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Nora Roberts's |
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Bethie's Report from Louisville
I was so excited to be seeing Nora for the first time. Especially since the signing was close enough for me to attend, and it happened to be on my birthday. My husband and I drove up from Tennessee where we live in the central time zone area. I thought Louisville was in that time zone too, but we soon found out our mistake when we drove by the airport and saw we lost an hour! We had hoped to arrive about an hour early, as it was we would be pushing it to make it on time. Not to mention that it was rainy and we were cautious about the roads. We soon arrived at the B & N bookstore where Nora was already starting her Q & A session. I quickly grabbed a “ticket”, which turned out to be a calendar page. I looked at it and noticed I had June 1st, and then I asked this gentleman if he knew Liz. I was supposed to talk with her about Nora signing my ARC of Blue Dahlia that I had won on ADWOFF. Nora already knew about it (signing the book) and wanted me to talk to Liz so she could clear it with B & N, since no books from home were being signed. I was shown to the manager who told me Liz was up front with Nora somewhere close to the cookbooks. Well, that didn’t help out much because I didn’t know what she looked like, so I made my way over in that general direction where lo and behold I saw BW. I knew he would know who Liz was, but he was talking to someone so I went to listen to Nora. I’ll try to remember as well as I can what I heard asked and the replies.
She was getting asked some of the questions that people ask her every time she goes on tour. Yes, the infamous “When are Eve and Roarke going to have a baby?” was asked. I think you could hear a few groans by those of us that already know that one. Nora replied with a question for a show of hands to all of us that were married with children, “How are your sex lives now that you have children?” she asked us. To that you could hear a lot of laughing, some muttering, and a few shouted none. Basically a baby equals NO SEX for Eve and Roarke because children change your life, and she didn’t want to change the tone of the series.
She was asked if her children shared her talent of writing. She replied that both were excellent writers, and that her oldest (Dan) had won a contest for the local paper when he was in elementary school. You could tell how proud she was of him. She went on to talk about how her boys knew what a job it was for her to write. For example, they saw how she would be sitting in front of a keyboard for hours without any human interaction. She said both her sons were too sociable and wanted to be around people, and then she replied, “Where did I go wrong?” She received a lot of laughs.
Nora was asked about how she felt about a movie being made from her books. She said that no matter how the movie turned out that her book stayed the same. She knew that people would take artistic license with her work when writing for movies, but that didn’t change what she had written.
Someone asked why she wrote by both Nora Roberts and JD Robb to which she replied that she just saw it as great marketing like Diet Pepsi, Regular Pepsi, etc. They were still basically the same product, but you were given more choices.
Someone else asked why she was suddenly interested in all this “paranormal” stuff like the Three Witches and the Key Trilogy. Nora replied that she had always had an interest in magic and the unknown. She mentioned that some of her Silhouette titles dealt with those elements as well.
Someone asked when “Summerset was going to get a lady and would she and Eve get along”. Nora responded with something along the lines of if the story calls for it and it fits...
I thought that I would put in a plug for her new In the Garden trilogy by asking a question about her new trilogy, so I asked if she could tell us a little bit about her new trilogy coming out. She had a huge grin on her face and said it (Blue Dahlia) would be out Tuesday and went on to give a synopsis of the story.
I finally talked to BW at some time during the Q & A and told him about the situation and asked him about Liz, but he told me she was standing with Nora. He told me he could say something to her for me after Nora finished with the Q & A but didn’t want to go up there yet because he was afraid he would interrupt Nora. He was very nice, and he went to tell Nora after she had finished with the questions that I was there.
Next, they started getting everyone that had a January calendar date to line up, so they could get their books signed. I knew it would be a while before I could get my books signed, so I went ahead and grabbed another copy of Northern Lights and a copy of Moon Shadows and took them to be paid for. My husband and I were getting ready to settle in for a long wait. I had been looking around to see if I could see any other ADWOFFers there. I knew what April (kinsa) was going to be wearing and what her friend looked like, and I knew Jody (S&Hs Mom) was going to be carrying a Halloween bag. Then, I spotted someone in a black turtleneck with a turquoise scarf, which was what April (kinsa) said she would be wearing. I noticed that she was standing next to a lady with reddish/auburn hair, which was how she described her friend, Tish. Ha! There was April! I nudged my husband and told him that was April from the board.
