Bookmans Mesa's Angel G, a budding romance novelist, attended the Desert Dreams Conference in Phoenix, April 4-6. The convention featured seminars on the romance writing industry and an all-star line-up of bestselling authors.
As an aspiring romance writer, I'm involved with the RWA (Romance Writers of America), and when I saw that our Phoenix chapter was having their semi-annual conference I quickly jumped on board. After talking with everyone at work - and offering to take along Bookmans gear to help promote us with the Arizona authors - they were happy to jump on board with me. We made a huge raffle basket and gave out 10% off coupons, bookmarks, and pens.
It was a great weekend. I met Jade Lee, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Carly Phillips, Cheyenne McCray, and many more. I took as many pictures as I could; some authors were very busy and hard to track down. I attended seminars about the romance writing industry with seasoned, best-selling authors, and gained a lot of priceless information. I met with an agent who was actually interested in my book and informed people of Bookmans. You tell writers you work at a bookstore and they listen. Many already knew of us and shopped here, and they were glad to see me there.
Being the youngest person (I believe) and by myself was scary. We stayed at the lovely San Marcos hotel and Golf Resort in Chandler. I had dinner with Carly Phillips and Sherrilyn Kenyon and we discussed publishing, from covers to editing. But what I loved most was coming away with so many inspirational friends. It turned out to be a fabulous adventure and one I plan to experience again; it was well worth overcoming my fear. I hope I can attend more conferences in the future and promote Bookmans through my writing and aspirations. Cross your fingers - I'm hoping to attend the national conference this summer in San Francisco.
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