Champagne & Chocolate

Okay, I didn't have any champagne. I was driving. I did have a little Pinot Grigio, though, and it was excellent. And the chocolate.... Oh, my.

Last night was the Houston Bay Area Chapter of RWA's Bookseller Reception at The Chocolate Bar in the Montrose area of Houston. And my-oh-my, the chocolate was everywhere! They had chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookies, chocolate cakes, chocolate cheesecakes and tortes and flan and pie and... Well, pretty much anything you could think of that can be made out of chocolate-- they had it.

I drove up from the island and picked up Dawn Temple (who's had a couple of books out from Silhouette Special Edition), Anne Marie Novark (who writes for Wild Rose Press) and Liz Webb, and Liz gave me directions to The Chocolate Bar so I didn't get lost, though it did feel a little squeezy maneuvering my big bus down those narrow streets. They weren't any narrower than Galveston streets, though, so I don't know why I felt squeezed... Maybe because there was even less parking... We carried all our stuff inside, then visited until the booksellers got off work and showed up.

One of them, Dana from the Barnes & Noble at Champions (I'm not real sure where that is, but it's on the other side of Houston from me) pulled My Book--New Blood--out of her purse and asked me to sign it. That really made me feel good. Like, totally wowed! And most of the others knew of my books, which also made me happy. :)

I got a piece of Miss Etta's chocolate cake. This was not any ordinary chocolate cake--though it had all the best things about chocolate cake going for it. It was moist and chocolatey and had gooey, shiny icing, and four (4!) layers, and cocoa dusted over the outside icing (up the side). It was a Huge piece of cake. I managed to eat about a third of it, and had to take a break. I think I ate 3 more bites, the rest of the evening. I also drank two bottles of water and a diet Coke. (I know. Eat huge amounts of chocolate cake, and drink diet soda... But chocolate takes longer to digest than corn syrup.) Anyway, it was fun, I had some Really good cake, and met some cool people. :)

So--there's what I have to say today.