They were already getting into line for the signing. January was almost done and they already had the month of February to line up. They were all in this line. I told my husband I would wait for them to get through the line, and then I was going to introduce myself to them. I was getting more excited just thinking about it. Then I noticed they were looking in my direction. I was unsure if they were looking at me, but I wanted to wave at them. Then I overheard them say something about ADWOFF, or is there anyone here from ADWOFF. That’s when I quickly waved my hand and they were like “Bethie, is that you?” I said that it was and they asked if I had a ticket. I told them I had one for June, and Jody (S&Hs Mom) said she had an extra ticket for February and told me I could have it. God Bless her.
I went and got into line with them, and we quickly chatted about all sorts of things. Jody had grabbed an extra ticket that morning thinking maybe April or someone might need it, but April and her friend Tish was so excited about getting there they arrived at 9:00 that morning. I thanked Jody for the extra ticket. I was so grateful that I was not going to have to stand for several more hours on legs that we already tired. I showed them my ARC of Blue Dahlia, and we talked about ADWOFF and the ARC contests. We all talked about getting a group picture with Nora so we could write up a report. I also met the lady behind me in line, Cheryl, and she said she mostly lurked on the board. Of course, I encouraged them to post. I was so excited to finally be meeting people from the board that the time flew by and we were soon at Nora’s table. I saw Liz and she told me there would be no problem with getting Blue Dahlia signed. Just one of the great perks with winning an ARC on ADWOFF is that Nora personalizes the book for you. Since I was going to the signing, Nora thought it okay to just go ahead and sign it for me then instead of having me send it to Turn The Page Bookstore to get it signed.
Finally it was my turn in line and I was so excited. I had so many thought running through my head of things I wanted to say to her. I remembered her saying “You’re Bethie?” I think I said yes or nodded my head. She congratulated me on being the winner of the ARC contest. She mentioned that she didn’t even have a galley of the book, and she asked me how I liked Blue Dahlia. I told her I had read some of it, and that she had me crying in the beginning of the book. She agreed that it was sad. I told her today was my birthday, and I’m 27 years old. Nora said I was just a baby at 27. This made me smile. Then one of the other ADWOFFers mentioned I was pregnant. I told Nora I was 26 weeks and she patted my stomach and said I was “barely showing”. Of course with what I was wearing it is hard to see, but I am indeed showing. That was a cool moment when Nora patted my baby. I reminded her of the stupid question I had asked and her on the board and her reply about bringing my OB to the signing. She remembered it. We chatted about a few other things, and then it was time for the group picture. We all gathered in and had our pictures taken. Then it was time to move on. I was so revved up. I couldn’t believe that I had finally met Nora. She is as sweet and gracious as you could imagine.
It was great to finally meet a few ADWOFFers too. They are all very sweet ladies. I look forward to seeing them all again, sometime. While we were in the line talking, I found out that Ottis was there as well. It seems that she had over heard them talking about ADWOFF and had introduced herself to them. I wish I could have met Nancy. However, I didn’t know where she had taken off, and they didn’t see her around. We left soon after because my husband was missing the UT game. In the store and all during that day, I felt like I was in a wonderful dream. I know I must have had a smile on my face all day long. When we got in the car headed home, I looked over the pictures on our digital camera, and some turned out really great. My husband surprised me by taking a video on the camera of almost my entire conversation with Nora at the signing. He’d missed the beginning, but it was a minute long. It is funny how one minute of your life can mean so much to you. It just depends on what is packed into that minute, I guess. I will definitely have to go to a signing again.
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 Jody (S&Hs Mom), April (kinsa), & Nora |
ADWOFF > NORA'S TOURS > Northern Lights Tour > Louisville > Bethie's Report
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