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Report from the Romance Writers of America Conference 2009, by Deidre Knight

Tue, 07/21/2009

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Well, I'm back from my thirteenth Romance Writers of America national convention, and what a fine year it was! As always, I participated in meetings with many of The Knight Agency's clients (my job when not writing about the Spartans), and I also signed my recent NAL "Gods of Midnight" novels, Red Fire and Red Kiss during the Wednesday night literacy signing. One fun fact: every year when I sign at RWA, I am seated next to Berkley author Angela Knight, who is as lovely as she is talented. It was fun getting to catch up with her while we signed. Angela also told me about a terrific Indian restaurant down the street, which proves at RWA it's good to pool your resources.

From my first few moments at the conference, I noticed a distinct difference over previous years: the huge impact of Twitter. Many a new online friend introduced themselves to me over the course of the five days, and I will say there's such a cool sense of camaraderie to personally meeting someone from your online life. I had to laugh when I checked my twitter account and a friend said, "That red necklace looks great on you." It was one of those "the phone call is coming from inside the house!" moments, only without the horror flick element!

Another big change at this year's RWA came with the announcement that e-published authors will now be allowed to enter the RITAs, a revolutionary move for small press and digitally published members of RWA. Because, if you're not familiar with the RITA, let me tell you...every romance author has shower and drive-time fantasies of winning that golden statuette. Ask any romance author, if we're being honest, we'll own up to those imaginary acceptance speeches! There's a good reason we all covet the RITA, by the way, which is that RITA-winning books are recognized for their high quality and excellence. We were thrilled that our agency had several nominees this year, including Gena Showalter, Nalini Singh, Rosemary Clement-Moore, and Chris Green.

From the start of RWA to the time RITA and Golden Heart night arrives on Saturday, there's a tremendous buzz and energy humming throughout the convention. Most attendees are exhausted by Saturday, after days of panels and schmoozing (I know that day I was taking a quick break in Georgetown with my fellow agents Elaine Spencer and Pamela Harty.) Everyone is expectant and primping in an effort to look as tiara-worthy as possible. I'm definitely looking forward to trying some new authors who were among the winners this year.

Allow me to backtrack a bit and mention that I went to college right outside of DC, so I've spent a lot of time in the city. I'm always pleased to see how the city has really transformed beautifully (though it was always wonderful!): new museums, new monuments, and an even stronger energy. I wish I had for more time to tour the sites, but my one "stolen" moment was to visit the Espionage and Spying Museum. A perfect spot for any author. Gotta love a lipstick gun and assuming your own cover identity (I was Carol Liu, 42, architect, traveling to Russia for 12 days on vacation. Pretty good memory, eh?)

Back to RWA: Friday night was what we all call "party night", and the Berkley-NAL fête was fabulous. No surprise there at all, of course, and loved seeing so many friends from Penguin Putnam.

By our last day, all that standing had left me with some seriously swollen feet (elephant ankles, anyone?) and in need of a huge nap, but I can say that it was a terrific RWA. I'm really excited that next year takes us to Nashville because I think there will be lots of great restaurants and sites to tour-and, as always, fun to have with my clients and fellow authors.

To see a list of RITA winners, click here.