Hey ladies!
This weekend I was a panelist at
Romancing The Rockies, my first romance writers conference. Years ago I heard an essay on
This American Life where the reporter Robin Epstein also attended a romance writers conference. Expecting a legion of fluffy-headed writers obsessed with the cliched: girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy again and live happily ever after story line, Robin instead found a community of dedicated, supportive and serious writers.
I owe my modest publishing success to Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, half of whose members are romance writers. So I wasn't surprised by the reception I got at Romancing the Rockies.
I had the privilege of meeting outstanding and prolific writers such as the keynote speaker
Susan Wiggs.
I also met the interpid sci-fi author
Linnea Sinclair, who when she gets wound up, lets loose with her
joisy goil accent. Don't let her elegant looks fool you, she can kick your ass!
Linnea says,
ENGAGE...your brain and start writing!
Turn to your left. A line up of the usual suspects. Second from the left and looking guilty as hell, is our own Jeanne Stein.
As one the four men guests at the conference I was raffled off. Expecting a night of debauched entertainment at the hands of an erotic writer (for research purposes) I was able to fulfill her dirtiest fantasies...by cleaning the gutters of her roof.