RT Convention

RT Vegas Top Ten

In what is now a tradition, here are my top ten moments from this year’s RT Convention!

  1. Meeting up with friends from last year and making new friends. This isn’t a moment, this was the whole five days. I loved seeing my posse again and adding some new members. We’re taking on the world, one romance novel at a time.
  2. Pitching. I pitched my book this time and it was great! Nerve wracking, very scary, and more than a little overwhelming, but great.
  3. Meeting Julia Quinn. A lot! Julia Quinn is on my list of authors to meet during my lifetime and I met her!
  4. The Help! Crazysauce Broke the Interwebz… panel. If I am ever in the middle of a media blitz, these are the ladies I want handling it.
  5. The Smart Bitches Trashy Books reader recommendations party. Basically we went around and recommended books to each other. There’s nothing I love more than hearing someone talk about a book they love. I came away with pages and pages of new books to track down and read.
  6. Lady Jane’s Salon. The above times a thousand because this was authors reading from their books. Nothing makes me want to read a book more than hearing the author of said book talk about it. This particular event led to #7…
  7. Receiving an advanced copy of J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Little Secret. I told her I’d heard her at the salon and desperately needed to read the book she shared so she gave me a copy!
  8. Jennifer Armentrout, who no doubt met hundred of people in those few days, remembered me from one of her panels. Did I feel special? Absolutely.
  9. The romantic comedy panel. Last year’s led me to Wallbanger and everything Alice Clayton. After this year’s I need to read everything by Christina Lauren. It’s on.
  10. Making new friends everywhere. I made a friend while waiting to pitch who I hope to see at Spring Fling in Chicago. I made friends in every line I stood in and waiting for my plane at the airport. Everyone at the convention loves books so we always have something in common.

There are more and the minute I post this I know I’ll think of them. I miss RT already and am looking forward to Atlanta 2017!

Stuff I’ve Done – The Outtakes

  • I have managed to spill coffee on myself, my couch, my afghan, or my floor every day for the past three months. I’m not even surprised anymore.
  • I finished my NaNoWriMo challenge with 2 days to spare! The last week was tough because what I thought was the midpoint was actually the climax and the whole book needs to be rewritten from that scene onward. So I wrote down how I want to do the rewrite then wrote some fun scenes with the characters. Like fan fic of my own fic. Now the whole thing is simmering until I decide to pick it up again.
  • I got over the half way hurdle with the line edits on my novel. Now that there’s some semblance of an end in sight, the editing is going far more smoothly. One for the win column.
  • The Christmas movie watching obsession has officially begun! I’ve been watching them for weeks already but it wasn’t official until December 1st. Some of these movies I’ve seen a dozen times and watching them is like meeting old friends. And not the ones you’d assume. Oh I watch the classics – It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Elf, Love Actually…but the ones that I most look forward to? The ABC Family Originals. Particularly the ones with the insane plot lines and actors who used to be singers (or models or child TV stars). My end goal here is to some day have a list of the 25 absolute best Christmas movies ever, all defended with brilliant examples and screen shots.
  • I make my bed every morning and tell myself that it’s basically the same thing as having a clean house.
  • Of course I’ve been reading A LOT. I have a stack of books to share and I hope to get caught up before the year is out. I started two new reading challenges for myself – my own personalized 100 Books to Read Before You Die list (all the classics I feel I might not hate) and a list of romance authors to read before the next RT convention. More on these later. Also look for my list of the top books I’ve read this year – that’ll be showing up sometime around December 31st.
  • And now I’ve got another book to plan because why have one book project going when you can have three?

This Week I Read…

I completely spaced out and forgot to post this Tuesday. I was sitting on imgresthe couch, thinking there was something I needed to do. I decided it was take a nap. So now here I am, posting my this week’s reads on Thursday (don’t even ask about yesterday, I have no excuse).

I finished the Princess Diaries! The last two books were so good I couldn’t stop reading. I spent all of July 4th with my face buried in book 10.

First up there was Princess Diaries IX: Princess Mia, then Princess Diaries X: Forever Princess.

imgres-1And finally, the one I’d been waiting to read for months, the reason I started this reading adventure – The Princess Diaries XI: Royal Wedding.

