2010 Romantic Times Conference Recap!

The 2010 Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, Ohio was a blast. The trip was even more special for me since I was born in the Buckeye State (Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton) and hadn’t been back since I was a kid. A ‘wow, I’m from here’ moment, even though I only lived in Ohio until I was three. Everyone I met at both hotels (I wound up in one of the overflows), and the shuttle and taxi drivers who took me back and forth, were warm and friendly, and I found Columbus to be charming. Made me proud.

The convention itself was one huge celebration of books and readers filled with more workshops than you can count, great parties every night, and wonderful opportunities for readers and authors to get together. I didn’t fly in until Thursday, thanks to a May 1st deadline on my next Feral Warriors book, and the convention was already in full swing. I got together that evening with a group of Harper Collins authors and our publicist to talk writing, marketing, conference experiences, you name it. The group included Victoria Alexander, Lavinia Kent, Rachael Herron, Melissa Marr, Vicki Pettersson, Jocelynn Drake, Jeaniene Frost, Jaime Rush, and Pam Jaffee. Getting together with this group, and meeting Melissa and Vicki for the first time, was one of the highlights of my weekend.

Thursday night was the Fairy Ball dinner and dance. I sat with Jaime Rush and several lovely booksellers who’d driven in for the convention from around the midwest. Costumes were lovely, though you have to move carefully or risk getting knocked in the head by fairy wings. Friday morning I joined fellow authors Donna Grant, Nina Bruhns, and Caridad Pineiro for a panel discussion titled: Genre Blending where we discussed the techniques, pros, and potential cons of writing stories that blend different genres. We had a great audience — interested, enthusiastic, and a lot of fun.

Early Friday evening Avon Books hosted the Dusk to Dark Mixer. At its heart, the mixer is a book giveaway. But with Pamela Spengler-Jaffee, Avon’s Publicity Director, at the helm, it was an event. Wine, cocktails, fruit, cheese, desserts. And yes, lots and lots of signed Free Books from Harper Collins’s Avon, EOS, and Harper Teen imprints. Nine paranormal authors participated: Kelley Armstrong, Jocelynn Drake, Jeaniene Frost, Melissa Marr, Vicki Pettersson, Jamie Rush, Kerrelyn Sparks, Joss Ware, and me. The space was large and perfect — the foyer outside the ballroom. Each of us had our own table complete with tablecloth, lit candle jar, a bottle of Vampire wine (from the Vampire Vineyards!), rose petals, and a HUGE stack of books. The tables were so spread out that each felt like a little oasis. In a brilliant move, each of us was assigned a helper. My helper, Nancy, handed me the books, put the autographed-by-author stickers on the covers, and generally kept things organized. If you’re wondering why we’d possibly need helpers, you missed the part about Free Books. The line to get into the signing started at least an hour before the event and was a winding mass of excited readers before it was over. I signed 200 copies of my third Feral Warriors book, Passion Untamed, in twenty-five minutes, then signed postcards for the fourth book, Rapture Untamed (which comes out June 29th) until those, too, ran out. Despite the crowd, everyone was calm, patient, and lovely. Once the books were gone, the authors got a chance to sample the food and chat with one another and any readers who hung around afterward.

The rest of the conference was equally fun, culminating (for me) in the big 300 author public book signing on Saturday. Afterward, I headed home jazzed, exhausted, and ready to get started on the next Feral Warriors book!