Here I am with Teresa Medeiros, whom I’m guessing I’ve known more than 10 years now though we don’t get the opportunity to talk very often. So it was nice to take the opportunity to catch up.

And here are some of the other fabulous authors in our area. From left: Susan Crandall, Molly Harper, fellow Harlequin American author Laura Bradford, and fellow MCRW member Bente Gallagher.

Hopefully I’ll be invited back next year and feel, oh, a million percent better than I did this time.

Since last I blogged, I’ve turned in some edits on my October book, written and turned in an online read for eHarlequin that will we debut at the end of May (more on that as the day approaches), attended the Southern Kentucky Book Festival in Bowling Green where I got to hang out with Teresa Medeiros, Susan Crandall, Molly Harper, Karen White, Bente Gallagher and fellow Harlequin American author Laura Bradford. It was fun to catch up with Teresa. We’d not had the opportunity to talk in a long time. And Molly and I discovered we’re originally from the same neck of the woods and are both former newspaper reporters in Western Kentucky. Cue “It’s a Small World.” Come back tomorrow for a bit more on this event, including pictures.

And speaking of It’s a Small World, I had a fabulous three days at Walt Disney World in Florida prior to the RWA board meeting. Friends and fellow board members Stephanie Feagan, Terry McLaughlin and Stephanie’s daughter joined me for some quality time in Mouse-land. Here we are outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which has been Johnny Depp-ified since I was there last with the hubby in 2004.

The week after I got back from that trip to Florida, I went back to Ft. Walton Beach for an all-girls family trip. My sister and two nieces had flown in for a visit and we went to pick up my Mom and all headed to Ft. Walton Beach. I admit I was a bit nervous because Mom has some health issues and she’s not been more than an hour away from home since she had a heart attack last year. But she had never seen the ocean, so we rented a van and off we went. Here’s Mom during her first time to ever stand on a beach at the ocean. That’s the condo complex where we stayed in the background.

And here I am with my sister and nieces the night before they flew back home.

Little Niece was quite proud of her temporary tattoo she’d gotten from a machine at the Pizza Hut in my hometown.

* Drove 12 hours from the beach to Kentucky for Christmas
* Took down all the Christmas decorations and shoved them in the attic
* Marked as many things off my to-do list as I could
* Watched Avatar again, this time in 3-D, as well as DVDs of Push (confusing, not as good as I’d hoped) and Knocked Up (okay)

Speaking of movies, I keep a spreadsheet each year of all the movies I see and another of all the books I read. Yes, I’m odd. Anyway, here are my top 5 movies I saw and books I read in 2009:

Movies

Avatar
Star Trek
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Up
Gran Torino

Books

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Graceling by Kristin Cashor
As Shadows Fade by Colleen Gleason
Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward

What were your faves of 2009?

When I returned from my walk, I found hubby chilling and reading on the balcony.

I finished my proofing job and ran it to FedEx, then went to an area Books-a-Million to set up a book signing for March since the book I have coming out then, The Family Man, is the second book I’ve written set in this area. My hope is that since it’ll be spring break all those spring breakers will need a good beach read.

While I was out, I also bought the soundtrack to Avatar. As usual with James Horner’s work, it’s beautiful. I’m listening to it now. Hubby took this shot while I was out and about.

We went to Floyd’s Shrimp House for dinner. We ate there last December and really enjoyed it, so it’s the only place we’ve gone back to for a repeat visit this trip. We played a game of Perquacky, a word game, and have been playing on the Internet since. Hubby is reading the book I got him today as an early Christmas gift, The Art of Avatar.

We went for a walk (hubby for half an hour and me another half hour on top of that), and just chilled around the condo. But, hey, when you’ve got fun paintings like this on the wall, it’s a happy place to hang out.

I even did a little work. See, here’s proof. For all you RWA members out there, I was proofing the February issue of the RWR. Good stuff in there.

