When I learned that Ladies’ Day (winner, regional fiction) and Between the Sky and the Sea (finalist, romance) had both won Next Generation Indies Book Awards, I decided to go to San Diego for the awards ceremony. I dragged my husband, who hates to travel, with me. My Ladies’ Day publisher, CamCat Books, also invited me to sign books at their table at the American Library Association Conference, also in San Diego, that same weekend.
The Next Generation Indies Awards took place at the elegant and historic U.S. Grant Hotel. I wore a dress I’d worn to a couple of weddings, and thought I’d be overdressed, but many woman had on long gowns. The event was beautifully planned. Our hosts, founders Catherine Goulet and Marilyn Allen, met us at the door of the ballroom with trays of champagne, and the hors d’oeuvres that were served were absolutely delicious. I had such a wonderful time catching up with author friends and meeting other writers. The overall winners made brief speeches, but for genre winners like me, the ceremony was simply like a graduation, where I walked up, received my medals, shook hands, and returned to my seat. After many years of toiling over my prose, I was thrilled to have it recognized. I’m glad I’d made the effort to be there.
The next day, after a lovely walk with Jeff along the waterfront in San Diego, I had a blast signing Ladies’ Day at the CamCat booth at the ALA Conference. The conference was overwhelming, with booth after booth of beautiful books. I was with my book-loving peeps! One of my favorite aspects was the “Banned Books from the Big Chair” booth, where people could choose one of their favorite banned books and read from it aloud from an enormous chair that made everyone look like a kid, or Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann from Laugh-In. It was wonderful to meet awesome fellow CamCat authors as well as CamCat staff that up to that point I had only met over email.
Jeff and I also had fun sightseeing. We saw Coronado Island, Balboa Park, Mission Beach, La Jolla, and Torrey Pines. Jeff ended up thoroughly enjoying himself, especially since he had a chance to visit Torrey Pines Golf Course. An exhilarating city and trip!
