Five-ish Thoughts on...RomCon Day 0

RomCon 2012 is a reader-focused romance convention held every year in Denver, and this is my first time attending (yay!). It doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but I flew into Denver this morning to acclimate and hang out with my (very pregnant) best friend. I also ran into my beloved fellow 2011 Golden Heart finalist Maire Claremont (she won the historical category!) and her partner in crime Delilah Marvelle, who is hosting the Chocolate Mangasm party on Saturday - it’s supposed to be 100 degrees this weekend, so things could get messy. But I digress. Without further ado…Five-ish Thoughts on RomCon Day 0

1) Conference centers should maybe think about what events are booked at the same time. RomCon doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, and maybe this other event ends today, but right now there’s a bizarre overlap between the pre-RomCon events and a conference for Korean Christians. Our giveaway bags have all sorts of inappropriate things; their giveaway room has religious tracts in Korean. And while I was watching the cover model photo shoot (more on that below), the rousing sounds of piano hymns on their side came through the movable wall while the photographer on our side ordered people to take clothes off, flex abs, look fierce, etc. Awkwardest photo shoot ever!

2) Male cover models do a lot of push-ups. I watched one guy casually hold a girl in his arms for five or ten minutes (yum), take a break, and then start doing push-ups. Apparently on long shoots they have to do push-ups to keep the blood flowing so their arms are as defined as possible. I didn’t question the physics of this, since I was too busy enjoying the show, but the amount of work these models put into staying defined and photo-ready is incredible.

3) Cover models aren’t just defined - they’re dehydrated. One model walked into the shoot saying that he couldn’t wait to be done so he could drink water again. They cut back on fluids to be as lean and tight as possible. I heard a rumor from one of them that some of them do it by drinking alcohol the night before, but I think as you get older, drinking the night before is a recipe for a puffy face and a vertigo-inducing hangover. Er, not that I have any experience with that. Again, this job is not for the faint of heart.

4) People give you funny looks if your carry-on sized bag weighs 50lbs. I checked a roll-aboard sized bag filled with excerpt booklets to give out at RomCon, and it weighed in at 49.6lbs. It wasn’t overweight, but they tagged it ‘heavy’ anyway to warn the poor baggage handlers that this bag felt like a pile of rocks rather than clothes for an easy weekend getaway. By the way, if you want an excerpt booklet, find me at RomCon or RWA Nationals or email me your mailing address (mailto:dearsara@sararamsey.com) - we’ve got Regency excerpts from Sabrina Jeffries’s Christmas novella, as well as Darcy Burke, Leigh LaValle, Heather Snow, Erin Knightley, and Valerie Bowman.

5) San Francisco has made me weak. I grew up in Iowa, but now I can only tolerate a narrow band of temperatures between 55 and 70 degrees. If the excitement of hanging out with a bunch of romance readers and writers all weekend doesn’t kill me, the heat or the desiccating lack of humidity might. I’ll be the mummified body over by the bar.

That’s it for the unofficial day before RomCon! If I don’t pass out from dehydration or exhaustion (which is actually dehydration/exhaustion, not code for an overdose like the Hollywood starlets use), I’ll post a recap of Day 1 tomorrow!

Anzac Day!

I haven't posted in ages, but it's Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (or rather, it was yesterday for them...it's already tomorrow there, if I'm not being too confusing). Anzac Day is April 25, and while I won't claim any sort of expertise on the history of Australia, New Zealand, or their armed forces, I did go through a slightly obsessive phase over World War I and World War II. And I visited Australia and New Zealand for four weeks in 1999, which was totally amazing. And whenever I go to Europe I meet awesome Australian travelers, who are always the most fun to hang out with in random situations. And I loooooove that "Down Under" song by Men At Work, which I probably shouldn't admit...

