Adventures in the City - Day Three

Just thinking about this day exhausts me!  It was one of those that seemed to have a ton of things going on at once.

I had the pleasure of having a bit of breakfast - and by breakfast I mean a giant black and white cookie - with the lovely Noelle Adams.  I was so happy to be able to meet up with her and just have some time to chat.  We don't live close enough to do it very often so when the opportunity arises, we take advantage of it.  A good friend and a good cookie.  What could be better?

Then I went and caught the second half of the Sourcebooks spotlight at the RWA conference and it's always exciting to see and learn about all of the new books coming out.  When it was over, Sara Humphreys and I got together for lunch and a brainstorming session about our upcoming scavenger hunt!  

**Scavenger Hunt:  Sara and I are hosting this super-fun event to celebrate our upcoming releases.  "Made for Us" will be out on August 4th and her brand new (and very first!) contemporary romance, "Brave the Heat", will be out September 1st.  So in between those dates we are doing this scavenger hunt with daily prizes!  If you haven't already signed up, you totally need to because we have some AMAZING prizes!  You can join the fun HERE!

Okay, back to the city...

Hubby and son met me at the Mariott Marquis where I was dining with Sara and then we did a little more sightseeing in Times Square on our way back to our hotel.  I took a little siesta because I was so tired and then got up to freshen up and get ready for the super-secret Sourcebooks author dinner.  The dinner itself wasn't a secret but the location was.  

So I casually walked (meaning very-slowly) the six blocks back to the Mariott dressed in my party dress and pretty shoes and joined the forty-something other Sourcebooks authors while we waited for our big surprise.  Within minutes we were boarding a very cool party bus - an excellent way to travel - and taken to Bryant Park right next to the New York Public Library where we had the pleasure of dining outside at the Bryant Park Grille.  The temperature had cooled down and I got to sit with some amazing ladies while we dined on fabulous foods.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday night!

Adventures in the City - Day One

So I was in New York City last week.  Well...me and probably about a thousand other romance authors.  The only difference was that I wasn't there for the big RWA Conference - sort of.  It's a long story.  Let's just say that I was going to go to RWA, then I wasn't, then I ended up at some things related to it.

It's complicated.

I grew up on Long Island.  It wasn't hard to get into the city on any given day or at any time.  But you know what?  I never did.  In the 27 years I lived on Long Island, I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually went into Manhattan.  So this trip was kind of a big deal.  Plus, we brought our 15 year old with us (hubby and I) and it was his first trip to the Big Apple.  So like I said, it was kind of a big deal.

We basically were all over the place our first day.  We checked in at our hotel a little before noon and then walked over to Bryant Park because the FABULOUS Kristan Higgins was there with a group of authors doing a panel and then signing.  It has been a dream of mine to meet her and so I dragged hubby and son with me on my quest to meet her.  There was a pretty big crowd there and I was happy to sit there, but I was also starving.  So we ran over to the Bryant Park Grille and had lunch and then got back as the signing was winding down and I got my chance to meet Kristan. 

Seriously, the trip could have ended right then and there and I would have felt like it was a complete success!  So happy!!

Then we got to play tourist and went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  I don't know why this was something I wanted to do, but it was!  If you're thinking of going - Spoiler Alert - Don't.  It was expensive.  It was hot.  And basically I don't think it was worth the money.  The Marvel 4-D movie was good but not worth the price of admission.  I can cross it off my bucket list but I don't feel like I gained anything by going except to make fun and pretend that I was in Oprah's book club.  

Or Hemmingway's.

Yes, I'm THAT person.  I'm ridiculous and inappropriate and pretty much enjoy being goofy sometimes.  But I had fun and after the amount of money I spend to get in the darn place, they're lucky I didn't do more of this!  All in all it was a nice distraction and some of the figures are so life-like that it was borderline creepy.  

That night I went to an RWA cocktail party with my literary agency at Sardi's.  And if you can believe it, we took NO pictures.  I don't even know how it happened.  I wore a fabulous dress and my husband and son looked so handsome and there's no record of it anywhere!  I did get to meet two of my favorite authors - Shannon Stacey and Sylvia Day - so that was a bonus.  But no one there was taking selfies and being silly so I refrained from asking anyone to pose with me.

Bummer.  

We walked back to our hotel - right through the middle of Times Square - and had room service bring us dinner at 10:00 at night.  It was a little decadent.  The thing was that we aren't used to so much walking and by that time of night, we were positively exhausted.

And that was only the first day!