Bread Worship and Party-Crashing: a pictorial journey of the conference

As promised (or threatened?) here's a cavalcade of photos from the conference, all courtesy of the marvelous Michelle Rowen.  Shall we begin?

This is me, Liza Palmer, Megan Crane and Susan Crandall camped out at the hotel's Atrium Express, home of the famous Yogurt Parfait (you can see mine melting in a cup on the table there. I ate about a dozen of them while I was there.) From all the paper on the table, you might think we were working. Actually, moments before, I think we were discussing euphemisms for male genitalia. For a romance author, this is tantamount to working. I love the look on Liza's face. Like she's never seen a camera before, and is purely astonished to have one pointed at her.

Here's moi at the Warner signing, poised for the crowd waiting outside, my entire published body of work  in front of me. This photo is noteworthy in that my hair actually looks tidy.

Here's me, Michelle Rowen, Warner 5 Spot Publicist Ellie Weisenberg, and Karen Rose at the Warner dinner at Morton's of Chicago. As you can see, I'm already buckling with laughter, and we are clearly primed to misbehave. It only got worse from there. Next, we'll be worshipping the bread.

  What did I tell you? Bread worship. Well, it was either worship, or we were trying to establish communication with it. I can't recall precisely now. Anyway, the bread at the dinner was glossy and bright orange and big and round, like a brain. A brain on Star Trek, that is. This is Megan Crane and Liza Palmer consulting the bread. I don't know whose fingers those are. They don't quite look like mine, but I did have a pale pink manicure, so I wouldn't rule it out.

More Warner dinner photos, and as you can see, we did manage to tear into the bread, its brainlike appearance notwithstanding. From top left, we have Emily Hixon from Levy Home Entertainment (we love her), Megan Crane, Liza Palmer, and me cheek-to-cheek with Ellie Weisenberg.

Me and Megan Crane outside of Morton's of Chicago, right before we all headed to the Harlequin party, to which we were all invited via engraved invitations. (Ahem.)

At the Ritz, at the piano, at the Harlequin party. That's Toni Blake and Stephanie Rowe in the back, and me and Robin Popp in the front. We took requests from customers all night and jammed into the wee hours of the—well, no, we didn't, but  wouldn't that have made a good story? I like how you can see our reflections in the piano.

I'll add more photos later, if I get some fun ones!

Comments

[Haven Rich]

Julie, it looks like you had a wonderful time. I so wish I could have been there for even a small part of that. It stinks having to stay at home with no one to talk with. But I did enjoy chatting with Isabel as we awaited the posts to start on who won at the awards.

Just wait til next year *insert evil laugh here*.

[Ranurgis]

Well, you all look as if you're definitely having fun.

Funny, I've also got a thing about reflections. I once took a picture of a French castle reflected in the water around it. There's only one difference where you can see which is reflection and which substance. At one point the water flows out and you can see the distortion of the roof.

[Ranurgis]

Uh, thanks for the fog offer. However, that's what we get at night: at about 70 we have 100% humidity. It's not so much the heat itself but the humidity which is driving us crazy. The actual temperature hasn't been much above 90 but with the humidity and little or no breeze we've had feel-like of 115.

Everything in my apartment feels clammy and I've taken to sleeping on a bath-towel and using another as a cover if needed. The things you resort to to feel a little bit drier and not so sticky! Showers just make the humidity higher and since I have no fan, and the bathroom door doesn't close completely, I hate to bring in any more water in any form.

[Nicole]

Oh, I love all the pictures. It's always fun to put faces to names. I'm so jealous, I'd love to meet all these authors.

[Julie Anne Long]

Haven, I really hope you and Isabel can make it to the next conference—it's in Dallas! You'll have a blast. And Nicole, you must go, too! It's kind of astonishing to see all of your favorite authors just *wandering* around. I get starry-eyed and shy, too, when I see, say, Susan Elizabeth Phillips in line at the cafe. Pretty wild.

Ranurgis—Good lord!! Re your humidity. LOL. Yeah, I can see how you wouldn't be interested in more moisture, per se. :) But fog is at least cool. It's sunny here today, however. We'll see how long that lasts! It's been a really peculiarly warm summer for us. Well, for just about everybody, seems like.

[Fendi Handbags outlet]

Oh, I love all the pictures