RedHotRomance

Good Lord, what a week! I left home on Thursday morning—drove from Geyserville to San Francisco with stops in San Rafael and SF at Borders stores to sign my books, (which is so absolutely fun to do!) Went first to Mountain View where I met up with author Mardi Ballou and we drove to a book signing in Santa Clara (went to the wrong store first...so dorky, but ran into one of my readers who was just as lost as we were, trying to find the signing!) then we finally found the right store and signed books to a great crowd with other authors Karin Tabke, Rae Monet, and Cricket Star until after eight. My thanks to a terrific Borders manager, Ellen Higuchi, for arranging such a fun evening. Got dinner with the others, back to Mardi’s at eleven or so and sat up until after midnight drinking "two buck chuck" and gabbing. (Thank you, Mardi...I slept wonderfully!) I woke up at seven, out the door by seven thirty, drove through rain to Stockton (two hours) and spent the day with my 84 year old mother-- took her to lunch, went to the Borders store and signed more books, took a cold shower because the hot water wasn't working, got up Sunday morning at seven, drove south to Turlock to visit my 90 year old aunt and then attend my 90 year old mother in law’s birthday party, then followed husband in his truck (with daughter and granddaughter keeping him company) back to Geyserville, through pouring rain and dark. Took three and a half hours for what usually takes 2 hours and 45 minutes...a totally white knuckle trip and one I don't care to repeat. Stopped for Mexican take out with daughter and her husband (son in law graciously bought the dinner and had it for us at their house) and then drove the 12 miles on to our house where I met up with dh and crawled into bed...I’m still toast, but damn, I signed a lot of books and had a ball at the signing! Went over 500 miles and I'm not through yet...leaving in a bit for San Francisco to go see the very last performance of the Ann Rice/Elton John musical Lestat before it heads for Broadway. Then I think I need to get my butt back in front the computer and write...

Now, if this looks like an "if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium" weekend, you're right. It was. But I got to spend time with Karin Tabke, Rae Monet, Cricket Star, Mardi Ballou and Jasmine Haynes (who wasn't signing but showed up to offer lots of support!) met readers who have actually READ my books and enjoyed them, and talked to a lot of romance fans. I went to half a dozen bookstores and found terrific employees willing to hunt for all the copies of my books they could find so that I could sign them, and that was a hoot! Writing is such a solitary life--just us and our imaginary characters, that getting out to interact with real people is often like a constant shot of adrenaline. This was definitely a worthwhile trip!