Enjoyable Romance Writers Meeting

 

Last Saturday I attended the Orange County Romance Writers Celebration of Romance. It was similar to the former annual Birthday Bash held by OCRW’s predecessor organization, the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America.

 It was held in Brea, California, as most meetings of that changing organization are, which is about 50 miles from my home. I’m not used to making that kind of a drive these days, even though I commuted to Brea for a couple of years when I worked as a lawyer for Union Oil Company of California years ago. And yes, even though it was Saturday, there was traffic. 

But the meeting was worth it, seeing old friends including a couple I was close to but hadn’t seen for a very long time. There were three sessions in the morning where you could choose a table to sit at based on your favorite topic at the time, and one longer session with a single presenter in the afternoon. In between, there was lunch.  Plus, there were contests such as one for who wore the best romance costume to the event, and the best cover art in several different categories. In addition, I was given three decorative artificial roses to celebrate three of my most recent published romance books. When I used to go to monthly meetings I collected roses for each of my then-latest books but that stopped when the meetings stopped a couple years ago. 

It was definitely an enjoyable event, and we were given a schedule of upcoming virtual and live and combined meetings. I’ll look forward to more to come.