing family. (2) Met so many other interesting people. What a diverse group romance readers and writers are! And so incredibly friendly! (3)Barbara Vey's blogs about the event; I was even in one of her posts. Wow!

Baskets--I was fortunate enough to win two baskets: (1) A beautiful teal basket-purse filled with bath and body stuff, and MYTHS AND SHADOWS, donated by Liz Andrews and Lena Matthews. (2) A nice little basket of mysteries by Jeffrey Marks and bottle of men's cologne. I told Jeffrey on Friday that if I won his basket, it would be a Father's Day gift to hubby. No, I'm not really clairvoyant, I don't think. But Father's Day is under control. :)

After I post this, I will probably think of other favorite parts of the event. There simply wasn't anything that fell short of wonderful! Thanks, everyone!; 4:22 AM
Lori Foster said...: Thanks Sister Quills!

Lori M., I sooooo hope you make it to the next one. I know that's a super-long haul for you, but we'd do our best to make it worth your while!

Judy, I'm sorry about your dad. I'm sure having a parent who is sick right now really puts new meaning to Father's Day. You'll be in my thoughts.

byrdloves (It's Linda, isn't it?) you've been there 3 years and haven't won a basket!? Oh, that's just wrong. LOL. But coming in early to spend an extra day is a great idea!

Hope everyone is having a nice Saturday!

Lori; 5:36 AM
Lori Foster said...: Anne, I know we clashed with a lot of graduation stuff this year. 09 is already set for the first weekend in June, but for 2010 we have the 2nd weekend on hold.
Sorry for the conflict!

Magdelana! Next time, just walk away from set up, and return when the photo is taken. :-) We make it super fast and hopefully painless! LOL. And we really like for everyone to get in on it if they're comfortable with that.
Next year, we hope to have all day Saturday, so that should make it easier to fit everything in.

How fun that you won a basket perfect for Father's Day!

Hugs,

Lori; 5:39 AM
Paige Tyler said...: This was our first time at the Get Together, and we had a blast! Can't wait to do it again!

*hugs*
Paige; 6:51 AM
Elizabeth Guest said...: Congratulations on such a successful conference for everyone involved, Lori, including the well-deserving charities. BRAVO!

We started Father's Day weekend by going to a wedding Friday evening. We'd known the bride since she was a little girl and moved next door 20 years ago. That made it a very special occasion.:)
~EG; 6:54 AM
patricia sargeant said...: Oh, Lori! I had so much fun at the Get Together. You and Dianne had a brilliant idea with this event. It's just ... so much fun! LOL! I can't wait until next year.

Huge hugs!

Patricia; 7:06 AM
Anonymous said...: Wow, I had so much fun meeting everyone and becoming friends. I will remember to bring my boss' books for the book exchange cause I cant part with mine.

Hey maybe the authors could wear a different color name badge and their neck chain could be a different color that would make them stand out and they would have to wear them everyday cause its the badge and it would be easy for them that way just a suggestion.

My daughter is in Swan Lake this weekend so Father's day has been pushed back till next week. He will be allowed to golf guilt free all weekend and I am packing a cooler for him.

Cant wait till next year!

U

Yuvonne; 9:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Lori,
I had so much fun! This was mine and Christy's fourth year of doing registration and selling raffle tickets. It was pretty hectic there for awhile. We at least usually get to say hi to everyone at the event. This event is mine and Christy's mother-daughter weekend which makes it extra special. We do get breaks, Tee sees to that. I won a gift bag at the raffle with bath products, foot care kit, snacks, a book, a little angel bear with a box with earrings in it and several other things in it. It was donated by Carys Weldon. I love it and shared the things in it with Christy. We had breakfast with Janice Maynard and several others on Sunday morning, which was lots of fun. Tee's friend Carol taught me to crochet the afghans she and Tee were working on at the event. I have one half done since I got home. I really look forward to next year. Thanks for all you and Diane do.

Cheryl Calhoun aka Christy's Mom; 2:45 PM
Lori Foster said...: Paige, yay! I'm glad you liked it enough to want to come back next year. :-)

EG, how wonderful. I'm sure that was very special!

Patricia, thank you! The Quilt that your friend donates is AMAZING! I wish I'd had a photo of that before I posted my blog. It's truly special.
Thank YOU and thank you to your friend for always going to so much trouble. :-)

Lori; 5:10 AM
Lori Foster said...: Yuvonne, the book trade is always a big hit, I just never have time during the event to get involved with it. LOL
Different colored badges is something we considered, but we're just not sure if it'll stand out bright enough to make it easy to identify an author at a glance. We'll see!
Congrats to your daughter in Swan Lake!

Lori; 5:12 AM
Lori Foster said...: CHERYL!!!
What would we do without you and Christy? We'd be LOST.