Anyway. Anzac Day. Anzac Day commemorates the veterans of all wars that Australia and New Zealand have fought in, but it initially started as a remembrance of the landing at Gallipoli in 1915, when Australians and New Zealanders (Anzacs), as part of the Allied forces, invaded that part of Turkey seeking to control the Dardanelles and the sea route to Istanbul, Russia and the Black Sea. The casualties on both sides were massive, ultimately resulting in a Turkish victory many months later. But even though Gallipoli was small in comparison to the brutal, dragging, disastrous trench warfare of the Western Front, it had a major impact on the development of the national identities of Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey, which at that point was part of the last gasp of the Ottoman Empire but eventually remade itself as a democratic, secular society.

You can read all about Anzac Day and Gallipoli on Wikipedia or any number of other resources on the web, but I'll leave you with two quotes:

I do not order you to fight, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can come forward and take our places. - Lt. Col. Mustafa Kemel's orders to the Ottoman 57th Infantry on the morning of the invasion, when the defenders had run out of ammo and only had bayonets left. All of the 57th either died or were wounded at Gallipoli, and Mustafa Kemel went on to become Ataturk and lead independent Turkey.

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Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, Who sent their sons from far away countries Wipe away your tears, Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace After having lost their lives on this land they have Become our sons as well. - Dedication read by Ataturk (Mustafa Kemel) in 1934, during the first commemoration by Anzac veterans at Gallipoli.

The pictures are from the Australian War Memorial in London, and I took these when I visited in 2008. It's a really lovely setting - at Hyde Park Corner, opposite the southeast corner of Hyde Park (steps from Rotten Row), in the same little park as the Wellington Arch, and across Piccadilly Street from Apsley House (Wellington's home, which is now a great little museum).

And that's my bit of Anzac Day remembrance - not at all related to the Regency, but my love of history and deep, abiding empathy/sympathy/fascination/sadness for those who fought and died in both world wars sometimes trumps the Regency. I hope to blog more regularly, though, so look for more Regency ramblings soon!

Back From the Dead

I'm sitting in a friend's apartment in New York City, about to relocate to the Marriott for the Romance Writers of America annual convention. I must apologize for the abrupt, unusual silence on the blog; I've had quite the spring, including a three-week roadtrip involving 4500 miles of driving around the Great American West and a sudden unplanned move to a new apartment in San Francisco. But, once the conference (and a two-week trip to Germany for a friend's Indian/Scottish wedding immediately after the conference) is over, I shall blog again in earnest! Check back this week for updates, though - I've got a lot of exciting events coming up, including breakfast with Sarah Maclean and Sophie Jordan, dinners with the 2009 and 2011 Golden Heart finalists, and the Golden Heart awards ceremony (where all shall be revealed). It's all going to be fun, and I can't wait to share it with you.

RWA Nationals: Day -1 Recap

I should have known that going to bed at 2am would force me to have a late start this morning -- and unless I get this posted, I'm going to repeat the cycle tonight, so this will be much briefer.  But despite my laziness, I had another excellent day. I managed to make it out the door by noon, and I had a great sandwich at Lawson's in Dupont Circle. It wasn't in the top five of sandwiches I've ever had, but I think part of that was my ordering mistake -- a Californian turkey sandwich sounded great, but the avocado here can't possibly be as fresh as the avocado in SF, which was a shame. However, the turkey was outstanding -- it was freshly carved off a still-warm turkey roast. And, I do love me some sandwiches, so it was the perfect lunch. After lunch, I headed back to the National Archives. Ironically, the line was in exactly the same place that it was when I aborted my attempt yesterday -- but, it moved quickly, and it was very well worth it. I saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on a previous trip with my family in the 1990s, but it was cool and v. moving to see them again. Then, since I didn't have my family with me, I took the time to peruse the rest of the exhibits and read every placard in the place. They have some very cool stuff, and because it's the 75th anniversary of the Archives, there were a few things out that usually aren't (such as the original 13-foot scroll of the Articles of Confederation). I have a feeling that there's a bit of a turf war between the National Archives and the Library of Congress, since they preserve somewhat similar things and are only a mile away from each other -- I would love it if their staffs occasionally get into gang-style street fights over black market documents.

