Here I am in the hotel room, having some smokes, recharging the camera batteries as well as my own. And now for more "on the scene reports"...

After the saga of trying to get a large group of people to all be finished with their drinks, willing to move off of the Lobbibar Couches, actually walk to go get food *and* agree upon a cuisine all at the same time, some of us went in smaller groups to dinner last night. Carleen, M'Lou, Eileen, Ellen, KS and I went to dinner. I saw Jim Barker, Mitchy, Sarah, Judi & Jeff, and multiple other RAMmers waiting for the shuttle to go to dinner at another one or more places. They may still be standing there, trying to agree on a restaurant and type of food -- but perhaps someone found a clipboard to help guide them through it all.

The TartNoir panel this morning was well attended by RAMmers -- I believe we took up the first three rows -- or maybe more. Lauren Henderson, Vicki Hendricks, Laura Lippman, Chris Niles and Karin Slaughter all had a lively discussion about who is a Tart, writing about sex and violence, what the next generation of Tart authors might be doing, and so forth. When Vicki Hendricks started talking about dolphin penises, I figured it was all downhill from there....but the Tarts pulled out a save -- great panel, great fun, and I'm sure you'll hear more about it later.

Jeff and I met Patricia (Hurricane7) after breakfast, so I've now met all of the RAMmers except Bill Burgess. We are meeting in the bar at 6:00 for official RAM photos and debriefing. I haven't taken all that many photos this year because I've been too busy talking with people, running around, and/or deciding what books to buy.

Jon and Ruth seem to be very much up on the photo scene, so I know they'll have plenty to share with us all.

Okay, I'm off to the next round of panels, but I wanted to check in, even if briefly. Jeanne, I haven't found the author you asked me to look for yet....but I"m still looking.

OHHHHHH -- good news!!! RAMmer Steve Booth (who is very nice and quite handsome, but oddly didn't want to talk about goats very much) won an award last night! I can't find the award information right now, but it was a good award and he deserved it. ClapClapClap!!

Beth, now off to buy books with Ellen