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Yes, folks, you read about our plans for it, and it finally happened. A Romance Review invaded Washington DC! Fortunately, this was a friendly invasion, and we were welcomed with colors!!! Blue – the skies overhead on Thursday when some of us began our journey. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as Celia and family began their trek early Thursday morning, heading south into the sunshine. Connie and hubby were also hitting the road, although their trip would take them via family before their final rendezvous. Yellow – the sunshine in Florida that glistened off Paula’s plane to Richmond and shone brightly on Friday when we all met up – Pam, our Editor in Chief and Don, our Webmaster, hosting Connie, Celia and Paula and introducing us to the sights, sounds and smells of Virginia in the springtime. After introductions, hugs, logistical discussions and general conversation, we got down to the serious business of pizza eating. Well, for some of us it’s an art, after all! A website like ours is in a state of continual growth, expansion and change. We welcome new friends to the ranks of our reviewers all the time, and say farewell to old hands who find their lives changing and their commitments shifting to other areas. Having the chance to ‘round-table’ in person with colleagues is invaluable. Besides the fact that it’s darned difficult to talk with one’s hands when you’re typing emails or using an Instant Message system, just being able to bounce rapid-fire ideas around is a major advantage. No waiting for the scrolling text to catch up! Watch for improvements, changes, new ideas and new suggestions that will make A Romance Review even better!! All as a result of our meeting. And the pizza. And, of course, the exciting foray into the world of stimulating beverages we enjoyed. It would probably be accurate to say that we all learned a lot from each other and found our business time together to be of enormous help. The beverage bit wasn’t quite so helpful, but a very important part of the evening! Pink - This is the color of the cherry blossoms in the spring in Washington DC. Allegedly. We cannot verify the accuracy of that statement, because, as in all well-planned activities, there is a level of uncertainty involved. The plan was to tour DC proper on Saturday, admiring the cherry blossoms, the White House, etc., while being suitably impressed and patriotic.
However, Mother Nature looked at us and shook her head. Uh uh. No trip for you guys!!! With careful precision, she opened the heavens and unleashed rain on Virginia. This, in its turn, clogged traffic on the major roads into DC. All of the other roads became clogged with traffic trying to avoid the first clog. And so on, and so on. The upshot? Our carload of intrepid reviewers looked at each other and said....hmmm. Three hours sitting in traffic or do a U-turn and head for the Potomac Mills Mall (probably one of the largest malls in the known galaxy). Decisions, decisions. Oh, did we mention a Booksamillion store in the Mall? No prizes for guessing where we spent the next few, very happy, hours. Sure, the White House is the seat of power, but does it have a ‘Reduced for Clearance’ rack? Can you buy cute shoes at the Lincoln Memorial? Browse racks of final markdowns in the Halls of Congress? Nah. And we actually left a few books on the shelves at the bookstore too, although Celia found some – ahem – interesting ‘research’ books. She flaunted her copy of the new Sandra Hill novel, and tucked the other ones away in a brown paper bag! T-shirts were purchased, hats tried on, and after about twenty miles of slogging through the overgrown jungles of the retail industry, we gave up and headed back to tidy up for the night’s festivities. (Plot point...the sky is getting quite dark on the horizon.) Saturday night was our festive dinner, to which several local authors had been invited. Pam and Don had found a quiet spot with a nice room which would allow us privacy for our dinner, and so, washed, brushed, curled, scented and bedecked to within an inch of our lives, we assembled to greet our heroines – the authors. Joining us for dinner was Hope Tarr, author of several historicals, most notably Lord Jack which has just received a nomination for the Reviewers International Organization’s Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence in the category of Best Long Romance Historical. Rida Allen was there, and proved to be as lovely in person as she is in the written word, her books Great Love and The Legacy Tree having received many excellent reviews, not the least of which are two raves for Great Love from our site. From Ellora’s Cave, we welcomed the “Fab Four” – Treva Harte, Shelby Morgen, Diane Whiteside and Stephanie Burke. These ladies generate enough heat to cause their own hole in the ozone layer as our reviews of some of their many titles will attest!!! Everyone was charming, gracious, entertaining and fun, in spite of the usual snafus of late food, and (remember the dark sky?) a strong line of storms that dropped the temperatures 30 degrees in about five minutes and led to a tornado warning in the next county. We might add that our waiter, who was also the manager, is undecided whether to sue all of us or beg Stephanie to have his babies. As the hour grew late and our authors left, we were treated to the evening’s karaoke session. Karaoke, which as we all know is Japanese for “I know I can’t sing but I’m going to try anyway”, apparently works in correlation with alcohol. The more beers you have, the better you think you sound. Well, shucks. It ended the evening on a high note. And a sort of high note. And a note that should have been high but was about two octaves off. White – the color of the snow that was falling as the A Romance Review annual meeting wrapped up on Sunday morning. Yes, that squall line had brought in such cold air that by nine o’clock in the morning, the ground was getting white and the travelers were getting nervous. And also getting a marvelous farewell breakfast from Pam and Don. So it was hugs, kisses, goodbyes and back on the road, with a wonderful weekend of laughter and shared enjoyment to store in our memories. Pictures were few and far between – we were having too much fun to stop and grab the camera. Special memories?Thanks guys.
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