Next, I went to the Sackler Gallery, which is a Smithsonian museum focused on Asian art. They had a special exhibit called "Tsars and the East," which highlighted gifts that the Russian tsars received from Turkish and Iranian delegations in the 16th-17th centuries. I've seen fabulous Russian treasures before, but because these treasures were created by some of the best artists and artisans of the Islamic world, it was all quite different from some of the more classically Russian pieces. There was a lot of interesting merging of traditional Iranian/Ottoman design (curved watered-steel sabers, Arabic verses, and geometric patterns) with elements that would appeal to the tsars and Orthodox patriarchs whom the items were destined for (crosses, opulent embroidery, even a couple of icons and a gorgeous box designed to hold the communion wafers/wine).

Seriously, while the Russian nobles lived a fairly backwards (by our standards) existence and engaged in levels of brutality against their serfs and each other that make modern people cringe, they did have some amazingly opulent stuff. One of the items was a mace, which looked quite lethal, but the head of the mace was pure gold. There were ruby-encrusted stirrups (that were actually used in processions), saddle blankets embroidered with gold thread, a gem-covered waterskin with a rock crystal stopper, a drinking horn banded with gold and stones, fabulous bejeweled daggers, swords, and scabbards, and one sword whose hilt and scabbard were covered with so many precious gems that the item was once considered the most expensive and valuable item in the entire Kremlin collection. It's no wonder most of the tsars were so insane -- if you live your life surrounded by such extreme wealth in the midst of a poverty-stricken country, venerated by all and never, ever crossed, it must be easy to treat others' lives carelessly.

After getting my fill of the tsars and seeing some of the other exhibits, I made my way back to my hotel, chatted with my parents, and took a quick, restorative nap before getting ready to go out again. I met up with some of my fellow Golden Heart finalists for dinner -- I've interacted with many of them online, but this was the first time I've met anyone in person. I had a really lovely conversation with the woman sitting next to me, and also chatted with some of the other people around me. Then, I walked back to the Metro station with another woman who was sitting farther down the table, and we had a nice discussion while waiting for the train. All in all, it was great to put some names and faces together, and I'm looking forward to meeting many, many more people in the coming days.

When I got back to my hotel, I took the last opportunity I'll have for awhile to put in some downtime, talking to one of my best friends while painting my fingernails. But now, I really must sleep -- tomorrow I have to repack and move to the conference hotel, and then things really take off! Wish me luck -- and if you're at the conference, say hi!

RWA Nationals: Day -2 Recap

Yes, I realize that "Day -2" may not make sense. However, I arrived in D.C. two days early to sightsee/take a break from the day job, and so it feels like the convention has already started even though the fun doesn't really kick into gear until Wednesday. On the whole, I was determined to have the best day possible despite only sleeping for four hours on my redeye flight from San Francisco. I arrived at my hotel at 8am, after a nice conversation with my Afghani cab driver (we discussed India and the former Soviet Union, since we both lived there at different points), and was serendipitously able to check in early. I took an hour to freshen up and plan my activities for the day, and then forced myself to leave before the thought of going to bed lured me to ruin.

My first stop was the Library of Congress. This is an absolute must-see for any writer, reader, bibliophile, or history buff. The building itself is gorgeous, in that ornate, over-the-top way that you usually only see in European palaces, replete with statues, murals, mosaics, and acres of marble floors. For whatever reason, I'm totally in love with the mythology around Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom (and, according to Wikipedia, "peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts, reason...and heroic endeavor"), and so I appreciated the giant tiled mosaic of Athena/Minerva in the Great Hall. I salivated over the grand reading room, a circular temple to books surrounded on the second-story balcony by some of the most revered Dead White Men of the arts.  They also have one of the best-preserved copies of the Gutenberg Bible -- and yes, I know that I should think this is awesome, given that the printing press changed the world, but a) I had already seen another copy in the British Library, and b) let's face it, mechanical printing just cannot inspire the same awe as the manuscript illumination techniques that it replaced.

