RWA Orlando, Day 1

I spent most of yesterday travelling, but I made it to Orlando! I got to the Swan and Dolphin after RWA registration had closed for the day, so I’ll have to hit registration in the morning before I head out to Epcot. As you can see from the photo, the Swan and Dolphin is a massive resort. And everywhere I turn, it’s filled with book people. From the time I got into the airport and found myself on a shuttle full of RWA-goers, I have been having fun getting settled and meeting some wonderful romance people.

Since so many of us here at the hotel are in for the conference, people will start striking up conversations in line at the hotel desk, ticket desk, etc.. And in the lobby, it seems like you can’t walk through there without hearing snippets of book chat. “Did you hear? Our goodie bags have copies of the new Meredith Duran and the Meg Cabot hardcover!, “Omigosh! I was heading up to my room and I was on the elevator with Christina Dodd!” And so on…

After I got in, I had a chance to go to dinner with a wonderful group of authors on the boardwalk. Nothing formal or official, just a really nice, relaxing meal. It was wonderful just to kick back and talk about books with a really fun, smart group of romance writers and romance lovers. Listening to the authors talk about work made me respect all over again the time and focus they put into their craft. I love reading and analyzing stories, but creating the unforgettable characters and plots takes a whole different skill set and a lot of hard work.

After dinner, off to the hotel bar to hang out with more people and more yakking about books. I got to meet some of the bloggers (and few authors!) whom I read constantly, so it was a thrill to get to talk about books in person. My favorite thing about today was simply the number of times I would hear someone say, “I remember reading this book by author x and I just loved…” and then someone else would pipe in with their love of that book and a list of other books to try. The seemingly nonstop reliving of favorite book moments ever was just so much fun, and it’s something I don’t get to do offline very often.

What’s up tomorrow? I’m going to play in Epcot in the morning, and Blythe and Sandy will be arriving in the afternoon. Then the conference starts in earnest with the almost overwhelmingly huge literacy signing in the evening. Once things get underway, we’ll all be tweeting from @allaboutromance and I’m sure I’ll be tweeting from @LynnAAR, too.

-Lynn Spencer