Free Goodies From ALA Part 2

As mentioned in a previous post, I attended the American Library Association Conference in New Orleans at the end of June.  My first panel was mystery authors ( see part 1). My next panel discussion was a Romance panel  titled "Isn't It Romantic" with Julie James,  Stephanie Laurens, Robyn Carr, Brenda Jackson, and Adrienne McDonnell. It was interesting to hear about the previous careers of these well known writers. Julie James was a lawyer, Stephanie Laurens was a cancer researcher, Robyn Carr had a nursing degree and wrote for years before being published. Brenda Jackson has a business degree and worked for years in insurance management. Adrienne McDonnell is a college literature professor. 

All of the authors talked about how they got into Romance and who their inspirations were- Stephanie Laurens was a Georgette Heyer fan and Brenda Jackson was a Katherine Woodiwiss fan. Her son is named Brandon after one of the late writer's characters. All of the women told their stories and talked about their new works. They all agreed that Romance gets a bad name by "serious" authors but that Romance books were the first ones to address women's issues like domestic violence, date rape, divorce, single parenthood, and many others.

After the discussion books were handed out and signed. Here's my stash;

Julie James-  A Lot Like love

Stephanie Laurens-  It Happened One night, The Reckless Bride, ARC of Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue ( her next trilogy)

      Brenda Jackson-A Silken Thread
    
      Robyn Carr-Harvest Moon

      Adrienne McDonnell- The Doctor & the Diva

Later on in the Penguin booth, I got free signed copies of Nalini Singh's new hardcover- Kiss of Snow and and older paperback- Play of Passion.  I also got The Heir and The Soldier from Grace Burrows at the Harlequin booth. She is a new author to me but I have enjoyed reading the first book and am starting the second.

So, it was a great conference for me- lots of knowledge and lots of freebies!

Gotta go read now!