Tuesday, May 7, 2013

#RT13 Wrap up

Ok I failed at keeping you guys updated with nightly posts from RT. I was having too much fun to do blog work. So I'm putting it all in one post. I'm sure I forgot some things but I used my pictures to help remember the highlights. Take a look.


The #RT13BB Group...



Front L to R: Amber, Heather, Jennifer
Back L to R: Me, Carmel, Kelly, Vanessa and Jen

We managed to get one picture of the group at the Formal Ball on Thursday.


The Cave Men...

Ellora's Cave hosted Bad Girls of Romance Disco Inferno on Wednesday night. The cave men and cave woman put on a great dancing show and afterwards you could get your picture with the cave men. 



Me & Carmel with some of the cave men.


We went back with Amber and Jen. The one I named Thor (tall blonde in middle) asked Carmel "weren't you here before". Yes. Yes we were. LOL

All the guys but "Thor" were great dancers. I managed to get a few videos of the dance but I'm sharing the best with you....




We LOL our asses off at how bad "Thor" was. It's like he knew his abs were hot enough that he didn't need to know how to dance.



The Panels ...

Since I read mostly PNR/UF those are the panels I attended. Sorry the pictures are not that great, the conference rooms were dark and we were facing the windows.


WEDNESDAY


SPECIALITY: THE CREATURE WITHIN: WRITING MONSTERS
Nicole Peeler and Kat Richardson

Carmel, Amber and I kind of walked into this one not really realizing it was writing panel. But it was still interesting.




EROTICA: HOW TO RIDE THE NEW EROTIC ROMANCE WAVE
Sharon Page (Moderator), Eden Bradley, Jaci Burton, Lauren Dane, Sylvia Day

Pretty much the theme of the panel was that erotica is NOT new. It's been around and it will continue to stay around like many genres it has it's ups and downs with sales. And for those that do not know 50 Shades is NOT the 1st book to be written in this genre.

When I asked the panelists what their definition of erotica they all had a little something different to say but I liked what Sylvia Day said the most. (paraphrasing) Erotica is not about the heat level of the story but the journey of the romance.


Me, Jennifer Estep, Carmel, Amber

READER: KENSINGTON'S SPOOKY SOIREE
Zoe Archer, Saranna DeWylde, Jennifer Estep, Alexandra Ivy, Corinne Jackson, Kathy Love, Linda Mercury, Marian Myles, Sharon Page, Kate SeRine, Lori Sjoberg, Joan Swan

Let the stalking of Jennifer Estep begin....

Amber, Carmel and I had fun at this get together. It was not a panel but groups against groups in a  game of sorts. We were all given a sheet to fill out as a group. Making up a male character and then after each group presented their sexy male character we all voted by clapping and the winning group won something. I don't remember what since our group didn't win. LOL




VAMPIRE: BLOOD LIGHT
Caridad Pinerio (Moderator),  Jeaniene Frost, Susan and Clay Griffith, Molly Harper, Jeri Smith-Ready, Elisabeth Staab

This panel was about humor with vampires. I've read Frost, Harper and Smith-Ready and all three are great authors. After this panel I've put I Susan and Clay Griffith on my radar. They were one of those funny married couples that had you laughing one moment and wondering if they were going to smother each other with a pillow. It was great.


THURSDAY



URBAN FANTASY: A MAN IN A WOMAN'S WORLD
Jeaniene Frost, Jackie Kessler, Caitlin Kittredge, K.A. Stewart, Margaret Stohl, Nicole Peeler (Moderator)

I love panels that Nicole Peeler and Jeaniene Frost moderator. They are great at coming up with topics for the panelist and keeping them on topic. But then there's always that one author that takes things and runs with it. In this panel it was Margaret Stohl (in the hat on the right end). She was funny and a little crazy (but in a good way).

This panel was about how authors write about the male characters and in some of their cases writing from the male POV. A great quote is one that Jeaniene Frost said (which was actually a quote from Ilona Andrews). I'm going to paraphrase; when talking about writing about the male characters Frost said that Andrews once said that writing the males you have to remember that they are not chick with dicks.



PARANORMAL: FATED TO BE MATED
Jeaniene Frost (Moderator), Lara Adrian, Yasmine Galenorn, Alma Katsu, Kerrelyn Sparks

Frost moderated this panel where the authors talked about writing romances for a couple in one book vs a building romance over a series among other things.


