Saturday I braved weekend/vacation traffic on I-95 and drove up to Old Town Alexandria. Back in the day, I lived in Alexandria and my next two books Senseless (January 2011) and Merciless (February 2011) are set in the old port city. I am always looking for an excuse to drive up to visit the city and see friends. On this trip, I took an historic walking tour of the waterfront area. The day was hot, hot, hot but the tour was great!
Saturday at RomCon was packed with great sessions and opportunities to meet readers!
The Romantic Suspense Panel: MB, Cindy Gerard, Susan Crandall, Tara Jazeen and Pamela Clare
MB sat next to Cathy Clamp/Cat Adams at the big book signing.
MB at Author's Alley
Stunning cupcakes at the launch party for HCI's "Vows."
I arrived at RomCon in Denver yesterday and hit the ground running. There was a visit to Memory Lane where readers could get their photos snapped with authors, the Build A Hero Workshop and dinner featuring keynote Lori Foster.
Here I am at Memory Lane with other RomCon authors: Delilah Marvelle, Wendy Darlin, Susan Donovan, Celeste Bradley
The Build A Hero session was great fun!
MB with author Jami Alden and the hero (Jake Malone) our table built.
The sun sets on mountains west of Denver.
Just finished up with the Romantic Times Convention’s big book signing and I’m headed back to Virginia. The signing was beyond packed with readers lined up through the hotel just to get into the ballroom where we had the signing. It was great fun!
The rains didn’t arrive as predicted yesterday so Buddy, Bella and I decided to mix it up and take a walk through Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery. Its a large, sprawling cemetery that overlooks the city of Richmond and the James River. Opened in 1849, it’s layout is garden style and it was named for the holly trees dotting the property. Hollywood Cemetery is the final resting place to U.S. Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, generals, soldiers and countless Richmond families.
The Pyramid was build as a memorial to the Confederate dead.
This black iron dog overlooks the grave of a little girl.
The flowers were in bloom!
This site overlooks Richmond's skyline.
A view of the James River.
An iron gate.
President James Monroe's grave.
I made it by the local gun show this past weekend. I find these shows can be a great place to do research–experts, hand-on demonstrations, books. This go around all I picked up was a MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat). This meal was the beef patty with wheat crackers. Sadly, no dessert was included in this packet. I can’t say I was a fan of this flavor but Buddy and Bella where happy to eat the leftovers.
Often my police characters carry an MRE in the trunk of their cars.
This meal featured a beef patty, barbecue sauce and wheat crackers.
Buddy and Bella loved the MRE.