On Thursday evening Kensington held their cocktail party and it was a lot of fun getting to meet other Kensington authors.

Here I am with three of them.  Left to right:  Marilyn Brant, Mingmei Yip and Kate Douglas.

Marilyn's debut, According to Jane, was released last October.  She was a finalist for the Bookseller award at RWA last Wednesday and SHE WON!  Way to go, Marilyn!  Huge congrats!  And her second novel, Friday Mornings at Nine, will be released October 1.

Mingmei's debut with Kensington, Peach Blossom Pavilion, was released June 2008 and her latest, Petals From the Sky, was released this past March.

Award-winning author, Kate Douglas, writes the Wolf Tale series, in addition to many others.

So it was a lot of fun to be able to chat with everyone, see old friends and make new ones.

My first RWA conference was in 2007 and it was held in Dallas.  My friend and now personal assistant, Alice, had gone with me and we met Dawn Kunda, from the Milwaukee area.  Here we are, three years later and Dawn and I have stayed in touch, (she was also at RWA last year in DC) gotten to know each other even better and become very good friends.  Dawn also received the great news this past April that she now has a contract with Bookstrand and her debut romantic suspense, Court of Lies, will be released this October.  It was SO much fun hanging out with her during the conference again this year.  It was non-stop talking and laughing and then it was difficult to say goodbye when I left on Saturday.  But, we'll see each other again next year when RWA is in New York City and we'll continue to stay in touch until then.

Here I am with Dawn (on my right) and author Beverly Barton from Alabama.  Beverly is also another fellow Kensington author.

Actually, I only discovered Beverly's books when I attended RT in Columbus this past April.  She writes romantic suspense and I'm just about finished reading the first book of her trilogy, Silent Killer.  I can't put it down!  It's SUPER!  And I also have the second one, Dead Before Midnight.  So if you like romantic suspense, I can highly recommend Beverly's books!  I admit it........I'm a wimp!  I don't like anything too scary.  I don't like gruesome violence or anything too graphic with the murders.  And Beverly's books are perfect for me.  A compelling plot that keeps me turning the pages, a sexy romance, and characters that I feel I know personally.  So I've found myself a new author to read.  And she's SO sweet!  Has that great Southern accent and is SO friendly.  I'm really glad I got to meet her in person.

On Friday evening, Dawn and I had dinner at one of the restaurants in the Swan Hotel and of course, it being Disney, we had a visitor..............a really cute meercat.  Here's Dawn with the character.........

And me..............

It was a great conference and always worthwhile to attend.  I learned a lot, met many great authors, new readers and came away with a wealth of information on both the craft of writing and the very tricky publishing industry.

So now I play catch-up with emails and a million other things!  But tomorrow I'm taking a break.  My son, Brian, is coming to visit with his girlfriend, Veronique.  She flew over from Paris last Monday and I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with them.  They'll just be with us overnight, but it'll be great to see them because I always enjoy their company.

And next week, I'll be leaving for the Florida Mystery Conference in Sarasota.  I'll be doing a book signing, Friday evening, August 13 at the conference.  All the details will be posted on my fan page at Facebook and I hope if you're in the area, you'll stop by to say hello.

And I'll see you here next time on Island Writer................