Food.
It may not be the obvious topic of choice for my blog about the RWA National conference in Atlanta, but as you’ll see, it’s the most fitting. First, you should know that Janelle usually comes to the conference as the goodie lady and I’m not talking about promo products. Hershey’s kisses with caramel, nestles milk chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. You name it, she brings it. I love it! Not this year. This year we both came armed with protein and energy bars. If nothing else, we were determined to come home and not have gained weight.
My problems with food began the very first day. In the airport, I ate a 2 point Weight Watchers bar because I had no time to eat breakfast at home. On landing, while waiting for my luggage, I had another bar because I was starving and knew I wouldn’t make it to the next meal. At noon, I had lunch with Nancy Berland, my publicist at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. By the time I arrived, I was so hungry, a mere salad wasn’t going to cut it. I had a hamburger and fries, took off the top of the roll, and inhaled everything else on the plate. You see? This is what happens when you skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day.
After a cocktail party at Stephanie Bond’s, 
where we experienced true southern hospitality, off we went to dinner where the plotmonkeys ate with our editor Brenda Chin and talented historical and contemporary author Jacquie D’Alessandro. (The gorgeous woman in the teal dress) It doesn’t help that Jacquie is the cutest thing going or that she dresses to the nine’s making the rest of us (me) feel like chopped liver, but I love her anyway. She is just one of those honestly good folk. A little Southern talk here. Plus she likes dessert. 
And speaking of dessert …
Dailey’s can be described in one word: DESSERT. 
Dessert was included in the price of dinner and there was an entire bar devoted to displaying the choices. 
Needless to say, everyone ordered something different and we shifted the plates around the table. I’m a picky eater and so once I tasted the bread pudding, I refused to share.
Wednesday morning, I had breakfast with my agent, Robert Gottlieb and Jenny Bent. I ordered my usual AM meal, Raisin Bran cereal and skim milk. The plotmonkeys love making fun of me because I will happily pay a $20 room service bill to have my fix late at night. Then we plotted and as everyone said, boy did we rock. The next HOT ZONE story will be John Roper and Riley’s cousin Amy from Florida’s story and I can not wait to dig into writing it!
Wednesday’s plan was to work all day and eat late in the afternoon in order to hold us over for the Literacy Signing, where the authors sit from 5:30 – 8:30 and have no time for dinner. Let me tell you something now. Raisin Bran does NOT hold one over until 4 PM. I was a raving bitch. And yes, I said it, the other monkeys didn’t have to. Starve me and I go mad. By the time we made it down to the restaurants, I was downright nasty. Still we were able to get a table in the bar and once again, starving beyond belief, I ordered a hamburger and fries. I’m supposed to be watching my cholesterol AND my food intake. I wasn’t happy with myself but I can honestly say it was the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my entire life. Stomach full, I was ready to take on the three hour Literacy signing.
At Literacy, I only had copies of CROSS MY HEART. This is a good and a bad thing. Good because readers wanted it. Bad because it hit shelves the day before and it’s always better to sell where it counts towards first week of sales. Good because the money goes to Literacy. Bad because not all readers there want to pay money for a hardcover. I sold about a case and a three quarters – roughly 30 or so books. Pretty darn good! And I got to catch up with old friends: Kimberly Raye (can’t WAIT for her new book Dead End Dating). I waved to Sophia Nash because what else can you do for three hours with tables separating you? Sophia did throw chocolate kisses at me, feeding me when I was hungry, and boy was I grateful! I sat next to Barbara Pierce who writes historicals and is just about the sweetest person ever, and many many more.
Back to food, on Thursday I had breakfast with Liz Pearson’s from Brilliance Audio, who publishes my hardcovers in audio format. I love her. We have so much in common and she’s gushes over my books and my covers (but that’s not why I think she’s so great – she just IS). Anyway, I had THE best Crispy French Toast – LoCholesterol – dipped in eggwhites – that I have ever had. I even poured Equal over it instead of sugar (I like sugar not maple syrup on my French Toast) and pretended it wasn’t fattening. Again, I licked the plate clean. I had a chicken salad for lunch, and dinner was, shall we say … interesting?
