Venice Beach wasn’t as crazy as we’d expected, but I think that was due to the fact our tour guide dropped us off around 4 pm. for a two-hour jaunt. Being as it was relatively early in the day, there were families on the beach. It wasn’t until nearly rendezvous time that we saw a few more colorful characters appear.

First order of business was to cross paths quite deliberately with a friendly body builder who interrupted his workout to talk with our little gaggle of romance writers and pose. Salvadore didn’t even have to be there to tell us to check him out. LOL!

There were numerous “pharmacies” present but we were alerted that some smokes might be more pungent than others.

Day two for me was Wednesday, which meant registration at the RWA 2012 conference and a huge book signing for literacy to attend. Since I now buy mostly e-books for my Kindle reading enjoyment, I didn’t buy many books, but I did take photos for some of my friends who were signing so they’d have them for their blogs as well. Who, you say?

Terry Spear, USA Today Bestselling Author, and one of the nicest ladies you could ever hope to meet. We’ve been friends and critique partners in a small, private group for years.

It was also great to see Susan Carlisle and Debbie Kaufman signing their debut books. Always supportive, Susan also handed out copies of my excerpt booklets for Bittersweet Obsessions. Gotta love that!

Cat Schield was signing her popular Harlequin Desire novels.

Another special thrill was meeting in person Aussie author,  and all-around lovely person, Fiona Lowe. Susan and I clapped and hooted like crazy women at the Saturday awards event when it was announced that she won a Rita for Boomerang Bride.

But that wasn’t the only time we went wild with happiness over a win. I’ll have more about the conference events and Awards ceremony in another post.