SOLA and KMM
January 15, 2011 SOLA Writers RWA meeting in Metairie, LA / Karen Marie Moning’s Arrival for Fever Con in the French Quarter
Last Saturday, daughter in law Trish and I took off on another small writer’s adventure. We left around 6 a.m. and made it to the library in Metairie by 9:30 for the chapter’s monthly meeting. New York Times best selling author (and friend, I’m proud to say) Shirley Jump was there as a guest speaker and giving a condensed version of her workshop, From Good to SOLD. Attending this meeting gave Trish and I the opportunity to meet up with friends, Dawn Chartier and Debbie Dalme, as well as surprise another friend, Farrah Rochon, with our unexpected presence.
We got to witness as Charlotte Parker, their in-coming president, presided over her first meeting as Prez. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. sharp, and though Charlotte claimed to be nervous, I didn’t see any sign of it. She introduced the guest speaker, Shirley Jump, who spoke to a full house thanks to an advertisement in the previous week’s paper. Shirley has a remarkable way of giving you examples that make it easy to get her point across. After an hour of easy to follow lessons on plot, conflict, scene, sequel, dialogue, and showing versus telling, the meeting adjourned. I bought four books from Shirley, and had her authograph them for my soul sister, Arlene, and my daughters.
Everyone drove to the Picadilly down the street afterwards for lunch, where I got to spend another two hours talking to Shirley, Dawn, and Farrah, and getting to know other members of their hospitable group.
Le Pavillon Hotel in the the French Quarter of New Orleans
It just so happened that Karen Marie Moning, author of the Highlander and Fever series, was coming to New Orleans for the release of her latest book in the Fever series on the same day as the meeting. So Trish and I headed on down to the historically posh Le Pavillon Hotel in the French Quarter. Thank God Dawn led us there or we’d have been totally lost. While there, we met up with several other Fever Fans, a mother and her daughter, whom I truly believe I’ll be hearing from again…What do you say, Suzette and Christine?
We also met the absolutely adorable and sexy sounding Phil Gigante, who is the THE VOICE of Barrons in the audible version of the Fever books. He was sweet enough to take a photo with me, and even agreed to record a verrrry sexy message into my I Phone’s voice recorder. Unfortunately, after he left the hotel, I discovered that the entire time he thought he was recording, it was paused. RATS! And I was all ready to download the APP that would enable me to transfer it to this site as well as my blog. Let me just tell you ladies, here and now, it would have been a wonderful addition to my websites. What a set of pipes that man has to match his fantastic personality.
Trish and I would have LOVED to stay and get to know those women better, but we had to leave to make the three hour drive back home that same evening. So, instead of actually getting to meet and speak to Karen Moning, we had to be satisfied with watching her check into the hotel from several feet away. We left by four forty-five, just in time to avoid having to pay another three bucks to keep my car parked conveniently in front of the hotel. But still – that wasn’t bad for a spur of the moment trip to the French Quarter we hadn’t planned on making.
Many thanks to Debbie Dalme for calling her friend, Jennifer Zeffer and having her introduce us to everyone in their group. It was a blast and a truly enrichening addition to our trip to the SOLA Writers meeting.
Mais, chere, where I come from, we call that LAGNIAPPE! (lon-yop)
LoriLegerAuthor
Lori Leger's Cajunflair Blog 