Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Another behind-the-scenes funny: Beverly Jenkins is part of the Today segment (I hope) reading part of her novel, Jewel. Seems the producers wanted a sound bite or two of an actual romance novel, so Jenkins sat on a chair and read aloud the opening scene from the novel when the hero and heroine agree to pretend to be married for an hour. The posse of bloggers who were at the Borders with us, we were all entranced. It was like Story Time of Excellent with Beverly Jenkins. Then the reporter asked her to read a more “Romantic” scene, which meant, “one with the sex in it please.” So she obliged, and right about the part where Things Get Interesting (and Jenkins writes some fine, fine sex scenes) the reporter said, “OOOk, then that’s plenty!” And the camera men both spluttered, “No, wait! Keep going! It was just getting interesting!”

We now break for the Nora Roberts Shoe Report. Nora’s shoes yesterday were hot screaming red with awesome heels and strappy tops, which she paired with hot pink nail polish. Today was a mix of brown leather sandals with woven medallions, and lace-up flats worn with jeans. Nora’s Shoe Report will continue as long as she continues to change footwear and cause Sarah to ponder that perhaps the rumors are true, and Nora doesn’t have actual nerve endings in her feet.

The Marriott is amazing. Power outage or no power outage, this hotel is rocking my socks off, and I only have one pair with me so they better knock it off. Every single staff member is friendly to the point that I wonder what’s in the staff luncheon, and if it comes with a side order of happy pills and stock options. Seriously. Friendly people like damn and whoa. Plus, every time there is a major event, like a luncheon or the literacy signing, there’s hotel personnel every 10 or 20 feet helping direct traffic and answer questions. It’s amazing. I’m seriously deeply impressed with the staff here. They rock.

Tonight Jane, Candy, Kassia, Wendy the Super Librarian and I had dinner with the Harlequin Digital Team, where there was seafood and bodacious conversation. They wanted to know more about how we viewed ebooks and digital media (No more DRM plskthxbye) and along for the ride was a British film maker who is developing a documentary on romance readers- the real ones. She started by interviewing folks in the UK as part of the Mills&Boon Centennial, and she realized that if she wanted to appreciate the scope of the readership of romance, she needed to hop across the pond (Then across the rest of the US) to investigate American romance readership. The manner in which she discussed her project seemed to indicate that she’s after a respectful and thorough documentary about us romance fans – which makes me ineffably happy.

Alas, my jet lag is getting in the way of more bits o’ recap, so tune in tomorrow for Tweeting and blogging and general merriment.

Tomorrow there may be Olympic events on the schedule, but there’s definitely a Bitching Happy Hour on the docket: 330 pm Local time at the Thirsty Bear, 661 Howard Street, which is about two blocks away from the hotel. I hope we see you there.