T-shirts, karaoke, and RITAs, oh my!

I'm back from the Romance Writers of America National Conference, and boy am I dragging! My voice is hoarse from all the yelling and singing and loud bar-talking, but I am elated. I had a fabulous time, hanging out with some of my dearest friends in the world--and making many new ones.

I never did get a good pic of me in the t-shirt, but I do have one of my daughter before she went off to camp, wearing one, so I'll post that. Got lots of compliments on the shirts--I actually had four different ones that I wore throughout the conference; all the same design, but printed on a tank top, baby doll Ts, and also on a cap-jersey-sleeved shirt. (Official members of my street team--or, as I call it, my SWAT Team, each get to pick which style they want...)

It was so great to see my Wet Noodle Posse sisters! We only get to hang out once a year, and this was the best so far (despite the fact that many of us were missing). To the right here is a pic of us singing karaoke at Gilbert's in Atlanta--they were so friendly and accommodating to us and our large party. We're singing Addicted to Love in this pic (that's me in my Venator tank top, Esri, Anne Mallory, Stef Feagan, Pris, and Mary Fechter), and decided that should be our theme song. After all, we are romance writers.

(By the way, it's not that I can sing--any of the Noodlers will tell you that--I just like to get up and pretend I can. And they let me! More than once!)

My new friend Keirin belted out some great songs, too, and also Stacy, who sang The Angry Woman Song (Alanis Morrisette's You Oughta Know), and we ate and drank and were merry.
On Saturday night, the Noodlers cleaned up on the RITA awards, winning in every category we finaled in except for one. This is me and Stef Feagan, who writes hilarious romantic suspense novels about Pink, a CPA who ends up getting herself involved up to her neck in murder and mayhem--and sexy guys.

Stef won the RITA (which is an Oscar in the romance writers' world) for her first book Show Her the Money. She won Best First Book and I, who happened to be sitting directly behind Nora Roberts during the ceremony, screamed in her ear, at the top of my lungs, when Stef's title was announced. You see, it was because of Stef and this particular book that the Noodlers came to be called The Wet Noodle Posse, so when she won, we all felt like we'd won too.

Diane Perkins (writing as Diane Gaston) also won a RITA for The Reputable Rake (yum), and Dianna Love Snell won for her first book Worth Every Risk. I am so happy and proud of my Noodly sisters!

Okay, so now that I've spilled on some of the conference stuff...let's move on to something we were debating about one night at the bar. I'd been reading a gossip column (did I mention I'm addicted?) and the columnist was talking about who women dress for--other women or for men.

In other words, if you're dressing to go somewhere special--or even not so special--who are you more concerned with dressing for, men or women? Do you pay attention to style, accessories, etc., in order to get women to stop and look and say--"Damn, she looks great!" or would you rather attract the attention of the men? (I think that's more like dressing to show off your body, as opposed to putting yourself together well.)

One person mentioned that she dressed for women--and if her husband ever gave her a compliment on what she was wearing, she'd turn right back around and change, 'cause she knows he's a regular guy and has no idea what looks good and what doesn't.

Hmmm. Maybe that ought to be my rule of thumb too.

T-shirts, karaoke, and RITAs, oh my!

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