CAROL BURNSIDE / ANNIE RAYBURN

RWA12 a blast! Part 2

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Carol Burnside / Annie Rayburn

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.

Posted in Carol Burnside, Entertainment, Everyday blather, Going Places | Tagged bodybuilder, Cat Schield, check it out, conference, Debbie Kaufman, Fiona Lowe, Hollywood, RWA, Susan Carlisle, Terry Spear, tour guide, travel, vacation, Venice Beach | 7 Comments

RWA12 a blast! Part 1

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Carol Burnside / Annie Rayburn

Last week I was in Anaheim, CA for RWA12, the Romance Writer’s of America’s annual national conference and it was a blast! I reconnected with friends, critique partners and fellow writers I only ‘visit’ with online. I also saw, squealed, laughed with and hugged old friends.

After arriving late on Monday, Susan Carlisle, Debbie Kaufman and I took an early morning bus tour of the Los Angeles area with several other writers on Tuesday.

During the tour, we saw Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood sign, LaBrea Tar Pits, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, the Santa Monica pier and Venice Beach. There were numerous other sites along the route, some of which I had to snap a quick pic of through the bus window. Surprisingly, the shots turned out pretty well.

At one of our stops in the music center area, we clowned around in a “very famous” sculpture our tour guide called ‘the dancing doors.’ I smile when I write that because I’d never heard of these very famous doors (which turned out to be one door) and everything along the way was “very famous” to our guide, Salvadore. Most of us found it difficult to follow everything said due to his rather heavy hispanic accent and rapid patter, but two other phrases were uttered repeatedly in his presentation: “the fil-mes of the movie” and “Check it out.” Filming in Hollywood and L.A? What a surprise.

Being captive inside the bus and instructed by Salvadore to do so, we also checked out Sunset Blvd/Sunset Strip, Marina Del Ray, a Beverly Hills park, browsed the area around Union Station and nearby site of the first church in L.A., and enjoyed lunch at the Farmers Market. All “very famous”, of course. 😉 Along the way, we saw places Johnny Depp owned, where John Belushi died, and a famous diner used in many movies.

We didn’t get back to the Anaheim Marriott until 7:30 p.m., and that was just the first day! What followed was registration, a book signing with 100’s of authors, workshops, a massage, pizza and wine with an old friend, and…well, I’ll share those things in the days that follow.