omnis, I adore you and totally dig the wanting to have it in your back yard, but Romance Writers of America is headquartered in Texas and every few years we have national conference in Dallas. I've been to Dallas twice in the last four years and Houston one other time. If we're to do Texas can we lobby for Austin? San Antonio?

Those would be my top two Texas choices. Sorry, omnis.

Hey, we're putting the cart before the horse here (at least until year after next). We're east coast next year :)

Hey, we're putting the cart before the horse here (at least until year after next). We're east coast next year :)

I know... I know... I just have knee-jerk reactions to Dallas. That was the conference where we were assaulted by the Mary Kay ladies having their conference at the same time we were. Trapped in elevators and heckled in hallways. Only place we could escape them was the bar since they're not allowed to drink in public.

Awww. It would be like the good old days. Corsets and kilts in elevators with church groups.

There were Mary Kay ladies at the hotel where a bunch of us stayed for the last math conference I went to. It was weird. They were all perky in the morning, and talking about sales techniques. Something about super-gluing a penny to your business card, that would make people more likely to call you.

I lobbied for Houston last year (last year? Madison was central, right?) and there was pretty much no interest. And now I don't live there any more.

I would love to have it in Austin, and I have friends with mad planning skills who would coordinate it for us (seriously, event planning is part of their jobs and they are total Buffistas and don't know it). But Vortex is right, we probably shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves.

I was so sorry I missed Madison. I'm still kinda in shock that I already have my tickets for Seattle.

Awww. It would be like the good old days. Corsets and kilts in elevators with church groups.

Ah yes. Scaring the straights, to quote Peter Venkman. Good times.