RWA is over and it’s left me with some thoughts. Not deep ones, you understand—I rarely have those, and never after a conference. But it did occur to me that the two types of conferences I go to leave me in very different states. In both the mystery and romance worlds, there are “fan” cons and “professional” cons. When I come home from “fan” cons like Bouchercon or RT, I am tired. They’re fun, and the social aspect is great, and I love meeting readers and seeing my author friends, but I come home completely exhausted. My brain is fried. I can’t write for a week.
Professional cons, however, like RWA or Sleuthfest, leave me exhausted but ready to work. The panels and the agents and editors and authors are all so career-focused and full of excitement about the genre that it’s catching. I talked to some great people at RWA, and handed out a lot of cards for Toying with His Affections. I hope some people enjoy reading it, but I can’t worry too much since I have deadlines to meet. So it’s a really good thing I get some energy from the conference!
These are the books I have on tap:
1) Next romantic suspense, set partially on the beautiful island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten. Dead bodies are piling up both stateside and in the Caribbean islands.
2) Next contemporary romance, featuring another Goody’s Goodies saleswoman, this one with a decidedly harder edge than Evie, the heroine of Toying with his Affections.
3) Fourth romantic suspense, the first one with a hero actively a part of Harp Security.
I have a lot of writing to do!!