The first day – Tuesday
This isn’t really officially the first day, but it’s the day people start arriving and getting stuff organized. I checked out of my Hollywood hotel today and came over to the Westin Bonaventure. An impressive hotel with an awful lot of concrete. The lobby area is nicely designed, but there’s too much gray, too much solid concrete.
I met with people, chatted with people, had a good time. My roomie arrived, but since my roomie is Desiree Holt, she started getting inspiration and writing almost immediately. She’s a powerhouse, that woman.
And tonight – tonight Decadent Publishing took us to the Viper Room. They have a series featuring one of the bands who play there. Run, Devil, Run. Honestly? They were great. I mean nice and tight and they had that drive that rock bands need. And a lot of hair.
Interesting to visit the Viper Room, and I had several drinkies and enjoyed the band even more.
The second day – Wednesday
I started by doing an interview for Gosh! TV. I followed Heather Graham and was before Sylvia Day, so I’m the English person in between those two. I enjoyed it, though I’m not used to these things, so I don’t know how well I did.
And all that without caffeine.
After that, the day followed its usual hectic course. I knew the places where I definitely had to be and the ones where I wanted to be, so I did them. I am not a directions person. I have no sense of direction and I can get lost in my own house if I’m not paying attention, so a hotel as vast as the Westin Bonaventure is somewhat of a challenge. It has four towers, so you have to be sure to get the right elevators if you want to reach your room, and the rooms are mostly San something – Bernadino, Barbara, although I haven’t come across a San Quentin yet. So I get seriously lost.
My “must” for today was the Ellora’s Cave ball at night. It was good. The theme was Bollywood, so we’ve all had a lot of fun getting into our costumes and choosing them, with the ton and a half of jewelry that accompanies saris, salwars and lenghas.
Instead of the usual hunk dance, we had a Bollywood dance troupe who were very entertaining and talented. The dancing was fun, and the troupe stayed to lead the dancers for the first part of the evening.
I went to bed far too late and completely knackered, but so happy to be with friends again.
Thursday – the third day
Today I had a few musts. I put them on my phone with reminders because, well, I need to. With several active publishers, one of the challenges is to go to all the publisher events and still try to fit in a few classes and trips to the club room, which has a wonderful collection of jewelry dealers this year. I haven’t yet succumbed, though I have some pieces marked out as mine. I went to the Ellora’s Cave brunch (a private brunch for EC writers, where we get the State of the Union and discussions about where we’re going in the year to come), the Samhain steampunk party and the Carina cocktail party. Oh yes, I received an offer from Carina that I’m more than thrilled about. It’s lovely to be able to work with Angela James again, and Malle Valik is great. I got to meet her today.
Unfortunately, for most of the day I had a crippling migraine and I had to lie down for most of the afternoon while the pain meds took effect. But I recovered enough to attend the fairy ball tonight. It was another fun party and went very well, with the theme of Venetian Masquerade. I wore my new Monsoon silk gown and had the pleasure of the company of two readers at our table, as well as my roomie and insatiable writer Desiree Holt, together with Allie Standifer and Samantha Cayto. We rocked the place.
A little social time in the bar and I went back to my room, relieved that the migraine had dissipated and happy with a good day productively spent. Although I am getting a bit itchy now from the lack of writing time. I think many of the writers feel this way at about this time in the conference, and Desiree actually got some work done.
But I still can’t get online. So I’m hoping to find a Starbucks tomorrow so I can send you this report. The only thing that sucks about this hotel is the Internet. Hella expensive and half the time it doesn’t work.
