Kingsport (TN) Times Women's Expo

Whew.

I rolled in last night after being on the road eleven straight hours. I'm dizzy, ditzy and tired today after attending my first Kingsport (TN) Times Women's Expo. (Thanks again to my gal-pal and BFF Shirley Damsgaard who helped wrangle me an invite!)

On Friday, I gave a humorous speech to kick off the event. It's been a while since I delivered a keynote and I was stressed. Still, somehow I found my "funny person" inside. You know, you can practice and practice but unless you're in the groove, it won't happen. And after the warm welcome given to me by the organizers, Sharon and Lydia, I was definitely feeling good. Read about it at Jennifer Estep's blog

http://www.jenniferestep.com/blog/?p=604#comment-9055

The next day I sat beside Valerie Ramsey, who at 68 is proof we can age both gracefully and beautifully. That's Valerie in the red jacket. Check her out at http://www.valerieramsey.com/ She's a dear, and I enjoyed chatting with her in-between selling books.

I really wanted to get to know Teresa Medieros, Beth Williamson, Lora Leigh, Julia Quinn, Trista Ann Michaels, and Kay Stockham better, but honest to Pete, we were so busy talking to readers there just wasn't the time. (And let me say that there must be some magic to writing romance because all these women were gorgeous. I'm standing between Kay on the left and Teresa on the right. I came home determined to NEVER eat again! Fat begone!)

I did take time to smell the roses. I spent a couple of hours on a private tour of the Bays Mountain Nature Preserve. My heartfelt thanks to Karen Travis.

Check out my blog post at http://www.midnightwriters.blogspot.com/ to read more about my weekend.