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I'm home from the Romance Writers of America conference!
Okay, technically I've been home since Saturday afternoon. But I needed time to recover from having way too much fun, and getting way too much business accomplished in NYC. Plus, 4th of July festivities! Which, in my family, mainly consist of eating ethnic food to celebrate the fact that America is a nation of immigrants. This year, since I'd been in NYC for the previous week, I was craving Mexican food and sangria! Yum.
Today I'm back at my desk, about to dig into the revisions for Some Like it Hot. I can't wait to see how it turns out! Revisions are always nerve-wracking, but believe it or not, they're also my favorite part of the writing process. That sense of possibility opening back up in front of you, that ability to take the story and these characters you finally know well in a whole new direction--it's kind of magical. And a lot of work! But I'm ready.
What's the first thing you do when you get home from a long trip? I kiss these guys:
I'm in NYC at the Romance Writers of America conference! Already having a blast with my writer pals, but what I'm really looking forward to is meeting and talking to readers tonight at the Literacy Autographing. If you're in the New York area, I hope you'll stop by and say 'hi!' I've got lots of fun, free stuff to hand out, like chapter excerpt booklets for Too Hot to Touch, and full sets of Rising Star Chef romance trading cards.
But the big news of the day is that I found out that the publisher is offering a special promotional price for my first foodie romance, Can't Stand the Heat! For the month leading up to the August 2nd release of Too Hot to Touch, you can try out my first trilogy (and hopefully get hooked on my writing!) for just $2.99!!!
I'm so excited about this deal, so I hope you'll tell all your friends! Here are some links.
Kindle
Nook
Sony E-Reader
Kobo
Should be in the iBookstore, too, but I can't link to it.
In case you've never seen or heard anything about the book, here's the blurb:
For sharp-tongued food critic Miranda Wake, the chance to spend a month in Adam Temple’s kitchen to write an exposé is a journalistic dream come true. Surely Miranda can find a way to cut the hotshot chef down to size once she learns what really goes on at his trendy Manhattan restaurant. But she never expected Adam to find out her most embarrassing secret: she has no idea how to cook.
Adam’s not about to have his reputation burned by a critic who doesn’t even know the difference between poaching and paring. He’ll just have to give the tempting redhead a few private lessons of his own—teaching her what it means to cook with passion…and doing more with his hands than simply preparing sumptuous food.
For the past month, I've been searching around for great restaurants within walking distance of the Romance Writers of America 2011 conference hotel, the Marriott Marquis in Times Square (at 45th and 7th.)
It's not the best neighborhood for amazing food, but there are some gems, and some spots I'm excited to try! So here's my list. If you live in the city and have more knowledge than I do about what's hot and happening in the Times Square area, feel free to add to the list! I'd love some more recommendations. This is where I'm planning to eat while I'm in town for the conference:
Esca: Mario Batali's fancy new coastal Italian place that's getting raves all over town. (Ruth Reichl tweeted about her experience there!) I've never been , and am thrilled to be taken there for my editor/agent dinner. Will report back!
Ruby Foo's: We used to go to the one on the UWS all the time. so when a group of us rowdy, raucous romance authors plan to get together for dinner, I knew it would be the perfect choice. Solid pan-Asian cuisine, fun atmosphere, very group-friendly due to the family-style menu of shared dishes, and all the silly drinks you can imagine. So it won't matter how lively the party gets...and this one is just three short blocks from the hotel, straight up Broadway, so it'll be easy to stumble home afterward!
Tenpenny: Two and a half avenue blocks from the hotel is this little spot that the NYT gave a star, and that showed up on Eater NY's list of top pasta dishes to taste in the city! Also, they have an afternoon cocktail list. How perfect is that for a conference lunch?
DB Bistro Moderne: The 'DB' in the name stands for Daniel Boulud, so you know this is going to be good. I've never been to this place, but I've eaten at a bunch of the other restaurants in his empire, and never been disappointed. This is where I'm taking my agent for a fun catch-up/strategy session lunch; we'll chow down on updated bistro classics like steak frites and salade lyonnais, but with Daniel Boulud's signature touch. Can't wait for this one! And at 44th and 6th, it's super close by.
'wichcraft (46th & 5th): If I get a chance to leave the conference for another lunch, but need to be quick about it, I'm going to try to make my way to this sandwich joint. Yes, it's technically part of a chain, but when the head of the business is Tom Colicchio, I'm okay with it. ; ) I've never been to a 'Wichcraft, but my husband swears by them. And it's convenient, only two avenue blocks away, just a little closer than Tenpenny. Or if I don't have time to walk over, I could always place an order online and have a sandwich delivered right to the hotel. Good God, I miss New York!
And then there's St. Andrews Restaurant & Bar. Which used to be (maybe still is?) the only true Scottish pub in the city. The food is...not great, although there are some wonderfully wacky UK imports like buffalo calamari and curry fries, and the cocktails are just so-so--but the atmosphere! Pure gold. And on Fridays and Saturdays? Free, live celtic music that will make you feel totally transported to Edinburgh! So it makes the list, because my friends and I used to be regulars, it's a fun place to grab a drink, they have a great Scotch list if you're into that, and it's literally around the corner from the hotel.
That's my list so far! Please feel free to add anything you think of, only keep in mind that many of the ladies who will be using this list will most likely be wearing incredibly stupid high heels and aren't used to walking the city in them. And for my fellow conference attendees, I hope you'll let me know if you try any of these places! I'd love to compare notes...
WOW, the Literacy Signing last night was a madhouse. And I have to say, I loved every loud, crazy, hot minute I spent on my feet talking to readers! It's the biggest thrill in the world to meet people who've actually read my books and are not my mother. I don't see how it could ever get old. Thank you to every single person who stopped by--you made my first Lit Signing a fabulous, unforgettable experience!
And speaking of fabulous, unforgettable experiences...yesterday I had one of the best, most fascinating, and funniest lunches of my life. Through a strange series of circumstances, my friends and I met the General Manager of the Disney Swan & Dolphin yesterday morning, and he introduced us to the Executive Chef of the entire property. Chef Robert Ciborowski, a charming, handsome, and shockingly young man to be in charge of the resort's nineteen kitchens, invited us to eat at the chef's table.
 If you don't already know, the chef's table is traditionally a table in (or with a good view of) the kitchen of a professional restaurant. Sometimes the chefs and line cooks do the serving; there's usually at least a little interaction with them, which is what makes chef's table dining so fun. I've been lucky enough to eat at the chef's table in some awesome restaurants, but lunch yesterday blew them all away.
First of all, it was a lot more like a family meal situation, because it wasn't just us girls (me, Lara Santiago, Kresley Cole, Kristen Painter, and Roxanne St. Claire--aka The Blonde Mafia) at the table--we sat down and passed plates around with Chef Robert, the GM, an executive steward (adorable), assistant director of food and beverage (adorabler), and several of the high ranking chefs. It was insane.
 The food was glorious (there was a pan-seared tripletail with rock shrimp in saffron cream sauce that I'd like to take a bath in) but even better was the conversation. These guys were a font of research for me, obviously, but even beyond that, they were hysterical! They started out very respectful and polite, but as lunch wore on (and they realized what kind of women they'd fallen in with) they uncensored themselves. And holy cow, I thought I had crushes on chefs before...
Thank you again, if any of you guys are reading this blog--we had a truly fabulous time! And Chef Dan, let me know how your mom likes On the Steamy Side!
More from RWA later...
If you're in the Orlando area, come down to the Disney Swan & Dolphin today and meet some fun authors! It'll be great--you'll come, you'll chat, you'll get some fabulous books autographed, and all of it will benefit a great cause.
I'll be there, definitely signing On the Steamy Side (and hopefully Can't Stand the Heat) along with giving away excerpt booklets with the first three chapters of the upcoming release, Just One Taste! I'd absolutely love to see you. Even if you don't buy a book. : ) Just come say 'hi!' It's my first Literacy Signing ever, and I'm pretty excited about it.
There are a ton of fabulous authors scheduled to appear, about 500, last I checked. Here's a link to the RWA National Conference site with a map of where to find us all, and a list of who's slated to be there.
I'll be the one in the sparkly top...
Why does it always take me a week to get back into the swing of normal life after conference? This time it's at least partly that I have (much-loved, but still) company at my house for the next two weeks. And did my husband go grocery shopping even once the week I was gone? No. That was partly my fault--I left him too well supplied. I even made casseroles for him to eat! Chicken Hash from James Beard and Mark Bittman's Eggplant Parmesan. I know. I'm such a Susie Homemaker, I kill me. But I hadn't cooked in weeks while I struggled with that deadline, and I was so in the mood to slice and dice!
Anyway, quick conference roundup. I could talk about workshops (the Amazon one turned out to be mostly a long infomercial about Kindle; the contract trends one was very interesting and made me want to hire a lawyer--so, a more successful infomercial) but really, you don't come here for my insightful comments about the romance industry, do you? No. I know you. You're here for the food.
 And who am I to deny you? So here we go. The first night we ate at the little Italian place down the hill from the hotel, and it was fab. I had fettucine with pine nuts, olive oil, basil and parmesan--a sort of deconstructed pesto. Yum!
We ate multiple times at Sake Club, where they had a sake list more extensive than many restaurants' wine lists, but I managed to keep it in my pants most days and order the delicious iced green tea. The sushi was beautiful, and the chirashi some of the best I've ever had, but I never managed to get a picture. Sorry!
My editor wanted to take me out for dinner and asked me to choose the place. Keeping in mind that I have a rep to maintain and that she lives in NYC, I wanted someplace fun and cool with fantastic, unique food. One of my D.C. faves is Cafe Atlantico, Juan Andres's funky Nuevo Latino fusion place. I've never had a bad meal there, plus there are exciting cocktails (which was a big decider for me, since cocktails are thin on the ground here in Ohio.) It was great! The meeting with the editor, yeah, that went wonderfully (I love her! She's awesome! And she approved my idea for the third Recipe for Love book, so yay!) but the food. Oh. So good. The cocktails ended up being more hilarious conversation pieces than drinks, actually, hers more than mine. I tried the strawberry gin rickey and liked it a lot, very tart and refreshing. She had a "magic mojito" that involved a fluffy dollop of, I'm not making this up, cotton candy in a glass that then had mojito poured over it, which melted the cotton candy. It turned out a little too sweet for our taste, but it made a seriously cool presentation.
I started dinner with foie gras soup. Yeah, you heard me. It was unreal. Thick and luscious, salty and rich, with floating islands of corn foam. I almost never wimp out on a dish, but this one was truly too rich to finish. I wouldn't have missed it for anything, though! L'Editrice had tuna ceviche covered with beautiful slices of avocado, a particular weakness of hers. She was stunned, said somehow they made avocado taste even better and more avocado-y than normal.  For entrees, I had the duck confit. I'm not going to say it's my life philosophy or something, but I have a really hard time ever passing up a dish with duck confit--and in this case, it was the entire dish! It came with a gorgeous sugar crust, laid on a bed of creamy truffled potato with morels, ramps, and turnips (classic, the duck/turnip combo, loved it!) It was divine. With that one, rich as it was, I wanted to lick the plate. L'Editrice had the jerk chicken, which turned out to be quite a big meal, the beautifully crisp chicken surrounded by piles of roasted vegetables and meaty chunks of bacon. She did a good job on it, though. I was impressed!  Those were the foodie highlights of my time in D.C. They were interspersed with meeting some wonderful writers, getting some fantastic advice from the trenches, and lots of wine at the bar. I'm already looking forward to next year!
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