Target Tampa: Friday

The Target Tampa weekend was packed with activities, so I'm going to break them down into smaller sections. Knowing me, though, each day's report will be long. LOL!

Quote of the Day: "Writing is like making your mental illness work for you."
--Suzanne Brockmann, in a discussion about creating characters that come to life

Kickoff Session: 2:00-4:00 PM
Target Tampa officially started on Friday at 2:00 PM. The agenda said backlist signings would start immediately, so I packed my bag with Suzanne Brockmann books and headed to the Bayview One room (where most of the events were held). I arrived a little early, saw that Catherine Mann was also there, so I ran back to my room to get her books, too. When I got back, several people were already in line, so I figured I'd better go while the line was short.

There were about 10 people in front of me. One of them was Cheryl, who flew in from London, England for the event. We had a nice chat about how long we've been reading Suz's books. She had only four books to be signed; she didn't bring all of her collection because she didn't want to lug them around. I noticed that most people had between 7-12 books. I was definitely on the high end. I had 28 books and 1 book on tape for Suz to sign.

The line moved slowly because Suz likes to spend time talking with each person. When I got to the front of the line, it was after 3:00. I introduced myself and gave her a picture I had taken of a street sign near my house. The street is Cosmo Drive. (Cosmo is the hero of Hot Target, so I thought she'd get a kick out of it.) This might be a good time to mention that a Suzanne Brockmann event is probably the one place I can go where (1) people are very likely to remember my name, and (2) they're also able to pronounce it correctly. It was a nice change.

I had my picture taken with her, then we chatted a little about where I was from, how long I've been reading her books, which book I read first, and what I do for a living. She was surprised when I said I had only been reading her books since March 2004, and she asked how many books I read each day. I told her I read more than 300 books last year, so it averaged out to less than one a day. I do read quickly.



I apologized for bringing so many books for her to sign, and she said that there was no reason to apologize for enjoying her books so much that I had bought so many of them. She said, "This is a guilt-free weekend." When my books were signed, I had spent about 15 minutes with her and was thrilled with the opportunity I had to visit with her.

Next, I moved to Catherine Mann's line. Many people had started with her line, so it was shorter at this point. I have all of Catherine's books except one, so I had 10 books for her to sign. When I sat down, she looked at my name tag and said, "Oh, I've seen you on the board." When I was first thinking about attending Target Tampa, I went to Suz's message board and asked how her signings worked, how many books we could bring, and so on. Catherine responded and said she would sign everything I brought. It was really nice that she remembered me.



Anyway, I had my picture taken with her, then she signed my books. I told her how much I loved Taking Cover, and she said that she loved writing it. She had her upcoming release, Explosive Alliance, for sale, and I bought one. Once she had signed everything, it was 4:00.

Movie Club Discussion: 4:00-5:00 PM
Suz talked for an hour about movies, TV, and books she enjoyed. I learned that she started reading about World War II when she was 11, and she read everything she could find. She also talked about how she likes stories with strong friendships. I noticed that she likes sci-fi, such as Star Trek, ST: Next Generation, and Quantum Leap.

Dinner with Suz: 6:00-8:00 PM
People who paid to attend the entire Target Tampa weekend had a meal with Suz and Catherine. I was in the second group, which had dinner with them on Friday. Catherine sat at our table for the first 30 or so minutes, then Suz sat there for the next 30, and Ed (Suz's husband) and Eric (Suz's best friend) for the last 30. This gave us more time with the authors. Catherine asked about what books and TV shows we liked. She also told the story of how she met her husband--they met and were engaged in 10 days! I can't remember what Suz talked about (bad, bad Alyssa!). Ed and Eric entertained us with stories about funny things that have happened during book tours.

Bedtime Stories Party: 8:30-11:30 PM
At 8:30, we were back in Bayview One for the Bedtime Stories party. Many people (myself included) wore PJs. First, Suz did three book readings: one from The Defiant Hero where Sam goes to Alyssa's hotel room to see how she is doing; the second was when Jules confronts Sam in Over the Edge; the third was Tom and Kelly's wedding from Gone Too Far. I loved hearing her read her work--it was interesting to see what words she emphasized. BTW, she pronounces "Starrett" as "Stare-et," not "Star-ret."

Next was a parody of the first six Troubleshooters books, acted by Ed, Eric, Suz (as herself), Catherine, and several volunteers. This was pretty funny and had us all laughing. Ed, as Tom, had a bandage wrapped around his head. Eric played Sam, and I loved his poem, which I can quote verbatim: "F__k, f__k, f__k, f__k, f__k." Ah yes, that's Sam.

After the parody, we were divided into groups and awarded raffle tickets based on our creative answers to trivia questions such as, "Which SEAL would be most likely to wear Spider-man pajamas as a boy, and why?" Then they held a drawing for prizes, including audio versions of Hot Target (a popular choice), selected titles from Suz and Catherine's backlist, calendars, CDs, and more. The first person whose number was called got to pick what she wanted, then the second, and so on.

After they called about 10 numbers, I realized that the person next to me, Heather M, had the latest number, since it was one digit away from mine. I turned to her and said, "It's you!" She told me that I could have the ticket. We debated back and forth for about 10 seconds until I took the ticket and picked Letters from Kelly. I'm still not sure why she let me have the prize, but it was very kind of her to do so. [Edited: Heather says she let me have the ticket because she had already won something at a previous book signing, and she wanted to "share the wealth." Thanks, Heather!]

The raffle ended, and Suz signed the book for me. Then it was time to get some sleep before Saturday's activities.

Alyssa