Rita goes travelling!!

As an ambassador of RWA across the land (and because I TOTALLY have to show her to my family in PA and Ohio!!)

Rita in a hotel in Maryland:

The Norwegian basketball team goes GLAM . . .

Me on Rita night with the always-lovely Kathy Caskie and Sophia Nash:

I'm in total shock!!!

I won a RITA!!!! Best romantic novella of 2005!!! Here I am in my totally freaked-out, thrilled mode:

With my darling friend Dianna Love Snell, holding HER RITA!!








With my good luck roomie Barb:




With my brilliant editor and amazing agent!!

Friday night party!!

Here's Lani and me at the RITA reception!!



We had a terrific time hanging out at the bar . . . um, big surprise, huh?



And here I am with my lovely agent, Steve, and my friend Nicole Burnham.



Barb tried her best to keep me in line, really.

Marvelous Day!!

So today was the signing and it was amazing!! The terrific crew from the Suz weekend all showed up and gave me a standing ovation when they were standing in line at the booksigning!! All through the booksigning, everybody kept asking me about it - I LOVED it!! Virginia and I were so touched by the wonderful kindness.

And, drum roll please, today WAS BARB'S FIRST BOOKSIGNING - EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here she is in all her Caridad glory:

The view and day one

This is the modern art outside of our window:



I'm just back from a lovely massage, which helped a LOT with the neck tension and stress of yet another night of NOT sleeping in a hotel, and off to have lunch with Barb and Michelle. Be sure to check out Literary Chicks for a weeklong conference update!!

Why I love Colorado!!

I checked email before the dinner party, and was so happy I did!! Here is my wonderful news:

Nice Girls Finish First is a finalist in the Romantic Elements category of the Aspen Gold Reader's Contest!!

I loved Kirby so much I wanted so much to write her book and how much I adored Brianna was a happy bonus, so it's really amazing to receive this recognition for their book! Thank you so much to all of the judges of the Aspen Gold contest!

Suz Brockmann's wild and crazy reader weekend!!

I am having the most AMAZING time!!! We're all here in Atlanta to celebrate readers - specifically, the incredibly talented Suzanne Brockmann has put together a weekend filled with more than a hundred of people who love books and love authors and couldn't possibly be more welcoming to guest authors Cathy Mann, Virginia Kantra, and me.

So far we've had a full day of fun and excitement and lunches and emergency runs to Starbucks (thank you, Aly, you are a goddess) and I wanted to post some pics:

Navy SEAL Tom Rancich telling how he came to be SEAL as the result of a practical joke . . .


Me telling how life as a military spouse is not always fun and games . . .


Our lovely hostess Suzanne Brockmann


Rob and Cathy Mann explaining wedded bliss in the Air Force!

dentists and packing and stress, oh my!

Check out my fun blog on dentists over at Literary Chicks if you have time!!

I'm packing for Suz Brockmann's reader weekend in Atlanta, where I'll be a special guest author with Cathy Mann and Virginia Kantra. It should be a total blast!

Then it's a quick hotel switch and on to RWA National for the annual conference, seeing friends I haven't seen in forever, and the RITA ceremony, where I get to cheer for my friends and wear my rocking new dress to applaud the winner in my category. :)

Be sure to check out our blog at Literary Chicks next week for pictures and fun news from the conference!!

A fun new blog

Found a fun new blog and it mentions SEVEN WAYS on its beach reads picks! Go here for The Daily Stroll.

Deep in the book, getting ready for Atlanta, life is crazed. Check out Literary Chicks for Hot Topics on the Emmy nominations if you get a chance.

Things that annoy me:

Online services that are SOOO easy to sign up for - just a click of a button!!! But when you want to cancel, you can only do it by calling the 800 number during the hours of midnight to 3 a.m. on alternate Tuesdays when the moon is full. Then you sit on hold and listen to crap music for 87 hours.

Companies that advertise special prices that are really only applicable after the mail=in rebate. But when you mail in the rebate, you invariably get a letter back 6-8 weeks later saying that you're not eligible because you "did not include XX" which you know damn well you did include. All a very obvious ripoff, and you know they're sending everyone that same damn letter.

Not that I'm on deadline and cranky, or anything.

Independence day!!

And a brand-new blog about seven ways to lose your lover over at the Literary chicks.

Happy 4th, everyone!! And a big THANK YOU to all of our military families.
hugs,
Alesia