I decided I'd better talk to AFR so after they finished I went up to the producer and said "are you so-and-so" "yes" "do you have a minute?" "no, I have to call someone, come back tomorrow." So do I say "thank you very much I'll come back tomorrow"? No, I say "ok, well my name is Jodi Cowles and I sent you a book awhile back" and I intended to say "and that's who I am and thanks, I'll come back tomorrow" but she'd already fully turned her back on me and gotten on the phone.

Oh how the foot in my mouth hurt and oh how the kick to the stomach pained. :( However, at this point I'm proud to say I didn't slither off to the bathroom to shed a tear, lick my wounds and live to fight another day. Instead, I shook off the blow, took a breath and went chasing after Joel. I caught up to him as he stood in line by himself waiting to buy a pizza. His minder had gone on ahead somewhere, thankfully, so I went up to him and said "Mr. Rosenberg, may I talk to you while you wait in line?" He was super gracious. I told him how much I appreciated his work and what he was doing for Israel, blah blah blah. He asked what I was doing at the conference and I said I was promoting my first novel, a political thriller.

As we waited for his pizza I told him I'd read an interview he'd done where he said conservatives don't write fiction -- that they own the non-fiction market, talk radio, etc., etc., but that they didn't write fiction. So I told him I had a terrible time getting radio interviews because they said things like "I don't do fiction" and asked if he had any advice.

I can't believe I asked that. Not only was going up and asking if I could chat out of character, but asking for promotion tips from this writing powerhouse whom I so admire --- I still can't believe I had the nerve <or the unmitigated gall>. Anyway, he told me he didn't have any advice, that he didn't feel his success was replicable. He said every day for years he and his wife and sons prayed a verse <which you'd think I could remember but CAN'T> and they prayed for an agent and they prayed for a publisher and they prayed for the manuscript because he'd never written fiction.

We talked for close to ten minutes, although we kept getting interrupted by people he knew and etc., then I thanked him and he went rushing off to another interview. I probably made him have to scarf the pizza as he ran... :(

On the one hand I thought he was right, that there was no replicable advice in that. But on the other I found it very encouraging that he may have started with an endorsement from Rush Limbaugh on his first novel, but the true reason he succeeded was that he and his family had sought God and things were accomplished in God's timing. He impressed me even more in person as a really genuine individual who loved the Lord and was trying to get out the message God had placed on his heart.

Ok, that story went really long so I'll bullet point the rest of the day's highlights:

• I saw Francine Rivers and u-turned to go tell her how much I loved her work. Unfortunately she saw someone she knew and started talking...then walking and talking. I didn't feel I could interrupt and besides, her minder looked like she might do a full body tackle if I got within the 10 foot zone. :p

• I saw Tim LaHaye walking along talking to one of the janitors pushing a trash cart. He went up a couple notches in my estimation.

• I went back to the tv lady I chatted with yesterday and told her I could come to Augusta next week if they could fit me in since they were booked this week. She seemed positive about that and gave me contact info for another program they have.

• My publisher's wife took me to lunch, then stood next to me at the booth for ten minutes and I felt for a brief, blissful few moments the joy of being in the big time. She introduced me to several people and chatted up the book and all I had to do was smile and sign. ;)

• The last person she introduced me to told me Bill O'Reilly would be interested in my book. I said something like thanks, you're not the first person to say that, but I don't happen to have his number handy. He said something like, well, here's my card, e-mail me and I'll send you the info of who to contact <insert jaw dropping to the floor>.

• At that point I may have lost my mind a little because I spent the next couple hours wandering the floor approaching a bunch of different people about reviewing the book and etc. I talked to two separate ladies at two Focus on the Family booths and gave books to each of them to pass along to who they thought it should go to <which turned out to be two different names>. My publisher said they get over 100 books a month so it's a shot in the dark, but I figure I got one millimeter closer with them. I also spoke to a couple magazine people and a guy at Christianity Today who said to send him an excerpt and he'd forward it to the folks who oversee their ten magazines. And finally, I ended up in a long chat with a guy at Thomas Nelson who took my book to read and gave me Phil Vischer's "Me, Myself & Bob" in return.

Quite the day. I have to say, I wish I'd been able to come to this conference last year. It's been both encouraging as to the amount of contacts God arranged...and discouraging as to the realities of the industry. I think a little discouraging realism at the beginning might have helped me skip a few of the things I've struggled with as far as frustration and discouragement this past year.

Tomorrow morning I do my half-hour stint in the CBA VIP room. Either I'll talk to no one or I'll talk to someone like the buyer for Family Christian bookstores and have the opportunity to try to convince them to order two books for every store...