Greetings from sunny New Jersey where I'm taking part in the annual "Put Your Heart in a Book" conference!

I arrived yesterday (Friday) afternoon and upon arriving at the hotel immediately met up with the fabulous Debra Mullins, who came all the way from California to help out with the conference. After that, I found myself at Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGreggor's chat. Sherri has so much energy! And it's really obvious how much she loves her readers.

Sophia Nash was in the audience as well--and looking lovely as always. I hate her. :-)

I got a chance to catch up with Sophia, who has a gorgeous cover for her next Avon historical, as well as Sherrilyn, who was surrounded by adoring fans. I also chatted with everyone's favorite bookseller, NYStacey, and Liz Maverick and Marianne Mancusi who looked too good in their manga/anime outfits!

Dinner ended up being a lot of fun as I spent it with Elizabeth Boyle and Julia Quinn, both of whom presented workshops at the conference. Elizabeth and I are up against each other time wise, so I won't get to her talk, but I had a chance to sit in on Julia's dialogue workshop. I love listening to Julie talk, as she's just as funny in real life as she is in her books. As for Elizabeth, well just the mention of her name makes me smile! I absolutely hate that both Elizabeth and Julie can show up wearing no makeup and still look gorgeous. Hate them, too.

This morning's breakfast featured a hilarious and inspiring talk from Karen Robards, which I listened to while sharing a table with some fabulous authors who included fellow Avon authors, Eloisa James and Debra Mullins.
 
And now, I'm off to lunch where Sherrilyn is the keynote speaker. After that, I'm giving a workshop on writing love scenes. More to come!

Kathryn Smith