I wanted to report on a few of the highlights of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference so the usual Monday Colorado Author feature will return next week. I will, however, be mentioning a few of our authors in this post, just to whet your appetite for more good books to come.

First, I have great news. My RMFW friend Kimberly Savage won the writing contest in the action/thriller category. And David Jessup, a member of our Northern Colorado Writers, won the contest in the mainstream category. Although I didn’t know any of the other finalists and winners, I understand the quantity of submissions has grown and the quality of submissions was outstanding. In addition to all the great Colorado talent, we had several out-of-state finalists as well. Kinda takes my breath away to think of all those hard-working writers doing the things they need to do to get published (and a wonderful pool of future subjects for my blog).

On Friday, I served as a registration volunteer for a couple of hours before heading off for workshop duty. I moderated or attended the agents’ panel, the editors’ panel, and workshops on publicity and promotion, Twitter, personal networking, character development (that’s fictional character development, not author’s character development), and a wonderful workshop given by literary agent Janet Reid on what authors have to know and do for themselves when they do not have agents.

Friday night I participated in the all-author book sale and signing. In between sessions and at meals, I caught up with old friends, made a bunch of new friends, made a couple of excellent business connections, and finally arrived home totally frazzled.

The people connection is always the best part of a conference, but the second best thing is the exposure to books, books, books. Joe Finder was one of our honored guests this weekend, and I now have a signed copy of his new release, Vanished. Joe is not a Colorado author, but he was so darned likable, I figured the book has to be good.

I brought home a list of new (or at least new to me) Colorado authors for future reference, but I bought a few books as well. First on the list was the newly released Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives.

Next, I was interested in reading something from Pamela Nowak because she was the chairperson for this year’s Colorado Gold conference and I found her to be charming and energetic and efficient. Her new release Is Choices, so that’s the one I now own.

A favorite Colorado thriller author, Bonnie Ramthun, recently released her first YA novel, The White Gates, so I took this opportunity to buy a copy, after which I tracked her all the way to the lobby for her signature.

And finally, after listening to Warren Hammond discuss his sci-fi noir kop and ex-kop, I was hooked on the character and the story line. I purchased both books, and was lucky enough to catch Warren in the book room for an impromptu, personal signing.

I know. I’m a big klutzy fan with a book addiction. Can’t help it.