Now, you're probably wondering how can anyone stand so much excitement in one weekend, and that's not even all that happened! Earlier that weekend, I attended a Georgette Heyer themed tea which was sponsored by The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale. The tea was led by two wonderful authors who I spent a lot of time with the whole weekend!
Lauren Willig, author of another one of my favorite series, known as The Pink Carnation Series was simply adorable and we talked and talked about her characters and future plotlines and books we've read and it was just great hob nobbing with a real live author! She's an expert on Regency England and was the co-leader of the Heyer Discussion which was intimate and lively, only about 8 other women were guests at the tea and it was lovely. Her co-leader was another talented author, Stephanie Barron who writes a well known Jane Austen detective series and some very interesting historical novels with a mystery side to them as well as several other crime novels under the name of Francine Matthews. In anticipation of meeting Stephanie, I began reading her first Jane detective novel, which I'm still reading and loving it! Stephanie wound up riding back to the hotel with us and she became a friend too, discussing Jane Austen, fanfiction, the ebook phenomenon and publishing - all in the back seat! We kept running into her all weekend! It was so funny because she and Lauren led another lecture later on that weekend too, so we were all hanging around together! Really, we were NOT stalking them! Of course I have pictures!
Here I am in the middle with Lauren Willig on the right and my dear friend and blogging buddy, Joanne from Slice of Life. I can't say enough kind words about Joanne and how great it was to meet her for the first time - we are sympatico when it comes to books and it was a pleasure to meet her and her friend Cindy who came from New Orleans. Thank God they had cameras, for all the pictures come from Cindy and Joanne! I was so giddy the whole time all I had was my crappy cell phone camera which is worthless indoors! In any event, I am eternally grateful to both of them for having the good sense to bring a real camera!
Here is another picture of me with Stephanie Barron and my sister, Cathy on the right. I'm looking starry eyed post Diana. We all bought a copy of Stephanie's historical fiction novel, The White Garden which centers around the death of Virginia Woolf and what really happened to her during those three weeks before they found her body. It's not what everyone thinks! It sounded fascinating and clever when Stephanie was describing it, so we snatched it up and wouldn't dare let her go without signing our copies! Another gracious and extremely intelligent woman - all the women we met were so friendly and incredibly knowlegable! I loved every minute and all the book talking - I was in heaven! These people speak my language!
Now it's back to real life, but I have the best memories. The Arizona Biltmore was a gorgeous resort, the landscaping and grounds were amazing! On a funny note, the entire time we were there, there was a huge Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority Convention going on - they were everywhere! It was almost surreal!
The major highlights of the weekend were getting to see my two sisters who live far away from me, laughing and catching up with them and letting them see first hand what my "other life" is like concerning books and romances and the wonderful world of Outlander. Plus, it was great to meet and hang out with Joanne and talk books non-stop as well as all sorts of things! It was all incredibly special, particularly meeting Diana, Lauren and Stephanie - an unforgettable weekend!