First Janelle and I went to our agents’ party (Trident Media Group) and then we dinner plans with Robert Gottlieb, Jenny Bent, and author duo Tori Carrington, Tony and Lori Karayianni, who write the Sophie Metropolis series. The original 
plan was to go to Dailey’s but since we’d been there and didn’t want to repeat the cake, Robert graciously agreed to make reservations somewhere else. That somewhere else ended up being: FAT MATT’S RIB SHACK. We received an email confirming that read like this: Hi! The 8.45pm Thursday dinner following the Trident party has been changed to FATT MATT’S RIB SHACK, a short (4 mile) cab ride from the hotel. It is first come, first serve, cash only, no tight ties. Have fun! Amy Assistant to Robert Gottlieb. We were prepared. We changed from party clothes into jeans and it’s a good thing we did!
Right next to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack is Fat Matt’s Chicken Shack. The chicken shack was closed but I’m not sure why. The Rib shack was packed. And rocking. There was a band but we’ll get to them later. This is WORLD FAMOUS FAT MATT’S RIB SHACK. We waited and quickly got a table. Tony and Robert, ever the gentlemen, went up to order and bring the food to the table. No waitresses or waiters, only bus boys. The menu was on the wall. See? To make it easier for Tony and 
Robert, we wrote our orders on a piece of paper – Janelle and I wanted BBQ chicken. We wrote: 2 ½ Chickens. Meaning, we each wanted a ½ chicken from the menu. We told this to Tony as we handed him the paper. Tony has the cutest Greek accent and sometimes things get lost in translation. So Tony looked at the paper and said, “You want two and a half chickens?” All I could picture were two whole chickens coming out of the kitchen. Alive. Not sure where the half would have come from. “No, Tony, we want 2 half chickens.” He nodded. We weren’t sure what we’d get, but Tony got it right. Hurray!
The atmosphere was so much fun and as I said, rocking. The band was playing loudly. Robert called his wife so she could hear for herself. And I took a look at them and said, “I get dibs on 
the drummer.” I really don’t know what possessed me to say it or why I thought I was so funny. But I did. So I took his picture, knowing I’d show you all and hope you thought it was funny too. But maybe you just had to be there! I ate my half chicken which was delicious and I should have left it at that, but wouldn’t you know, they had to serve 2 pieces of white bread with the dinner. You know the kind? Soft and mushy like Wonder Bread – ready to dip into the BBQ sauce. Yum. So I ate them. Both. Crust and all. Sigh.
By Friday, the plotmonkeys learned to work around my eating schedule and so I had a normal breakfast and they agreed to a 1 o’clock or so lunch so I couldn’t pass hungry and get to bitchy. I had a wrap and was a good girl. Until dinner at the HQN Author dinner, where I ate not only the chicken, but the entire cheesecake. It was worth it. I also had so much fun at the dinner, with Harlequin President Donna Hayes and authors Gena Showalter, Susan Grant, Susan Mallery, Linda Lael Miller and Diana Palmer! What a real treat this was for me. When we got to the Harlequin party at the Ritz Carlton, I was not hungry for dessert which was a pity because they had a chocolate fountain and yummy looking food! 
Of course this is after I took a cab ride there with Leslie and Roxanne St. Claire and realized halfway to the restaurant that I HAD NO MONEY. All I can say is, thank goodness for friends!
Which about sums up my fabulous week. Good food and even better friends. What more can a girl ask for? Well, her book can be displayed front and center at the Atlanta airport, which mine was. For more pics, including CROSS MY HEART at the airport, visit my website photo page
If you’re curious about what you missed at the workshops including Chat with Carly Phillips (aka The Devil is in the Details) and my PAN workshop on Business Balls (Not my choice in titles, LOL!) click on those links and check it out.
For the history of writing Cross My Heart, I guestblogged on August 2 at The Idea Boutique and you can visit me there to read about it.
I think that’s about it for now … I hope you’ve enjoyed our RWA Atlanta retrospective as much as enjoyed telling you all about our trip!
Oh and did I gain weight in Atlanta? That’s between me, myself and my scale. And we’ll never tell …
Carly Phillips would like to take 100% credit for all her stories but the truth is, Carly’s strength is writing family, emotion, funky elderly people and animals. She couldn’t plot her way out of a paper bag, which is why she smartly found her plotmonkey pals early on in her writing career. Thanks to their support, Carly is now a NYT Bestselling author of 23 plus novels. Because writing doesn’t keep her busy enough, Carly is also a wife, a mother of one preteen and one teenage daughter, the primary care giver of her soft coated Wheaten terrier and an expert carpool mom.
