The Golden Apple Awards

Last night we had our annual reception for our members and the publishing industry, and I'm happy to report it was a huge success. Everyone loved our new venue, and I managed to keep the awards portion of the evening to around 20 minutes, giving attendees more time to mingle and drink. I was smart, I waited until after the awards presentation before having a drink. I'd never been so happy to see a glass of champagne in my life.

Our Honorees were:

Librarian of the Year: Roxanne Campagna

Bookseller of the Year: Diane Sanders

Publisher of the Year: St. Martin's Press

Editor of the Year: Anna Genoese, TOR

Author of the Year: Eloisa James

Lifetime Achievement Award: Shirley Hailstock

Our Reception Chair, Darlene James, did a phenomenal job putting it together. My hat is off to her. I know hard it is to plan the reception. I did it for three years.

The Highs:

1) Having a certain agent tell me that if she had known how great our reception was, she would have shown up to collect her award when we honored her.

2) Chatting with Anna Genoese, who was our editor of the year. She's an absolute doll. When I pitched my romantic comedy chick-lit paranormal, she suggested that I send it to Natasha Panza, who I then pitched it to. Anna prefers dark paranormals which I'm not a big fan of myself.

3) Handing out our beautiful awards, and the gorgeous placques that were made by one of our members.

4) All the members who came out and volunteered to help that night.

5) The family of our librarian of the year, Roxanne Campagna who unfortunately passed away after suffering from ALS. Her husband and both of her sons came to the event. I get emotional just thinking about the lovely speech her husband gave.

6) Meeting author Sheila York (Star Struck Dead). Sheila and I both worked at Morgan Stanley at the same time, and a mutual colleague kept trying to introduce us but it never happened. I'm happy to report that she's an utter delight, and I'm so happy that she's joined our chapter.

7) The new members who came, and the potential new members who plucked up the courage to come. Hopefully they'll joing the chapter.

The Lows:

1) Not enough air conditioning. It got a little hot, with so many bodies in a small space.

2) Not having enough time to prepare the bios to introduce the honorees. In fact, we ended up not having one for Anna Genoese. Next time, I'll start preparing as soon as we make our decisions.

3) Having too much food, which we ended up donating to several homeless shelters. And not having enough booze.

I'd also make sure that I was at the entrance greeting people. I don't know how we're going to top ourselves next year for our twentieth anniversary but I'm sure we'll try.