Just returned from NYC and the Novelists, Inc. conference--great fun to meet Devyn and Sasha and see Susan Lyons and other Aphrodisiacs there! This is the one con I never miss because we're all multi-pubbed and we don't allow promo activities--a way more laid-back way to enjoy hanging with your writer friends and to meet a lot of industry professionals, knowing some clueless newbie won't do the shove-the-manuscript-under-the-stall-door trick when one of our editor guests uses the restroom!

Best part for me this year? Had one of those STELLAR chats with my agent, about a new series idea we'd briefly discussed a few months ago, and he was REVVED, and thought we needed to talk it up to the (Dorchester) editor I was about to join for lunch. So I hung up, walked over to meet her, and meanwhile my agent called her to "whip her into a frenzy," as he put it (he doesn't write erotica, but he could!  ; ) So when Alicia arrived, she was already excited and by the time we were finishing dessert (I had chocolate mousse to die for) we had talked about many, many aspects she loves about this timely concept, and she wants it, like, NOW!

Which means I was chatting with my agent at 11:30, lunching with my editor at 12:30, and by 1:30 she was all over it. I have NEVER had such an incredible experience! So now I'm putting proposal stuff, synopses, series overview, etc. into writing and I plan to start on the first

I'm also prepping and packing for RT. Leaving very, very early on Sunday a.m. the 13th to fly into Pittsburgh in time to do dinner with the wannabe writers who take those pre-con classes Judi McCoy and Bobbi Smith teach. So yeah, I'm prepping some notes and handouts, and my postcard/bookmarks just arrived--ONLY WITH A COWBOY looks so good, not?!--and I have other stuff to complete as Novelists, Inc. Secretary (on the Board, they call me Miss Minutes...scary, scary concept if you're also an erotic novelist! )

So who-all's going to RT from this Aphrodisia clan? Hope to see lots of you at the Thursday night Kensington Kocktail bash! And see you before that, too! I'm going to hole up and write for awhile each day, but I'll be around--as both Melissa MacNeal and as Charlotte Hubbard. I'm supposed to have books by both of me at the Book Fair on Saturday, which makes for quite a mixed display! Nothing like a little schizophrenia to keep things lively.

For those of you going to RT, or to RWA National later on, what's the best part of these large  cons for you? Do you feel you get enough bang for all the bucks we shell out to attend?

Meanwhile, I wish all of you a wonderful experience like I had in NYC--and I look forward to our new Aphrodisia website! And I look forward to having all these spring conferences behind me so I can just WRITE, for cryin' out loud!

Melissa MacNeal