Folks, for 4 years now Cheryl and her daughter Christy have run the registration for us. Dianne and I don't even give it a thought. They do everything - setting it up, taking the names, handing out badges, etc...
I'm ashamed to say I didn't even think of breaks! :::smacking myself in the head!::::
THis is why Dianne and I are so grateful to the many volunteers - thank God for volunteer Tee! She's pretty awesome too. :-) I'm glad she had brain enough to see to it that you lovely ladies got a break.

Tell Christy to put "Breaks!" in her notes to me for next year. LOL

Truly, you two are irreplacable. I love you both for all you do to help make this event a success for everyone.

Giant hugs!

Lori; 5:15 AM
Anonymous said...: Dear Lori,
I am so happy to see your sister is recovering nicely. I would have recognized her too since she is just as beautiful as you! Your event looks like it was a stunning success, so congratulations to you and Diane. As for the donations to charities your event amassed-all I can say is WELL DONE.

Lynne Thomas; 6:35 AM
Katherine said...: Congratulations on a successful and rewarding event.
For fathers day, sweetie, myself, 2 dogs and our 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia are off doing the Maryhill Loops Hillclimb down on the Columbia River Gorge in Washington State. As a present I'm not whining about being to old to be car camping.; 10:44 AM
Treethyme said...: It was my first time at this event -- a big thanks to Liz Bevarly for talking it up on the Romance Book Club board at BN.com. That was the first I'd heard of it and I'm from Cincinnati! I had a great time, bought a TON of books written by a lot of the great authors I met, traded a bunch of other books and even won a raffle basket. I had poured waaayyy too many tickets in the "Win a Free MS Critique from St. Martin's Press" basket and didn't win that, but DID win some Lia Sophia jewelry (love that stuff!) and an autographed picture of Fabio (which I gave to a bigger fan of his). I won the pretty blue Lia Sophia set which happened to perfectly go with a top I brought to the event: karma! (Or something...)

Got to visit with several people from my local chapter, talk to Laura Bradford and Jennifer Schober, and went to dinner and Sex in the City with some new friends. We acted like kids -- you should have seen the four of us trying to cram into that photo booth! It was a memorable couple days and I'll definitely be back next year! (Well, barring Acts of God...); 11:26 AM
Lori Foster said...: Lynn! I told my sister what you said and she cracked up. Normally she never leaves the house without her make-up, but right now, she can't put on anything near her surgically repaired eye, and with her ribs and such, a bra is still impossible, so she's only wearing big sloppy clothes.
For you to call her beautiful made her feel good, I'm sure.
So we both thank you!

I looked more frazzled than attractive. One of these years I'm going to go into the event well rested so I'm raring to go. Fingers crossed that 09 shows up with fewer obligations. ;-)

Hugs,

Lori; 5:04 AM
Lori Foster said...: Katherine! How exciting. That sounds fabulous.
We ended up with a lot more family visiting than we expected - which was great! But we almost ran out of food. LOL. We had ages from 85 down to 2. It was fabulous, crowded, loud, and very fun.
But I forgot to take pictures! :::smacking head::: So now I need to visit my dad to see if I can take a few belated photos. LOL

Hugs,

Lori; 5:07 AM
Lori Foster said...: Treethyme, I'm glad you had so much fun that you plan to come back again.
Dianne and I shoot for fun 1st, organization second. LOL.
I really think we hit the mark this year.

Hugs to all!

Lori; 5:08 AM
DFender said...: Lori,
So glad to read that you had fun and, as always, it was a success!

As for Father's Day, the HHP and myself flew down to Florida to visit our daughter for a long weekend while our son spent 10 days in Alaska with my parents. We just got home today and our son comes home tomorrow. It was a wonderful weekend and the HHP had an awesome Father's Day. He says. LOL.

Congratulations on another wonderful event, Lori.

Deb; 5:28 PM
Ranurgis said...: It sure sounds like fun. Maybe I'll make it next year if I can manage to get a ride south, or rent a car, or...; 9:55 PM
Kate Douglas said...: Lori, I can honestly say, without a doubt that was the best conference I've been to in absolute ages! It was so much fun putting readers' faces to the names I've grown familiar with online, and to actually have time to just sit and chat. I even met one of my MySpace friends and she looks exactly like her picture on the site--congratulations to you and Dianne for organizing and hosting such an amazing gathering. And best wishes to your sister, Monica, who is gorgeous in SPITE of the bruises! She's an absolute kick and I'm so glad I got to meet her. Thank you for all the work you guys do to pull this together...and no, I will NOT admit how many books I had to sneak into the RV for the trip home...; 8:10 AM

Previous Posts

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Romance Community Unites!

46 Comments: