Pens in Action

Here's a new occasional feature of the blog - a glimpse into the Pens' lives in pictures. We thought it would be fun to share photos of our various doings and undertakings, especially as our careers start taking us on all kinds of new adventures.

Because we're all friends, we hang out together for fun as well as for writing events...and occasionally a glass of champagne just might be involved.

That might be why I keep forgetting to take pictures, as a matter of fact, but I have vowed to do better.

Unfortunately, for this first attempt, I didn't do a whole lot better. But I blame that on the combination of bad lighting and an iPhone with no flash. Oh, and my really poor photo taking skills. In the future, with more capable Pens on the job, you're sure to get better photos!

Here's a few recent get-togethers when I, unfortunately, didn't think to take pictures:

* there was the late-night nosh at our friend Monica's house to celebrate when her Ravenous Romance novel was featured on the Home Shopping Network

* ...and the long "working" lunch a few fridays back when a few of the Pens invented a, well, I guess you might call it a sub, sub, sub-genre of romance that had us screaming with laughter and nearly got us thrown out of the restaurant

* Last Thursday Lisa and I both took our cars in for service, asked the unusually good-looking mechanics some really inappropriate questions "for research," and then drank eleven cups of coffee each "discussing the industry" (okay, gossiping) until our cars were ready

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So without further ado, your first "Pens in Pictures." We are all members of the San Francisco Area Romance Writers of America and, in fact, some of us are on the board, which means that when we invite fabulous industry people to address the chapter, we get to take them out to dinner the night before and ply them with drinks and drag out all their secrets. This month's victim - er, speaker was the amazing Sue Grimshaw, romance buyer for Borders and undisputable friend to the genre.

That's Sue on the right, and our dear friend and fellow board member Rachelle Chase on the left:



Because that's such an awful shot, here is a much better photo of Sue so you can see what she really looks like!

And here's a shot of me and Lisa, taken by a far better photographer than I.


The following morning, Sue addressed a group of 40 romance writers and shared her insights into bookselling in the fall of 2009, which is an undeniably interesting time to be in the business.

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Finally, this young man is a special friend of the Pens, and he brought me this gift, below, to encourage me on a particular plot point. It worked great!