Anne Stuart is just...

I actually spent the afternoon in Workshops. It was... fun.

I went to see Susan Egan, who talked about her job working with ICE. This was a fascinating workshop for me, as The Man is also working for ICE. I think I mentioned that I have no clue what he does. Well, technically that's not totally true. I know that he does some sort of computer security stuff for them. He's one of those technical wizards, and he's brilliant. No, I'm not just saying that because he's The Man. He really is. And Ms. Egan talked a lot about her personal experiences with the country's second largest law enforcement agency. She was informative, and entertaining. She also spoke really fast. And really - I still have no freakin' clue what The Man does. :)

I also went to see Anne Stuart, who spoke on Writing Dark Love Stories. As a writer of what will hopefully be pretty dark stuff, I wanted to get the inside scoop from a Master. She didn't let me down. She also re-iterated advice I've heard before. She said that you have to figure out the one thing your character would never do. Then you make them do it. For instance, if your heroine is afraid of guns and abhors violence, by the end of the story, she MUST kill someone in a very violent way. My job as a writer is figuring out what she would never do, and then putting her in a situation where she has to do it.

Like I said, I've heard that before. That's something I remember from my very first conference, in New Jersey a few years back. Eloisa James said that in romance, you must figure out the one obstacle that your couple could never overcome, then put them in that situation and have them find their way back to each other. It's usually called The Black Moment, and if you look for it, you will find it in every single book that you LOVE. It's there, trust me.

You want examples? Leave me a comment and I'll show you from a few of my favorite books.

Now it's time to relax in the room for just a bit. I have to change clothes. I have to e-mail Jill to find out where/when people are meeting for the Cherry Dinner. I have to pass that info on to RSS and OrangeHands so they can join me at the dinner. I have to change clothes. I have to walk a block to Pesto and make sure that Vincenzo remembers we are coming tonight.

So much for downtime.

I'll take pics at the Cherry Dinner, since it will be so many of my favorite people - including The Man and The Oldest Girl Child (aka - the one that got books for me while I was sitting at the feet of Anne Stuart).

I'll Keep You Posted!