I was put off, honestly, by not just the content, which I admit is a matter of subjective preference, but also by what I felt was an infantilizing of romance readers by the language used. But again, we all have our prickly issues.

Glad to hear you are keeping your spirits up. And speaking of spirits, I completely blame you for the $80 I just spent on the BIG bottle of Hendrick’s!

Oh, drugged, blindfolded and dragged you to the packy* did I? Hmmm…. Enjoy!

*New England speak for “package store”, ie liquor store.

Glad to hear you are keeping your spirits up. And speaking of spirits, I completely blame you for the $80 I just spent on the BIG bottle of Hendrick’s!

@Sherry Thomas: “Vegas for introverts” sounds fantastic! If I still have a job, I will be at the RWA this year.

@Victoria Janssen: Me too. But I am kidding about the gin. I don’t plan to touch a drop of alcohol, having to keep up my image as the most soberly pedantic, least fun person in Romland.

How much gin should we buy you?

I just don’t understand why no one is putting on my kind of conference: lots of quiet reading time, small chats in hushed tones, delicious meals, and very expensive gin.

I wouldn’t know expensive gin from engine coolant, but I’m fairly anti-social myself, as are, frankly, the majority of the writing community. But putting thousands of us together and somehow we transform into a very drunk, very loud, very ribald assembly incapable of such things as quiet reading time or small chats in hushed tones.

Food will be bad, people will be in a party mood, and you’ll have to shout at some point during the entire conference. But meaningful discussions still go down. I’m pretty sure last year Dr. Sarah F. and Meredith Duran had a soul-shattering tete-a-tete. I, however, was too busy screaming and laughing about anatomically incorrect sex scenes.

RWA is Vegas for us, come to think of it.

Then another year, when I was still in grad school, I brought homework to the conference, and was assiduously reading through a textbook on corporate taxation each afternoon. So really, you structure your time as you choose.

And from my perspective, I do think RWA is the right conference for you.

I don’t think I’ll be attending any conferences this year. As much as I’d like to attend RWA I don’t think it’ll be possible. Someday…

it’s great that the organizers did not defer to traditional norms of beauty

LOL! Feeling good enough for wisecracks, I see.

I wish I could attend more conferences. Oiled models, ugh, but a lot of the other stuff sounds fun.

I really can’t swing more than one conference, unless one of said conferences is…well…more local. So this year it’s RWA only – and that’s because I’ll be working. I spend 40% of the conference wearing my Blogger Hat and the other 60% wearing my Librarian Hat.

2011 looks like the year I’ll finally be making it to RT. They’re hitting L.A. – although why they haven’t done Vegas yet is beyond me. That seems like a match made in heaven. I know quite a few people going to RT this year though, and expect a full report!

@Victoria Janssen: @KristieJ: My plan is to go to RWA, provided I am gainfully employed. I was looking again at RomCon, thinking it was cheaper, but it really isn’t when I add in the extra airfare to get to Colorado versus staying on the Eastern seaboard. So crossing my fingers I’ll see you (and Azteclady) there!

@Lynne Connolly: I am sure I do have a skewed perspective of RT. Unfortunately, I am teaching at that time, so no traveling except for business.

@katiebabs: I hope to see you at RWA as well, if you can swing it!

@Sherry Thomas: I just don’t understand why no one is putting on my kind of conference: lots of quiet reading time, small chats in hushed tones, delicious meals, and very expensive gin.