Jeri Smith-Ready

RWA Part One

Splitting this into two (possibly three) parts, so as not to overwhelm any of us.

Tuesday night my magnificent roommate Jana G. Oliver (left):



and I went to the Kiss of Death Annual General Meeting, where I saw my old buds Lisa Tapp (left) and Karen Ender:



These pictures were actually taken Thursday night after the Daphne DuMaurier Awards. Lisa won third place in the unpublished Short Contemporary category, and--drum roll, please--Jana won FIRST in the published Paranormal category. This was one of several awards her wonderful book Sojourn has won. Here are the others:

Golden Quill Award, First Place, Paranormal
PRISM Award, First Place, Time Travel
Booksellers Best, First Place, Paranormal
Independent Book Publishers Award, Gold Medal, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Forward Award, Best Overall
Compton Crook Award, Finalist (scorchingly close second place)
National Readers Choice Award, Finalist

It's just a freaking amazing book, and everyone should buy it.

Wednesday after lunch Lisa and I saw Marjorie M. Liu, Cathy Clamp, and Publishers Weekly blogger Barbara Vey in the bar briefly before heading off to the Booksellers Tea, where I met several booksellers, one of whom had actually heard of me!

David Reamer from Hastings Bookstore in Round Rock, TX, said his girlfriend was a big Eyes of Crow fan, and that all the LUNA books were selling really well in his store. He gave me some great insights on the vendor's side of the business, and soon an ARC of Voice of Crow will land in his mailbox.

At the Tea I also met authors Liz Maverick and Rosemary Clement Moore, who are ridiculously cute, and saw Cathy Clamp again. (For the record, Cathy is everywhere. I'm pretty sure she can bend space and time to manage this. Yet she always looks fresh and well-rested!).

Also met romantic comedy author Kristan Higgins, who has dogs and feet on all her book covers. We bonded over the lamentation of the lack of rom coms in the market these days. The next day she gave me a copy of her first book, Fools Rush In.

I actually spoke with several authors who were writing more humorous material (and selling it!) I'm extremely psyched about this, because there are not enough romantic comedies in the world. What's wrong with the book-buying public? Love is funny!

Wednesday evening was the mass signing to benefit literacy efforts. I sold about 30 out of 50 books, which was pretty good. Everyone who bought a copy of Eyes of Crow or who told me they already owned it received a sneak preview of Voice of Crow. I had a Rita finalist flag next to me on the table, and I was fortunate enough to sit next to the renowned Maria V. Snyder, fellow LUNA author (of the Rita-nommed Magic Study) and dear friend. So we pimped each other's books along with our own. Synergy!

I didn't get a picture of myself at the signing, but I did get to keep my flag:


So imagine me sitting next to it and a pile of books (ones without the upper right corner chewed by cats) in a roomful of amazing authors. To my left is an enormous line for Nora Roberts.

Afterwards I bought my leftover books at 75% off and put them in the Goody Room for giveaway. They were snatched up, possibly by aliens, in about ten minutes.

It was great to meet fans new and old at the signing. I found out from a nice lady from the Colorado Romance Writers that Eyes of Crow tied for First Place in their Award of Excellence contest, then lost in a tiebreaker to Shana Abe's The Dream Thief. Boo. Still, it's nice to know it almost won. Better a close second than a distant fifth.

Wednesday night was the Gathering for the Fantasy, Futuristic, & Paranormal chapter of RWA. By the time I got there after the signing, all the food was gone, and I ate three rolls (with butter!) for dinner. I sat with Jana, Gail Dayton and PC Cast, as well as some sweet ladies from Gail's chapter in Texas--Sherry and her mom Delores, and Katey Coffing, who was a Golden Heart finalist (the biggest award for unpubbed writers) for Best Paranormal.

PC, Gail, and I were the three finalists for the PRISM Award for Best Fantasy. As they read off our names, we all clutched hands, and when Gail's name was announced as the winner, the whole table went nuts. Her LUNA novel, The Barbed Rose, won first place and totally deserved it. PC's Divine by Choice (another awesome one) won second, and little Eyes of Crow brought up the rear at third.

Then PC won the PRISM for Best Light Paranormal Novel for Goddess of the Rose (these are all books I've actually read!). Then Jana won for Best Time Travel with Sojourn, then Sherry and her mom won raffle baskets. Katey got a rock.

Afterwards PC, Jana, and their publicists at Two Sisters Promotions, Sherry and Kristen, took a limo (it was the same price as a cab) with neon-lit ceiling to Avanti's, a local Italian restaurant. Dallas being an extremely vegetarian-unfriendly city, I got a loaf of garlic cheese bread. When it arrived, we all thought it was garlic bread for the table, and everyone ate it. Whimper.

I thought I'd have room to talk about Thursday in this entry, but no. More tomorrow.

A-Z Update: "One Love" by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Labels: appearances, awards, Eyes of Crow, food

• posted by Jeri @ 12:19 PM
• 1 comments