The Baltimore Book Festival took over the Inner Harbor. Lots of books, lots of authors, lots of readers. Heaven.

Emily Duvall, J.L. Lora, Alexa Jacobs, me and Kelly Maher brought our favorite book recommendations to play book cover Bingo.

The sun hadn’t shone for days but when the Baltimore Book Festival opened Friday morning, the clouds slipped out of the way of the sun and we were treated to three gorgeous early fall days.

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was packed with book-lovers. I spent a lot of time with the Maryland Romance Writers. Even though I attend meetings, keep up with the news and go to their on-line workshops, I always learn something new from this smart, creative, hardworking group of authors.

My take-away for the weekend:

• Write more. Of course. 2,000 words seems to be a popular, and useful, goal. And track it. On the computer or on paper. Every day.
• Find people to support you. While some praised the value of critique partners and groups (I’m with them), others counted on a single writer, a spouse, a good friend, an agent to look over their work and keep them going.
• Newsletters seem to be big. I’ve never done one and even after years of producing them for others can’t imagine who would want one from me. I’m going to have to think about this. Do you produce a newsletter? What’s the point? What do your readers and you get out of it?

I took an hour or so to slip away for a cooking demonstration with Black Girls Cook, a local organization to teach inner city girls their way around the kitchen. So interesting and did Chef Nicole Mooney’s paella smell good.

Here are a couple of pictures to remember the weekend.

That’s me talking. The panel, Beyond Mr. Darcy, featured historical novelists Charis Michaels ( to my left), E.Elizabeth Watson, Lori Ann Bailey and Jenna Jaxon (top row, from left). Not pictured is the panel’s moderator Denny S. Bryce.

Saturday’s panels got started with a debate, featuring writers MC Vaughan, Christi Barth, (lower table),  Andi J. Christopher, Lori Ann Bailey and Pintip Dunn, with moderator Robyn Neeley (not pictured).

The Maryland Romance Tent was in a prime location next to the Maryland Science Center.

There’s my book among all the Maryland Romance writers’ works.

Alexa Jacobs, center, was this year’s chair. She made it look easy. Ivy Quinn, left, and I helped, as did dozens of MRW members.

Took a break for some culinary inspiration at a demonstration by Black Girls Cook. Fun and delicious.