**Day 2**
Thursday started off as all mornings should — over breakfast with friends. 
I spent the morning with Alison Kent and HelenKay Dimon chatting about anything and everything. Then we stopped by the goody room (to check out the neat promo items and hot covers) on the way to the PAN keynote panel given by the romance buyers of Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Levy Group. It was lovely to hear that historical romance sales are healthy and also to hear Susan Grimshaw (romance buyer for Borders) mention me by name in the PAN panel as an author whose books sell very well. Kate Duffy later told me that the Levy buyers also mentioned me, which makes me very happy. Authors are often in the dark about their sales, so confirmation from booksellers is a great thing.
Then we went to the luncheon and I sat at a table with Shelley, Alison, HelenKay, Alyssa, Jenny Gardiner (American Title 3 winner), Jax, Kimberly Dean, and some others. I’m sorry I can’t remember. I suck. I really wanted to hear Lisa Kleypas speak, but a check of my email by phone revealed that the dress company didn’t have my RITA dress in the color I wanted. They were waiting on confirmation from me that they could send another color. I tried to email back on my phone, but it bounced. Because it was Thursday, the dress had to go out THAT day or else it wouldn’t get to me by Friday. I ran up to my room to use my laptop and by the time I came back to the luncheon Lisa was wrapping up her speech. 
Then I met up with Tor editor Heather Osborn for drinks. We’ve known each other for a couple years now and I had a great time chatting with her at the top of the revolving Dome tower.
Then the Avon Red party came up and I switched parties. I had a quick drink with the Avon Red authors and editors May Chen, Erika Tsang, Lucia Macro, and a couple others that escape me now.
Then Kate Duffy came up with a couple Brava authors for our Brava Authors gathering. Soon the rest of the Brava authors joined us and the Avon Red party left. All-in-all, I spent 5 hours or so in the Dome lounge.
There are lots of people I chatted with here and there like Rose Hilliard, editor at St. Martins (she and I run into each other at some point during every conference, which is a good thing since I like her lots), Roberta Brown, agent (she’s so sweet. I always enjoy talking with her.), P.J. Mellor (a fun, great lady), Linda Thomas-Sundstom (Brava author and friend), Jaci and Charlie Burton (a great team and just great people all-around), Erin McCarthy (love her)…
There’s more and I’ll list more author names (and add links) in the morning. It’s 11:30 pm here and I’m tired, so I’m going to get ready for bed. I’ll finish this post and recap the rest of the week tomorrow.
Hi Sylvia! I was wondering where you disappeared to during the luncheon! Glad the dress worked out in the end–you’re brave to trust it would. I saw you from a distance and you looked FABULOUS! Well, I should have tagged along with you more in Dallas because clearly you know where all the best parties are LOL. It was great seeing you–and now we’re going to have a dry spell with no fun conferences to run into each other! In the meantime, just got the anthology you’re in so look forward to starting that tonight!
Stacy — I caught just the tale end about the armadillo, but wish I would have heard it all.
brownone — I’m so glad you enjoyed Justin’s story! That made my day. Thank you.
HelenKay — I always love hanging out with you.
We really, really should do it more.
It was fabulous having so much time with you to chat and catch up. You’d never know we only live about an hour apart…
Wow…that sounds like a tiring week. Sorry you missed Lisa’s speech! I am sure you get alot of sales, I know BAM out here knows what I am looking for when I walk into the store! Oh…and Perfect Kisses was Awesome! I loved the bit with the black pepper..poor justin!
Sounds like a blast. So sorry you missed Lisa’s speech - she’s one of my all-time favorite authors, and I heard it was wonderful.