With Tiffany Reisz at the RT13 big book fair
I know I’m way behind schedule on posting this, and I totally salute all the very fine authors and bloggers who do a better-er (it is TOO a word) job of recapping their con experiences than I do. Somehow it always takes me a week before I feel human again. Probably has something to do with the fact that I usually can’t talk for a week when I get back. Is that just me?
Anyhoo…
Fabulous time at RT. I met many amazing, wonderful readers. Thank you a bajillion times over to all of you who came and bought books, and brought your copies of King of Darkness and Prince of Power from home. 🙂 I want to express my gratitude to every reader who hugged me, who asked for an autograph or a picture, or who came to a panel and stopped by to chat. You are the reason I do what I do and your readership, your support, your great book reviews, and general awesomeness allow me to keep writing. *massive hugs and sqiushes*
To the lovely woman who brought her copy of Prince of Power to me and said it was one of the best books she’d read all year, you totally made my con experience! Right up there was my blogger buddy Jillian from Read-Love-Blog who told me she is thinking about getting a Chronicles of Yavn tattoo. THAT my friends, is a hard core reader. Oh, and the number of people who warned me about the faulty door in the third floor bathroom? Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I was fortunate enough to be included in some great paranormal events including the Cinema Craptastique event where we watched a bad movie and had a snarkfest led by Damon Suede, and I had the pleasure of being on three vampire panels with amazing bestselling authors that I’m such fans of including Laura Kaye, Caridad Pineiro, Molly Harper, Jeaniene Frost, Susan and Clay Griffith (huge fan! they used to write The Tick comic!), Lisa Kessler, Laurie London, Jeri Smith-Ready, and many more. The Vampires to Die For panel is always one of my faves to be a part of and it was a big hit again this year even though the maze of rooms at this hotel made it a little tricky to find. At one point, I totally found myself in the upstairs kitchen!
I also want to give a huge shoutout to Vivianna Izzo for helping us to set up the Cinema event and the great Sheraton staff in Kansas City for getting things going while most of the hosts for that event (including me, Damon Suede, Laura Kaye, Laurie London, and CJ Ellison) were still trying to get ourselves TO the event.
I had a great time hanging out with Jessie Potts, Mary Grezik, and oooh dammit, her name is escaping me… I want to say Leah? From USA Today’s HEA Book blog, and they were great fun to chat with. I love to talk to book reviewers and what they enjoy, what they look for, and I usually come away with far too many recommendations for great books that I will wind up reading even though I don’t technically have the time. 😛
I got to spend a little time–but not as much as I would have liked–with some of my favorite people: Mary Calmes and Amy lane, Kimberly Kincaid, Adam Kunz, Damon Suede, Rayna Vause, cover artist Tricia Pickyme Schmitt, Sara Humphreys and CH Armirand. I met some new awesome friends like YA/NA author Nyrae Dawn who I had a fabulous time getting to be friends with and can’t wait to hang with her again. Also, her books are fabulous, you should totally check them out.
Oh, and Jude Deveraux who let me flag her down because a friend in one of my Citizen’s Police Academy classes has been a huge fan since teenager-hood and really wanted an autograph? Super classy, thank you ma’am for your patience and kindness. I am always grateful when I meet people who have reached the level of success where they don’t have to be gracious anymore, but they still are.
Oh, my big fangirl moment? I got to meet Tiffany Reisz!! I gotta say I don’t read BDSM erotica much because it can be written inaccurately sometimes. And as a gal who writes romance I kind of like the safety net of the happy ending that one gets from a romance novel. But someone somewhere said I MUST read The Siren so I did, and I was totally, irrevocably in love. F’real, this woman’s writing is so gorgeous I nearly cry myself to sleep at night wishing I could be so brilliant. I ain’t too proud to say so. So God bless Viviana for being nice enough to go and hunt down Tiffany for me during the book fair while I was busy signing books, and God bless Tiffany for being sweet enough to sign not one but two books for me, and even come over to my signing table. She’s absolutely the sweetest ever. See above note about success and graciousness.
See also picture of one of the books Tiffany signed for me snuggled carefully in my carry on between my fluffy bunny slippers in order to make sure it would get home safely on the plane. 😉
So thank you again to everyone who made RT wonderful this year. Especially to the RT staff who all work so hard. Two thousand people crammed into a hotel can’t be easy to wrangle. I know there were hiccups but in all it was a great time. Looking forward to New Orleans next year!