Today was the Heart of Dixie Readers’ Luncheon in Huntsville, Alabama. I was attending for the first time, and as a guest author. I’m sure I was grinning like an idiot the entire time. I’ll admit to being a bit nervous. After all, I was low on the author totem pole since I don’t have a book out yet. I had visions of no one sitting with me or being forced to sit at the “loser table” when the big authors’ tables filled up. I didn’t have anything to really give the ladies sitting at my table other than my new bookmarks. I was lamenting this last night, when my faboo roomie for the event, author Janice Lynn, mentioned that some authors in the past had bought the people at their table raffle tickets for the big baskets of books that are raffled off. Great idea!

Well, like most things I worried about, I shouldn’t have. A lovely lady named Susan came up and said she had been looking for me because she wanted to sit at my table. Color me shocked! And thankful. We started talking about my books and where we were from, and then something amazing happened. More people sat at my table! I ended up with the most wonderful group of ladies, and we had a great time talking. That’s them below. Susan is on the far right. (Sorry I can’t get the picture to post any bigger. It’s being contrary.)

Lady Luck seemed to be with our table too. Of the eight people at the table, five won raffle baskets. Three of them won two baskets each, including the biggest basket donated by the published authors of the Heart of Dixie chapter of Romance Writers of America. Dorothy, Susan’s mother-in-law, won the huge basket of goodies. And here’s the funny part. Even though she’d bought several raffle tickets, the one I’d given her was the winner of the big basket. How cool is that!? Here’s Dorothy looking very happy with her large, very cool basket.

The keynote speaker today was Roxanne St. Claire, who was just lovely and entertaining. She was so popular that she ran out of books at the book signing. Here I am with Roxanne. We evidently got the subliminal memo to wear black and white, as did many of the other attendees.

The authors in attendance also gave away special baskets. Again, since I didn’t have any books yet, I put together a basket from my Romance Bandits gals. Here is the lovely Ann Linker, who won the basket. See, she got the black-and-white memo too.

I got to meet the wonderful Pamela Bolton-Holifield (who comments as “doglady” on the Romance Bandits, Wet Noodle Posse and many other blogs). She was sporting her shiny new gold heart bin for being a Golden Heart finalist. Here’s Pam with me and then with my roomie Janice. Pam comments frequently on the Writers at Play blog, where Janice is a member.

Finally, here I am with fellow RWA board member and shoe shopper extraordinaire Linda Howard. (I think she got the memo too.)

Thanks to the ladies of Heart of Dixie. I had a wonderful time and hope I can come back next year. Hint, hint. And I’ll even have books to sign by then!

Hallelujah, I have Internet service again! Cable dudes spent about an hour and a half, sometimes working in the rain, to fix something on the utility pole across the street and then running some newer line to my computer. Happy to say I’ve not had any interruption in service since. Hopefully the trend will continue.

I’m blogging over at the Wet Noodle Posse today, a writing-related post on how bickering is not conflict in a novel. I also ask some questions of readers at the end, so pop by and comment if you have the chance. Thanks.

I’m blogging today on two of the group blogs of which I’m a part. Over at Title Magic, I’m talking about how I pretty much ignore negative reviews, whether they be for books or movies. And at the Wet Noodle Posse blog, I’ve posted about using TV and movies as inspiration for your own writing.

The Random Number Generator has done it’s work for the week, and the winner of this week’s books is Rebekah Elrod. Congratulations, Rebekah! Just e-mail your mailing address through the Contact page on this site, and I’ll get your books out to you.

The books in the giveaway for this upcoming week are:

Cover of Night by Linda Howard
Behind the Mask by Metsy Hingle
Silent Warning by Kathleen Long

My Wet Noodle Posse pal Jill Monroe and her good friend, fellow author Gena Showalter, are known far and wide for their funny antics. This new “interview” Jill does with Gena just showcases it for the world to see. I had a good laugh at this, but at the same time it’s a fun way to get the word out about their books.

On the topic of author self-promotion, I had a funny dream this morning just before I woke up. I dreamed my husband bought me a PT Cruiser that had belonged to hugely successful romance author Nora Roberts. It was part of a promotional campaign, something like “Buy Nora Roberts’ Car”, and when I got in the car it was full of promo materials for Nora’s books — bookmarks, flyers, even a book signed to me and congratulating me on getting the car. Strange, huh? This might have been the combination of my current car recently hitting 250,000 miles and seeing some of Nora’s comments on a blog yesterday. Weird how the mind processes info while we’re asleep.

What are some of the best and most unusual methods of book self-promotion you’ve seen?

On the writing front, I’ve written 81 pages so far this week and that’s without writing on Tuesday, when I had a million other things to do. The goal is to finish the first draft of this book by the end of January.