But I think my favorite part of the Library was the exhibit on the foundations of America, captured through drafts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and various contemporary letters and books. The gallery led up to a room holding a recreation of all of the books in Thomas Jefferson's private library (a combination of the books he sold to the US and exact-edition replacements of the portion of his library destroyed by fire in the 1850s). I may be in love with my Kindle now, but will I someday regret not having a library that can stand the test of time? Then again, it's not like I'm reading Plutarch and Plato, so perhaps the Library of Congress wouldn't be interested in my collection anyway.

Overwhelmed and in love and filled with the desire to go forth and read every book in existence, I walked out into the gorgeous summer day and set off in the direction of the National Mall. After walking past the Capitol, inadvertently checking out a Capitol policeman on a bike (I claim this as research), and strolling past staffers and tourists sitting around the Capitol Reflecting Pool, I made it to my next stop -- the relatively new Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian system.

The building itself is worth seeing -- with its curving lines, its warm stone, and the gardens and cascading waterfalls around it, it felt like a particularly lush version of the cliff-dwellings of some of the Southwest tribes. Even better, my first stop was their cafe, and I recommend it if you're looking for someplace to eat on the Mall. Since entrance to all of the Smithsonian museums is free, you can go to the cafe anytime. It is cafeteria style, with different stations representing five different traditional cuisines of the Americas. My tray ended up being somewhat random -- chicken mole verde tacos, shrimp and scallop ceviche, and tortilla chips that I added to eat the ceviche with. The tacos were perfect, as was the salsa that came with the chips; the ceviche was slightly disappointing, but I think that's because I realized too late that there were many other things I would have rather tried, since I can get ceviche in San Francisco quite easily. Then again, I can also get Mexican food, but these tacos were quite different, and so well worth the choice.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the museum itself. The curators seem to have done quite a good job of working with the various tribes to tell their own unique stories and shed light on the traditional ways while exploring how their lives have changed in the five hundred years since Columbus's arrival. Perhaps I have an overdeveloped sense of empathy, but some of the exhibits made me a bit teary-eyed (particularly when considering the devastating impact that disease had on the inhabitants of the Americas, and -- again, I'm betraying my bibliophilia -- thinking about all we lost when Cortez burned the Aztec libraries).

By this time, it was almost three o'clock, and my energy was rapidly failing. I made an aborted attempt to see the National Archives, but since I've seen them before and the wait was 45 minutes, I decided to try again tomorrow. I came back to my hotel and took a two-hour nap; as a sign of how dead tired I was, when my alarm went off it took forever for me to figure out what the sound was, and then I thought it was 5:30am.

As tempting as it was to stay in bed, I dragged myself up, redressed, and eventually made it out in search of dinner. My hotel is right on Dupont Circle, and I walked down one of the streets radiating off the circle in search of Five Guys Burgers. It's apparently home to the best burgers in D.C., and reviewers on Yelp compared it favorably to California's In-n-Out chain. I had their regular burger (actually a double cheeseburger) and fries. The burger was undeniably tasty, and I scarfed it down -- but I didn't think the fries were either crispy enough of soft enough, and instead were in some sort of weird in-between place that I wasn't a fan of. Then again, I'm not a fan of In-n-Out's fries either, since I think they sometimes taste too starchy. Ultimately, in the battle between Five Guys and In-n-Out, I think it comes down to two things: 1) Five Guys doesn't have milkshakes, and 2) a review they posted on their wall got it right when it said something along the lines of "Five Guys has the ambience of a large tiled bathroom". In-n-Out is tiled too, but it seems brighter and a little bit cleaner. So, In-n-Out is victorious, but I would eat at Five Guys again if I'm back in the area and in search of a delicious heart attack.

I wrapped up my night on the patio of a nearby Starbucks, planning out which activities/workshops to attend at the conference. So, all in all, it was a great day -- I didn't push myself as hard to sightsee as perhaps I should have, but since my top priority is being prepped for Nationals, I don't regret it at all. I have more sightseeing planned for tomorrow, followed by dinner with some of my fellow Golden Heart finalists. Wednesday's coming all too fast!

Are you going to Nationals? Alternatively, do you have recommendations for what I should see in D.C.?