Jen, Me, Trish (Pickyme) & Alyssa Day (with wings) 

READER: ROMANCE PRIDE: OVER THE RAINBOW

A room full of mixed genres where we talked and played a few games to win prizes.


FRIDAY


PARANORMAL: THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT - WAITING FOR THAT HEA
Jeaniene Frost (Moderator) Ilona Andrews, Molly Harper, Pamela Palmer, Rachel Vincent

I was so excited about this panel for two reasons. It's the only panel where I read something from every author. And ILONA ANDREWS. I knew whatever panels these two were on I was going to be there.


URBAN FANTASY: THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC
Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Jennifer Estep, Richard Kadrey, Chloe Neill, Diana Rowland (Moderator)

We (Carmel, Amber and Jen) grabbed front row seats for the PNR panel above and did not move from our seats for this one. Great authors back to back in the same room. I mark this panel as the one that brought a new author to my attention. When the authors were talking about their brand of magic in their books, Richard Kadrey piqued my interest. I knew when I got home I was going to research his books. I was so happy to see that at the Avon event later they had his 1st book in the Sandman Slim series up for grabs. I can't wait to see what his writing style is like.


The Authors...

Sierra Dean
My first author siting. I was super excited to finally meet Sierra. I've talked with her on Twitter and an author baring signed books is great too. LOL


Amanda Carlson
Amanda Carlson has the most infectious smile. Hallo, Mate! LOL


Kristen Callihan 
Kristen was so quite but very approachable. She always stopped to speak when we ran across her.


Diana Rowland
Who doesn't love an author that writes about White Trash Zombies?


Nicole Peeler & Jaye Wells
After meeting these two ladies at AADNOLA last year I had to say hello to them when I saw them at the bar in the hotel. Both are funny as hell and very gracious.

Cecy Robson
Cecy was so sweet. I meet up with her outside the ball to say hi for Jenese from Readers Confession. And after meeting with her I had to grab her book, Sealed with a Curse at the signing. I wish we had time to meet up for that drink. Maybe next time!

Molly Harper 
The super tall Molly Harper was nice and funny as her characters. Her mother attended with her and it was fun to have her in the audience while Molly was answering questions about sex scenes. LOL 


Chloe Neill
Another author that is all smiles every time I saw her.


Gordon & Ilona Andrews
I sat in two panels back to back just to see the writing couple. They are super funny without even trying.



I want to give a special shout out to Jennifer Estep. She took the time out of her busy schedule to meet a group of us for coffee on Friday morning. We all gushed about Estep's adult series (Elemental Assassin). Estep is so nice and down to earth. She was easy to talk to and was always friendly and ready to talk when we ran into her. Great author and super nice lady!




The Bloggers ...





with Sylvia Day 






The Books...


I stayed close to my $50 book budget for RT. I only went over by $25. But I did pick up an extra book from my friend that couldn't make. She is a big fan of Ilona Andrews too so I grab her a signed copy of Gunmetal Magic. I could have saved a little more if I remembered to bring my arc of Twice Tempted but I didn't. Oh well, I have a copy to go with my signed copy of Once Burned so I'm ok with that. And I love Estep so much that I had to have at least one copy of a book in the Elemental Assassin series to keep (I've done them all on audio). Out of the books I bought I've not read 4 of them.





  


I don't feel so bad about going over my budget by a little considering all the FREE books we got at RT. Take a look at what I grabbed.

The stack on the left is all the YA books that I grabbed at the Avon Red Slipper event. Avon was very generous with their books. Other events you were limited to 2 or 3 books but Avon set no limits. I also grabbed a few adult books that's mixed into the stack to the right.

Everyone got a goodie bag at the awards event, which had more books.





There was tons of swag everywhere you looked as well. There was t-shirts, bookmarks, pens, bags, and misc items.




A few of the events had prizes and I won a Margarita Madness Gift Basket from Dreamscape. Thanks!


The Canadian..... Eh!



Carmel was quickly becoming my favorite Canadian until she won not 1 but 2 ereaders. At one point we were rubbing our raffle tickets on her hoping we would win an ereader or iPad.

But she won my heart back after she gave her Nook Tablet to Amber. Awe! 




But the real reason she gave it away.....Nook's won't work in Canada. (Julie, the top Canada spot is now yours again LOL)



The Stalker ....




