I went and I came back much wiser

RWA 2013

RWA 2013

I arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 and picked up my registration package.
On Wednesday, July 17, I didn’t have to be anywhere specific until 5:15 pm,another writer friend and I went to the High Museum of Art to see the Girl with a Pearl Earring exhibition featuring thirty-five masterpieces from The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. http://www.high.org/Girl-With-A-Pearl-Earring.aspx

A sign in the gallery stated: “Genre paintings portray scenes from every day life.”
That is how I write, I take everyday life and bring it into story and as the Girl with A Pearl Earring, there is the question of where will fact end and fiction begin.

The Girl with a Pearl Earring is Johannes Vermeer’s Mona Lisa. It is not a true portrait but rather studies or characterizations of certain facial expressions. As with Mona Lisa, everyone wonders who she might have been. The question is, was she really one girl of a compilation of many girls just like when writers develop characters.

On Wednesday evening, I took my place for the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing along with over 400 authors as we autographed romance novels at a mass book signing. Proceeds from the book sales went to ProLiteracy World wide, Literacy Action and Literacy Volunteers of Atlanta. The event raised over $50,000.00.

And can you imagine the excitement in the room?

And can you imagine the excitement in the room?

Because Woman of Substance is available in print and because my publisher Debby Gilbert of Soul Mate Publishing http://www.soulmatepublishing.com/ donated books on my behalf, I was able to achieve a goal which has been on my bucket list. I was chosen to sign at this event and be part of the excitement and joy of reading.

And don't I look happy

And don’t I look happy

And I wasn't on the top floor.

And I wasn’t on the top floor.

At the end of the day, my view from my hotel window.