Squawk Radio

Friday, April 14, 2006



TERESA HUMS THE THEME FROM THE "LOVE BOAT"

Here are the promised pics from the Levy "Authors at Sea" cruise! For those of you who don't know, Levy is an amazing book distributor that partners with publishers, authors, and the Carnival Cruise line to invite readers to spend an entire week hanging with each other and with their favorite authors. This is their second reader's cruise and there were 450 readers aboard and 29 authors. And even though fellow Squawkers Christina Dodd and Connie Brockway sailed with them last year, they still invited me to come ;) The pic below the Carnival Pride is Avon luminary Brian Groan, editor May Chen and authors Victoria Alexander and Carla Neggers.

We kicked off the cruise with a Bon Voyage party at the Long Beach Westin where Dean Koontz and Jackie Collins were the guests of honor. In a perfect stroke of timing, the CELEBRATE ROMANCE conference was just wrapping up in Long Beach so I got a surprise visit from author and frequent Squawk Commenter Lucy Monroe! Here I am on the ship with my brilliant charade team--Carla Neggers and Cherry Adair. Notice how the only child (me) always knows where the camera is!



Here I am with Levy lovelies Emily Hixon and Kate Mirsky. Their staff did a wonderful job of herding us kittens/authors all week. And no, the next pic is not me after the "all-you-can-eat" pizza buffet. The theme of the ship was "Beauty" and these 20 foot murals were plastered all over the ship. It was quite gorgeous--sort of like a Renaissance brothel with Michelangelo as the interior decorator. If your kids didn't have a clear grasp of human anatomy BEFORE they boarded the ship, I can promise you they did AFTER! (Don't worry. I won't post pics of the GIGANTIC replica of Michelangelo's "David" that adorned the steak house. This is a family blog.)



Another fringe benefit of the cruise was getting to spend time with editors! First we have my partner-in-mischief and fellow expert kayaker, Avon editor extraordinaire May Chen. Next up is Kensington editor and beloved Squawk Guest Blogger Kate Duffy. Kate and I were the back-up dancers for Heather Graham's funtastic karoake party. They told us to be "sultry" and I kept having to explain to Kate that they said "sultry," not "sulky".



The Captain's Gala party was formal night. Here I am with James Bond...oops, I mean my beloved husband. Those gorgeous gals with me are authors JoAnn Ross, Luanne Rice, and Heather Graham.

Cuddling with dear friends and authors Debbie Macomber and Sherrilyn Kenyon (Kinley MacGregor).

Here's me and Mr. Bond on the beach at Cabo San Lucas. His horse had just tried to bite my horse so I was keeping my plump, juicy thigh well away from his enormous teeth! (The horse's, not my husband's.)

By far, the best part of the trip was meeting the readers and finding out that we all spoke the same language--the love of books. We may have started out as "readers" and "authors" but at the end of the week, we left the ship as friends!

So how about you guys? If you could cruise the Mexican Riviera with ANY author (besides the Squawkers, of course), who would it be? And why???
Teresa Medeiros, 5:28 AM
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