Fast Times in the Nation's Capitol

Last week I gave you a very quick overview of how I spent this summer, and now I'm going to give you a closer peek at my destinations. (Not Vegas, though, because haven't I posted enough about that town?) Let's start with my first east coast destination... Washington, DC.

I went to Washington for the annual Romance Writers of America national conference. Each year, two thousand aspiring and published romance authors converge on a city and spend a few days networking, attending classes, and catching up with long-distance friends.

The first night in town, my best friend/critique partner/roommate USA Today bestselling author Sophie Jordan (aka Sharie Kohler) went out with a group of Avon authors for dinner. Our patio table overlooked the Potomac River, just around the bend from the notorious Watergate Hotel. (That's it in the picture below.)


And here is my requisite self-portrait. (Also behind my head, just the left, is the fabulous Kennedy Center.)


After days of workshops and meetings and chatting with friends over drinks and lunch, the final night of the conference came. And with it, the awards ceremony. It just so happens that I (and Oh. My. Gods.) were nominated for two prestigious RITA awards: Best Young Adult and Best First Book. More about the ceremony in tomorrow's blog, but for now, see if you can guess the outcome.


My parents actually flew all the way to DC from Las Vegas for the ceremony (thank goodness I won, huh?) and so, after the conference, we spent a couple days sightseeing. We saw...

The Treasury Building

The Capitol

The White House
(note the oh-so-subtle sniper on the roof)

The Washington Monument
(that's my dad and my mom and me, please ignore my sliver of belly and the disgruntled look on my face--suffice it to say that I was way better at taking pictures than a certain parent of mine)

We walked by a very cool statue of Nathan Hale. (I have a thing for taking pictures of statues and plaques, but I will try to refrain from posting more than this.) FYI, Nathan Hale was not only a spy and a hero, he was also way yummy.


We had a lot of fun at the National Building Museum. Check out this amazingly huge columns!


They are among the largest indoor columns in the world. I would definitely go back to this museum again. (Except that there are so many others to see... maybe someday.)


After our sightseeing, we went to the Shakespeare Theatre's production of King Lear, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It starred Stacy Keach (aka Mike Hammer) as Lear and, with the exception of him and the actors portraying Edmund and Kent, it was sadly awful. (There's a blog post coming about that, too, so I won't dwell too much.)

Before catching the train out of DC, I met up with online pal and author extraordinaire, Bennett Madison, at Union Station. While we only had a short while to chat (and I was overheating most of the time), it was a lot of fun. It's always fun to talk with other authors--especially ones with hair as insanely fluffed out as Bennett's.

Tune in tomorrow for a play-by-play of the RWA RITA ceremony.

Hugs,
TLC