Amber I. from Awesomesauce Book Club cracked my shit up with her author stalking. I lost count at how many times she talked about making an Amber sandwich with Ilona and Gordon Andrews. Really, it got scary at one point.




The Way Home ....


No road trip is complete until you take the wrong route home. LOL

Jen had three routes on her GPS app and we got on the road early and was talking when she clicked on the route back. 

Jen drove from Mississippi and picked me up in Arkansas. On the way up to KC I wonder if how close we would be to St. Louis, MO. Later we saw a sign stating that St. Louis was around 260 miles away. No close at all.....

On the way home, I realize something was wrong when I saw a sign that said 89 miles to St. Louis 89. O.o  That's about the time that Jen noticed we were taking a different route. We weren't lost but we took a route that was about 2 hours out of my hubby's way to pick me up. LOL

No worries. We both got home and I just got spend more time in the car with my family than I would have normally. Still a great trip and if we took the other route we would have missed out on a "special" vending machine in a gas station bathroom......


Horny Goat Weed?! WTF?!

Over all I had a blast at RT. I've not laughed so hard as I did hanging out with my fellow bloggers.


Check out other RT posts.
Jen at Red Hot Books
Carmel at Rabid Reads
Heater at Book Savvy Babes
Amber I at Awesomesauce Book Club


16 comments:

  1. OMG!!! This looks like sooo much fun!!! I'm glad you guys had a great time :)
    Shocker of the day? Molly Harper, I'd have never imagined her that tall, she's so far from what I though she would look like. Funny lady, I bet.
    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the Amber Sandwich picture. I am totally stealing it! I miss my new bff's so much. I am glad you didn't go with all the thought bubbles because then my new bff's might have been scared of me.

    I wish we where all going to AAD together. But I am happy you will be with me. Hanging out with you Jen and Carmel was just so much fun! I am really going to miss y'all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't wait to see you again in August. We will have so much fun. But yeah I'm going to miss the others there. But we'll have a new group to hang with.

      I thought the bubbles was too much. LOL

      Delete
  3. A)Hey, at least Thor tried to dance, LOL.
    B) That women in a man's world UF panel had some seriously funny one liners, I was really wishing I had brought my notebook to catch more of them- awesome panel
    C)author stalking was so much fun! I am very sorry I didn't make it to the Jennifer Estep breakfast, I was having time change issues (CA is to hours behind) plus the extra 10-15 min walk just put me really behind and I wasn't making it :(
    D) I had a blast meeting you all, next time I'm getting there early to avoid more airline trouble and so I don't miss more events that first day and more hang out time.
    Finally) RT 14 in New Orleans! I'm saving $$ now, I'm so there!
    Book Savvy Babe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad I got to meet ya.

      So true that Thor tried. LOL He has more guts than I would have.

      I'm going to pass on RT14 just because we are taking a family vacation and I won't have the money for it. :(

      Delete
  4. I think I know EXACTLY what gas station you stopped at. Outside STL, I used to stop there. Nice. :-)

    Sounds like you had fun & welcome back!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmph! I'm NOT your favourite Canadian? Your words cut deep, eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry y'all, there's room for two Canadian besties. LOL

      Delete
  6. omg, AWESOME wrapup! I appreciate all the work that went into this long and informative post. I loved seeing pics of you and other bloggers I know. You all are so adorable! The panels looked really great and I wanted to lick the screen looking at all those books! I'm so glad to hear Jennifer Estep is nice. I'm starting her series now in anticipation of AAD. I'm hoping to go to RT next year b/c it's in NOLA, my favorite city. And then NYC the next year? Awesome - only an hour away!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If we weren't taking an expenses family try next summer I would go to RT14 but it won't be in the budget. :(

      Delete
  7. OMG it sounds like you had lots of fun. I'm suffering a little bit from a case of envy. lol
    I'm glad you had such an awesome time and hope someday we'll meet again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It looks like you had a blast!

    I enjoyed following all of your adventures and I was sad to miss it. I am sad that I am missing AAD, you are going to have a blast!

    I only have one trip this year: RAGT

    Next year, so far only Bouchercon but I have a feeling I might get the weekend pass for RT since I can drive. I am still undecided, it will depend on budget.

    ReplyDelete
  9. WooHoo! I'm top Canadian again! Sit on that Carmel! ;p

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm so gald everyone seems to have had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing all the fun :)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.