RWA NATIONALS IN ORLANDO ROCKED !!!!!!!!!

OMG I am home from RWA nationals in Orlando.....and I want to go back!!! I had the best time ever....best conference ever! I posted a lot of pics so bear with me, but hey, I took 126...be glad I'm only posting 22 of them :-)



First off my parents came in and met my agent Christine Witthohn. She adored them and they did her...as well as the other BC Babes they got to meet. Then Mom got a book signed by Susan Elisabeth Phillips. She was so excited. And Dad was such a good sport. If you could have seen the look on his face when he walked into the literary signing....total shock and a few expletives slipped out :-))



My CP Barbie Jo Mahoney and I had our picture taken with fellow Book Cents Babe Yahrah!!! She totally rocks.


The pool was fabulous at 8 AM because that was the only time it was cool enough to use it!

And the Board Walk was just as fabulous at 10 PM! Again, the only time it was cool enough to venture out on it. But man, fireworks over Epcot were awesome and ESPN zone was so cool, but keeping my peeps out of the fountain took a lot of work. They insisted on pulling a Friends moment.

I was so nervous to give our workshop Selling to NY and Catching Hollywood's Eye with super agent Christine Witthohn of Book Cents Literary, and Hollywood actor, writer, director Doug McKeon. But they were both fabulous and made the experience wonderful for me. We had a full house and the buz around the conference was all good :-) I've been working with Doug for a while now as he adapt my first book of the Samantha Granger Experiment: FUSED! to a screenplay. I can tell you he is even more amazing in person...and a whole lot of fun :-)

We drew quite a crowd, and everyone seemed to walk away inspired and excited!

And they even talked to me :-))

I was also able to attend both the Berkley cocktail party and the Sourcebooks dinner party. I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun.

Authors Catherine Mann and Joanne Kennedy were a joy to meet and hang with. We had so much fun and I made some new friends I have a feeling I will keep for the long haul.

The Book Cents Babes got all fabbed up and rocked the house at the GH Rita awards ceremony. And Danielle and Barbie behaved...for a while anyway :-) Oh, who am I kidding...I'm probably the worst one of all except for the damn fountain!!!

We might have looked fabulous for the ceremony, but the fun began at the after party. We rocked the house!!! Let's just say you can dress us up, and you CAN take us out...and join us :-)

Now THIS dress did NOT make me look pregnant...thank God. Been there done that 4 freaking times....I think I'm done, people!

C honked as always! I love that woman!!!

Our very own Liz honked as well. There isn't a funnier woman on this planet, and she's a hell of a dancer. I don't have our karaoke pics as a group, but I'm working on getting them. When I do, you can bet I'll be posting them. And maybe Barbie's video...but that will take a lot of wine for me to get the courage to do so. They sooo aren't pretty. All I thought was, "What the hell was I doing and what in God's name was I thinking???"

We had a blast cheering on Rochelle and Clarissa our two fabulous Golden Heart finalists!!!! It was awesome seeing their pictures up on the big screen. Two rocking deserving ladies.

The laughs went on and on. And when Liz, Danielle and I hit the stage, some new notes were hit that would make dogs howl! But man did we have fun as Doug directed us, Christine laughed her ass off, Barbie took videos and I kicked the microphone clear off the stage dancing my butt off but looking more like a bad interpretation of a mosh pit behind Liz and D!

Yes...the dress is THAT bad that I'm hiding behind my camera and you will not see the dress in all it's glory! I thought the person who asked if I was pregnant was crazy...until I danced and sang, swaying back and forth on Barbie's video, and she doubled over, yelling posture Kari, posture!!!!! She nearly peed her pants as she said OMG that dress...when it moves just right....really DOES make you look like you might be pregnant. I grabbed her camera and looked and.....holy crap it did. I wore a black scarf the rest of the night to prove I wasn't preggo, but still...the dress is so getting burned this week.

Gee, see what few shooters will do to you? It's either that or all the salt Liz put on our hands. I swear there was at least two tablespoons full. Let's just say sunglasses at night were a necessity.

Now Joni......that woman can sing! We are soooo pleased that she is the newest BC Babe because she rocks! And she's almost as funny as Liz to boot!

While Joni can sing....Rochelle and Danielle can dance. Though they got in trouble for standing on the chairs and dancing their butts off, but then again, they live for breaking the rules. Rochelle even went to another restaurant, bought their fries, and brought them back into this Japanese restaurant without blinking an eye. My kind of woman!

Then Danielle followed right behind Rochelle and finally jumped into the damn fountain, singing the theme song to Friends! Earlier she climbed on top of a swan. Also, my kind of woman! And trust me, folks, Barbie was right behind her. They are one dangerous duo. Then you add Liz to the mix and look out people.

I wondered where my scarf went! LOL, seriously, it was the best night ever!!!! The only thing that would have made it better was if Cassy could have joined us. That and if we could have dragged Mary out to join us as well. Next year, ladies!

Here's hoping you all join us next year in NYC! The big apple won't know what hit it! But we will all know...a storm by the name of the BC Babes!!!!