Well, to begin, I'm posting from the island of Oahu in Hawaii, specifically my son's home in Kaneohe where I've been watching my adorable almost two year old granddaughter, Ella. Mommy is away for a week, which means Dabba (me!) has both her thirty year old son and Ella to feed and spoil and play with. I'd planned to write when Ella went down for a nap, but I quickly discovered that chasing a toddler is exhausting work (proof that motherhood is truly for the young!) and I've been napping along with Ella.
Today, though, I "worked." Well, sort of...there is a wonderful romance expert at the local Borders book store, here in Kaneohe. Kellie Chang is absolutely amazing, and she's gone above and beyond the call of duty! It's obvious she loves the romance genre and she is a font of information about the various authors and titles. I'm convinced that if every bookstore had a Kellie clone, we'd all enjoy our shopping experience a whole lot more. For the second time, now when I've been to the island, Kellie has organized a little gathering with many of the romance readers she's gotten to know at her store. Today there were thirteen of us at the local IHOP, munching away and gabbing about books and having a wonderful time.
That's us in the photo--Kellie is third from the left, back row, standing beside her parents. That's me on the far right, back row. Work? I guess so, if you can call spending over two hours with a fascinating group of women who love the same books and authors I do, work. Yes, it was a great chance to promote my books, but it was even more fun just being surrounded by readers who love the same stories. We ended up with a quick trip to the bookstore where I managed to add to my TBR pile, and it was really hard to leave, knowing it will be months before I see them again.
This is one of the things I love most about a career as an author--the interaction with readers. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities to sit and visit and get to know people who read my books and those who don't, but who love to read romance just the same. My thanks to Kellie for organizing such a special time for all of us today.
And totally off topic--I just read Vonna Harper's blog--what a thrill, to finally be sharing an anthology with a talented author who has been a friend of mine for so many years. Ain't it great, kiddo?