I was curious to see if, years after the last book was released, Meg Cabot could keep the story alive. And you know what? She did. It was like visiting an old friend you have  n’t seen in a while and picking up as though no time at all imgres-2had passed. I loved seeing what happens to Mia (and everyone else) after high school. It was fun and funny with just a hint of the very ridiculous.

RT – The Photo Edition

tamora

 

Tamora Pierce and I, hanging out in the bar, talking about Alanna!

 

meg

 

Meg Cabot and I at her Princess Diaries Fan Party.

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My advance copy of the last Princess Diaries book that I won in a raffle.

steampunk

 

My fellow aspiring authors and I, all dressed up and ready for the Steampunk Party.

 

fascinator

 

My handmade fascinator from the Flaunt Your Fascinator party with the lovely hostess, Eloisa James.

 

 

books

Just part of my brand new book collection! The rest arrived in the mail yesterday and it was a perfect early birthday present. Now I need to see about getting a second bookshelf to fit all my new acquisitions.

RT Top Ten

Top Ten RT Booklovers Convention Moments (in no particular order)

1. Making a new friend on the shuttle from the airport. This then led to making many more new friends. By Wednesday we’d formed a posse. By Friday we made plans to all come back next year!

2. On Saturday I was walking through the bar when I happened upon Tamora Pierce, sitting alone and reading. I was all ready to keep going but my friend stopped me and persuaded me to ask for a photo with her. I am so glad I did. She told me about her process writing Alanna and her early days of trying to get published.

3. As I sat in the bar on Friday night, wearing my Princess Diaries tiara, I saw Meg Cabot. She noticed me too, called me a princess, and gave me a royal, princess wave.

4. Erica O’Rourke, a published author I met at the RWA Chicago North Spring Fling conference last year, offered to help me reach my goal of pitching a finished manuscript at next year’s conference. She said she’d be running registration the first night and would ask to see my book.

5. In one of the panels, an author made a careless comment that was potentially insulting to many of the audience members. Cherry Adair called her out on it and masterfully defended not only her own writing but that of all the writers everywhere.

6. Many of the panels surprised me by how good they were. In particular, the panel on writing LGBTQ characters and the BDSM panel blew me away. I heard from authors who were passionate and knowledgeable about their genre and their craft.

7. Heather Graham’s supernatural western party was fun, campy, and highly entertaining. I especially loved it when a little girl in a tutu and rain boots won the costume contest.

8. The comedy panel was everything I wanted and more. If I can write anything even half as funny as the women on that panel, I’ll be doing well. Any of their books I haven’t read yet are shooting to the top of my TBR list.

9. Being the crafty gal I am, I couldn’t resist making fascinators with Eloisa James. It was a delightful hour filled with ribbons, glitter, fake flowers, tulle, and historical romance authors!

10. I spent another spectacular hour with my favorite bloggers, the women from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, knitting and talking about Outlander. A knitting book chat with my favorite snarky bloggers? It honestly doesn’t get better than that.

Sometimes What You Need is a Kick in the Pants

I’ve been working on this being-a-serious-writer thing for a few months now.  I tell everyone to leave me alone!  I have to get some serious writing done! (Serious meaning committed here.  I write comedy).  Only I haven’t actually been writing, apart from blog posts, journaling, and an occasional book review.  My novel languishes, the first chapter written to death and the rest in desolate neglect.

What I need is a kick in the pants.  Something to jump start this whole novel.  CPR for half finished books.  And, while zoning out on the internet (“working”) I found just that thing!  A writing convention.

Of course!  It’s so simple.  Every conference I go to leaves me rejuvenated, refreshed, and ready to churn out some pages.  Only this isn’t a two day conference near my hometown.  Oh no, this is the big time.  The Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Dallas – almost a full week of workshops, parties, pitches, and more parties, some with costumes.

I gleefully took the first step and registered. Apparently I am super late and the main hotel is sold out and the backup hotel only had one option left but I am staying positive that it’ll all work out somehow!  My writing won’t know what hit it.