Saturday, July 25, 2009

How I'm spending my Summer Vacation

Hey All:

Lots happening this summer...here's a quick photo album to show the scoop! This is Janet
Evanovich, of course, who gave a rousing, inspirational and truly funny keynote address. Then she patiently, patiently, patiently signed books for the hordes of devoted fans who stood in line. (Like me..)


Here's a hilarious moment at the RWA convention in Washington DC--we all had to evacuate. Which we did, reluctantly. Happily, some, like Barbara Vey here, figured it was a good way to keep the party going. That's iced tea, by the way--the alarm interrupted our lovely lunch. You know Barbara's blog right? Just click on her name...



Here's another great pal.
Becke Davis is the multi-talented doyenne of the B & N mystery and gardening bookclubs...as well as a reviewer for Michelle Bunfiglio's Romance Buy the Book. This is just before the RITA awards ceremony at RWA.

This is the MBTA, the Boston Subway. Aren't these great posters? (Designed by Jeanne Devlin, the graphics genius.) I just think it;s so funny, Charlie on the MTA. (Gotta hum it, in tribute to the Kingston Trio.)







MIRA maven/editor (and RITA nominee) Margaret O'Neill Marbury, with the stellar (and RITA nominee) Carla Neggers. Carla's been storming the country on a multi-state book tour--I don't know how she does it all.






Thrillerfest in New York City. On the right is Keith Raffel, who writes cool thrillers about the dot com biz. In the middle is some guy named Lee Child, who they told me was kind of famous.









Nora Roberts. What a classy, charming person. (This is at the extravagant and glam Harlequin party at the Ritz. Champagne. Chocolate fountains. The most elaborate cake I've ever seen.) And that's Barbara Vey, of course. Usually she's the one taking the photos and drive-by videos.











This is the library in Scituate Massachusetts...SRO, I'm delighted to say. Hallie Ephron and I led a wonderful discussion about mysteries...look closely and you can see us by the bookcases. It's a fantastic library, and books were also on sale courtesy of the wonderful Buttonwood Books of Cohasset.



This is Front Street Books in Scituate...as you can see, it's a great town for mystery lovers. This was July 3, so we were delighted that the room was full!




Thrillerfest..this is one of the signings in the Barnes and Noble room. Dianna Love was such a force of nature! And her book with Sherrilyn Kenyon is on the NYT list. No wonder she's smiling.






Aw.. David Morrell and Heather Graham. I managed to sneak into the shot when their lines of fans finally subsided. Look at David Morrells' book The Shimmer...when you see it in stores, check out the acknowledgments. Just, do. (And then buy it, of course.)



R. L.Stine. He and I are alphabetically in proximity, luckily for me, so we sat together at the signing. We bonded over folk music and Broadway, and now my grandson thinks I'm pretty cool. Signed books will do that...





More to come!

8 comments:

Becke Davis said...

Oh, color me jealous -- Lee Child, Nora Roberts, all those other great authors. Wow!

Your red dress was a knock-out. I'm kind of bummed my glittery jacket, which was leaving a trail of sparkles like Hansel & Gretl's breadcrumbs, doesn't look very blingy in the picture.

My daughter always checks in before I go to events to make sure I'm not overblinging it -- a constant temptation. She gives me rules (and makes sure to pass them on to my rommate) -- a fancy scarf counts as a necklace, for one. I had to hold myself back from adding layers and layers of bling. I look almost sedate here -- can't have that!

So looking forward to your upcoming visit to B&N's Mystery Book Club. We can drop names like crazy!

Hank Phillippi Ryan said...

Oh, thanks Becke! It was a truly fun evenign.

And as for your daughter, tell her I read somewhere that Coco Chanel said--Look at yourself in the mirror before you go out. And then take one thing off.

And I think you look WONDERFULLY sparkly.

Post the B&N website here, okay?

Cindy Bauer said...

Wow! Love the blog posts, Hank. Keep up the good work!

Blessings
Cindy

Musings by Mimmi said...

Thanks for sharing all the pics~~wow, you got to mingle with some of the great!!
And how very, very COOL to see a poster of your book up in the subway!! LOL, I think I would have had to shout and tell every passerby "Hey, that's MY book!"
Congrats!!

Musings by Mimmi said...

Ooh, and isn't Dianna Love the funnest? She's so bubbly and funny, I love it when I get to see her!

Marilyn Brant said...

Look at you with all your great pictures!! And I'm jealous that you got to see Becke in D.C. and I missed her completely...sigh.

Also, I just saw the cover of RT online today, and you're on it!!! Looks great :).

Cher'ley said...

Hi Hank,
I've been exploring your webpages. What a wonderful and exciting life you've had and it seems that you are having great fun. I love..love...loved so much of it. The interview, the books, the photos and the blog. The pictures are great of all the wonderful writers you know. I'm looking forward to meeting you at Crime Bake.

I don't normally wear a lot of bling, nor do I wear anymore clothes than are necessary, so I'd better not check myself out in the mirror before I depart. LOL

Hank Phillippi Ryan said...

Cher'ley--thanks for visiting!And yes, can't wait to see you at Crime Bake. (Sue Grafton will be there...amazing.

Marilyn..thanks so much for visiting Jungle Red Writers! And can't wait to read According to Jane.

CIndy-thank you so much for the amazing reviews of my books...I am humbled and thrilled. Oh--gotta find the link and I'll put it here asap.

Melissa: Oh, you're so right! I could hardly resist. (Or, just oh so casually stand next to the poster, you know? And see if anyone noticed...)