A Time For Everything

I promised pics and so pics you shall have.

First of all, roomie and I stayed at the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were given a room on the 16th floor, facing west (the side with the balconies!).


Interesting bit of trivia--the Riverwalk sits on the site of the historic Fairmount Hotel, which now resides one block west and three blocks south. The relocation of the Fairmount was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest structure moved on wheels.

Since I was only a few blocks away from one of the greatest historic sites in our nation, I walked over to see The Alamo. I didn't go in and do the tour or anything, but I saw it and took the requisite pictures.

This is the iconic image everyone expects and thinks of when one mentions The Alamo, but the fort itself was a much larger thing.

Here's a model of the actual fort in brass. The structure in the above pic looks to be located in the middle-ish of the outpost.


I have a lot more pictures of buildings (of the architecture), but I won't bore you with them here. If you're interested, you can view them here at my Shutterfly.

I started walking the River Walk first, and thought I was only going to take a short walk to the Alamo. Then I got side-tracked by the buildings! I went back for the 30-minute guided boat tour and learned some interesting things about San Antonio. It was quite a lovely ride.

I wished I have gotten to actually walk more of the River Walk. Unfortunately, after my detour to the Alamo and the other architecture, my left leg was hurting. I went back to the hotel to rest it and wasn't able to get back to the River Walk when there wasn't a horde of other tourists impeding my pace.


This waterfall is not only lovely, but serves to keep the water from stagnating here on this end of the River Walk.

The following two photos are two of the very few I took while on the boat tour. My particular boat ended up at capacity and it was hard to move, much less turn around with camera in hand and elbows akimbo.

The Rivercenter Mall sits at one end of the tour....


A couple of the bridges also serve as locks, so that the river can be controlled during heavy rains.

And there you have it--a few highlights of my trip to San Antonio...

I'm sure you realize that my trip to Buc-ee's was not the real highlight of my trip to San Antonio. Although, I must say it was pretty exciting.

But--

The purpose of my trip was attend the RWA national annual conference and learn something. And learn some things I did.

I attended all craft workshops, except one. I thought it was craft, but it wasn't. However, I think the fates conspired to get me in attendance. It was mainly a writers life kind of track, but I found it more inspirational than anything and it hit me in the gut. The speaker said some things that really resonated. Something I already knew, but she inspired me to do what needed to be done. And so shall I endeavor. If the fates don't conspire to prevent me.

I didn't take many pictures during the conference itself though--not of workshops or speakers although there were some big names in attendance. Nora Roberts was there! So was Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Elizabeth Hoyt, Sarah MacLean...big names in historical romance. Nalini Singh, Jane Porter, Christie Craig, Robin Perini, Tanya Michaels, to name a few others.

There were a lot of men there, too. More than I expected to see. One man is a professor at a college in Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish country. Several years ago, one of his student wrote her thesis on romance novels--I don't remember the precise topic--and he said he was blown away. The college finally approved funding for him to attend the conference to get a up close and personal experience of the genre.

Now that I'm home, it's time to apply as much of what I learned to my current work in progress. Then to the next book and the next. I even have an idea and characters for a new book. One I'm looking forward to writing, but I have some hard work on almost finished projects ahead of me. Those first.

Saturday night was the big awards ceremony, the RITAs, the Oscars of the romance novel world. There's also the Golden Heart, an award for a pre-published manuscript and my dear friend and chapter mate won her category. I do have pictures of that...

Here's me in the dress...it's not a great picture, but I did get a lot of compliments and was even asked by a gal if she could take a "glam" shot of me!

This is my friend Jan Schliesman and me--she gave me the dress and I'm forever in her debt. Jan recently sold her first book to Harlequin Romantic Suspense. It'll be published next spring.


Two more of my chapter mates, Angi Morgan on the left and Sarah Cannon on the right. Sarah won the Golden Heart in the short contemporary category and recently sold her book to the Harlequin Desire line. Her book will be published early next year. Angi won the Golden Heart several years ago and has since published seven or eight Harlequin Intrigue books.

I do have more pictures, but the rest are all of my sight seeing adventures. I'll be sharing some of those on Friday.

So a few miles north of the I-35N/I-35S connection/split on the south side of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex there's a billboard... I wish I'd taken a picture, but I just didn't think much of it the dozen times I've driven past it except to wonder why there's a billboard for a gas station 181 miles north of its actual location...

NOW I KNOW!!!

Oh, my goodness... Look!





I had some fun in there looking around and bought a few Texas-themed items.

Have you ever been to a Bucee's like this???

(And, yes, I'm easily amused.)

Today's the day! In a few short hours, I'll be picking up my good friend and setting off towards...

You guessed it--San Antonio.

The vehicle, sadly, did not get an oil change or a bath.

But my bag is packed....


My dress for the awards ceremony on Saturday night...


And the route is planned....


Ready or not, here we--and by we I mean 2000 or so romance writers!--come!!

See you Friday with pictures of my adventures from today and tomorrow....

The annual national conference of my writing group is next week. In case you didn't figure it out, it's in San Antonio.

As I mentioned in my post a week or so ago I've only been there once before, but it was a quick trip and DH and I didn't do anything but attend a Brooks & Dunn concert at the county fair. I didn't see anything else but the hotel and the interstate.

Despite it being a conference full of workshops and networking opportunities, I'm going to get from the trip what I want out of it. That being said, there are only two workshops I found of interest for Thursday, so I'm going to at least explore the Riverwalk, on one side of which my hotel sits. Can't not go, right? I'm right there. I have some time. It's an opportunity.

Friday and Saturday I'll attend workshops and spend time in the lobby and bar meeting people and networking even though it's really not my forte. I need to drum up some proofing business... Hopefully, I'll get to spend some time with Robin Perini, an author I've been doing some work for. I can't wait to see her again.

Since I'm not normally around a lot of people, I'll also probably spend some time alone the hotel room. Too much sensory input otherwise. I know it's only four days, but I've got to go the distance and I hate feeling out of sorts physically or emotionally, so--

And since it's Friday, hope you have a great weekend!

The national conference for Romance Writers of America is just around the corner and will be taking place in Texas's own San Antonio...


I'm looking forward to learning some things, seeing a bit more of San Antonio, and seeing Robin Perini--for whom I've done a ton of work.

I've only been to San Antonio once before, but I didn't get to see much--just a concert by my fave country artists Brooks & Dunn. (That was many years ago and before they went their separate ways.

Anyway, it's time to start planning and packing for my trip...