Hubby played some guitar, and later in the afternoon we headed to the movie theater in Destin to Avatar. Loved it! We both agreed it’s very re-watchable. I’d love to see it in its 3-D incarnation. Even without it, I enjoyed the story, the acting, the tremendous visual beauty. It made me want to be a blue Na’vi and live on Pandora. If you have not seen it, go.

Photo: 20th Century Fox

I tried to get the soundtrack after dinner, but Barnes & Noble was sold out. May check somewhere else tomorrow if I venture away from the condo for anything other than my walk.

After a casual morning, we hopped in the car again for the rest of the drive to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We made our usual stop at Florala State Park in Florala, Alabama, so we could add to our collection of goofy pictures of the hubby posing with Spanish moss in some fashion. Today it was crazy hair guy.

I posed for a quick picture in front of the park’s Lake Jackson. If I look cold, it’s because I was. The wind was blowing across the lake. Being that close to Florida, I stomped my foot and said, “I demand it be warm!” in my best queenly voice.

We rolled into Fort Walton Beach around 2:45, and I uttered my usual greeting of, “Hello, ocean!” Yes, I’m a dork. But the beach always makes me happy — the relaxed atmosphere, the sound of the waves, the bright colors you can get away with painting your home here. This is me posing on the balcony of the condo where we’re staying. I’m looking forward to one of the warmer days this week so I can sit out there and read a book.

And here was the first sunset of our stay here. Gorgeous, yes?

After appreciating the sunset, we went to Publix and stocked up on some groceries. Then when hubby discovered he had forgotten to bring a cable for his computer, we drove over to Destin and hit Target, Radio Shack and finally Best Buy before we found it. Then we came back and hubby made shrimp scampi, brown rice and mixed veggies for dinner. I love shrimp, so count this as something else that made me happy.

While eating dinner, we watched the Pixar movie, UP. Really good movie, though it made me cry a couple of times.

And now here we sit across the table from each other working on our respective computers. Guess that’s all for tonight. I’ll post again tomorrow.

Today (Monday), I’m blogging at Nobody Writes It Better about my trip along the Tennessee River aboard a paddle-wheel riverboat. There’s even a picture of me at the wheel!

I really like driving through Virginia. It’s very pretty and so full of history — the perfect combination, in my opinion. I didn’t have time to stop to see anything, but someday I want to take a vacation to Virginia and just spend a week or two traveling around the state seeing all the sights I’ve not had the opportunity to visit yet. Plus, Charlottesville is in the mountains and significantly cooler. Good thing in the height of summer.

Saturday morning, I was up early to catch the train a bit after 7 a.m. (6 a.m. at home). I, my nearly over-the-limit luggage, and my pumpkin muffin from Panera headed toward D.C. I spent the time reading L.J. Smith’s The Awakening, the first in the Vampire Diaries series. I’m planning to review it in my August YA News & Reviews column on RomanceNovel.tv. I arrived at Union Station, hauled said luggage out to the taxi stand, and was off to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. After unpacking, I called my good friend Michelle Butler, who is from the area. Michelle is one of my two oldest writing buddies, the other being Beth Pattillo. That’s oldest in that I’ve known them the longest, not that they’re old. Michelle and I had plans to go to dinner to celebrate her finishing her first manuscript

This is Michelle and me, a bit later in the week during the conference:

Michelle arrived bearing a gift. She knows I love Deadliest Catch, so she brought me this awesome T-shirt. Here’s the front…

and here’s the back.

After an afternoon of just catching up, we were off to Filomena’s, a lovely Italian restaurant in Georgetown. We had time to kill before our reservation, so we perused the offerings at Banana Republic. Michelle got a cute top, and I determined to lose weight so I could buy more cute tops. We had a very nice dinner, then walked through Georgetown to the nearest Metro station to catch separate trains back to our final destinations of the evening.

In the meantime, I would love for you all to check out and comment on my latest YA News & Reviews column over at Romance Novel TV. It’s also my blog day at the Wet Noodle Posse, and in keeping with our summery theme of the month I blogged about my memories of going to the drive-in theater in my little hometown.