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looks darn good. wish i was there:coffee::party:
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I find that the scale always tells. Just kidding, sounds like a lot of fun I also wish I was there.
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You managed to work in protein with the chicken. Besides calories with great friends and great food don’t count! Glad to see you’ll be working on the next Hot Zone story!
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I’ve enjoyed the tales of the Plotmonkeys Do Atlanta.
The food was fabulous, if a bit pricey. One night Mo and I went to Hsu’s and had a yummy dinner.
Glad you sold several copies of Cross My Heart. And for anyone who hasn’t gone out and bought it…it is a awesome story!:cheer:
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The food sounds SOOO yummy. I got hungry thinking about it. I am SO excited there is another HOT ZONE story. Love those!!!!
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I gained weight just reading about all the yummy food. OH to have the opportunity to try the chocolate fountain once!
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I would have loved that chocolate fountain:thumbsup:
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Carly,
I was cleaningmy curio cabinet today and guess what I found. A MONKEY WOO HOO.:cooldance:
You sent it to me when my friend Tina wrote to you about our reading group Classy Ladies.
His name is SPANK from Under the Boardwalk
He can be my mascot for the PLOTMONKEYS
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I have to say, that chocolate fountain at the Harlequin party was absolutely AMAZING. I tried to be really good on my diet during the conference, but I didn’t deprive myself, either. I did try a small bite of those desserts at Dailey’s, and I had a few chocolate covered strawberries at the Harlequin party. But other than that, I ate lots of fruit, salads, and protien.
I weighed in yesterday, and I lost 3 more pounds — yeah!
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Yummy….you made everything sound wonderful. Thanks for sharing another area of nationals via the plotmonkeys with us.
I thought I knew how much I’ve become a plotmonkey addict until this morning when I couldn’t get on the site. OMG, it was terrible. :cry: But like the good plotmonkey addict that I have become I kept trying till finally there you were.
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Scales??? We don’t need no stinkin scales!!:thumbsup:
What fun is life if you can’t go off the diet every now and then? You had fun, sold books, hung out with old friends and made new ones. What more can you ask for?? Life is good!!:cooldance:
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That dessert looks like it is to kill for!
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Great blog about RWA & the food! I love to eat & part of the fun of traveling is trying good food & dessert is always on my menu!! Must be why I’ve been gaining weight the last 2 years!
Janelle, congratulations on loosing more weight! :thumbsup2: It is not easy when you are around good friends with lots of food at all meals & dessert! You should be proud. :happy2:
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Yummy. Thanks for the pics!
Your half chicken story reminds me of double dating for prom way back when in high school. My best friend and I both ordered the fresh half of a chicken off the dinner menu, and then spend the rest of the evening irritating our dates by contemplating what happened to the half of the chicken that wasn’t fresh.
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Thanks, Vicki, for checking back! We had a server glitch this morning. And there’s nothing wrong with being a Plotmonkey addict — we love seeing everyone here on a daily basis! :wave:
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What a wonderful time you all had at Atlanta…….the food sounds good, and it was all for a worthy cause…….but I agree scales are a depressing thing and who needs them………..Janelle congratulations on losing weight……And Carly I am with you I would not say anything about weight one way or the other, it would be my secret……….:lol:
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Congrats on your weight loss Janelle! I have been weighing myself once a week, so I know how it feels when you lose 3 pounds.
Thank you all for posting your pictures and stories from the conference. It sounds like everyone loved the food, and was very productive with future books.
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I have had so much fun reading about all of your adventures!
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Oh those WW 2 point bars…it’s hard to have just one, isn’t it?
What a great recap. At least you had the foresight to keep track of what you ate. I would have just gone into the “zone” and blocked it all out.
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Hi, all. Popping in to say thanks for the great week. :) I’ve been quiet but I’ve had a lot going on. I kept track of the food b/c we took pictures. What other nutcases DO that?
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Great pics, Carly! Ah, chocolate. . .how I love it! Thank goodness there wasn’t any chocolate fountains at the St. Martin’s party or I would have been in serious trouble:)
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All I can say is YUM!!:party:
I’m a southern girl so I now about the pitfalls of southern cookin’:doggie:
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Carly, just read through some of your articles – thank you SO MUCH – wonderful information!