RWA 2017 Orlando conference


Phew! Another Romance Writers of America conference has come and gone. It is both an exhilarating and exhausting experience, but it definitely fires me up to come home and start writing romances again!

This year’s conference was at the Swan and Dolphin hotels at Walt Disney World. An appropriate venue for letting a writer’s imagination soar!

View from my hotel room

An egret??

Quintessential Florida

The conference was full of workshops, publisher spotlights, agent and editor appointments, networking events with bloggers and librarians, special interest group parties, the RITA awards, and (first time this year) the Golden Heart award luncheon for unpublished writers.

My favorite part of the luncheon - dessert!
One of the highlights of the conference for me was a pop-up bookstore that appeared in the hotel hallway near the conference registration desk. Books, totes, pillows, bookmarks, anything a writer could need or want. These particular items always brought a smile to my face as I rushed by on my way to a workshop...






Another highlight was the annual Literacy signing. This year, more than 400 authors autographed their books to raise money to help fund literacy efforts. It was a chance for the public (and fellow writers) to meet their favorite romance authors!

Literacy signing
After four days of non-stop industry input and events, I was exhausted.


But, as always, I was very happy I went. I even celebrated my final night in the happiest place on Earth by going out to see the fireworks over Disney.


Next year’s RWA conference will be in Denver, and I’m sure by then my poor feet will be recovered enough to hit the ground running once again!

P.S. Next month I’ll be travelling in Europe (and dragging Jenna Ives with me) so neither of us will be posting in September, but we promise lots of fantastic stories when we return!

Leigh Court



No comments: