Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

RT…the shy, virgin’s perspective

Contrary to popular belief (my own) I am not the dazed blonde hiding in the corner!

I have to admit, I was extremely anxious going into this event. I’m incredibly shy in social situations and overwhelm easily. However, thanks to my very good friends, Lila Dubois and Lara Santiago, I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into and ended up being a lot more involved in the convention then I had intended to be. The best part is, I’m not only surviving it, I’m having a wonderful time.

I arrived Wednesday and met my fellow author, friend and roommate Karen Erickson for the first time and let me say, she’s wonderful, and we have a fabulous room. The hotel is completely torn apart and you have to wait a half hour at times for an available elevator and I’ve not once been able to get internet connection in my room, but outside of that, I have no complaints.

Wednesday night was the expo, and OMG I sold several copies of my print books! The first lady who picked one up and handed it to me to sign, honestly, it took me a minute to realize she wasn’t kidding. lol It was a surreal moment. I sat beside Melissa Lopez, what a sweetheart, and Janice Lynn, who was so nice. I met several woman who came by to tell me they’d reviewed one of my books and met fellow authors I’ve been chatting and emailing with for over a year now and had no clue what they even looked like.

The event went a lot faster then I’d expected and again, I not only survived it, but loved it. The EC party was crazy, and actually I left a bit early to go have dinner with some friends I’d never met in person before, which was wonderful.
Yesterday’s luncheon was fun, I sat with the wonderful Marianne La Croix, who I just met in line and was very nice to me, insisting we eat together. Then one of the men running for Mr. Romance, Christopher Howell, came up and asked to sit with us. We exchanged business cards and talked on and off through lunch and by the end, I decided to ask him a very personal question I’d been wondering about all through lunch! =O

He has very short spiked hair, and my seventeen year old son has been trying to do that to his hair for months, so I asked him how he did it. lmao I’m such a mom! He was incredibly sweet and offered to give me a nearly empty bottle of the product he uses so I can find it when I get back home.

He is so getting my vote for Mr. Romance, I hadn’t originally intended to vote. lol

After lunch I met up with my wonderful boyfriend who I’m sickeningly in love with. I skipped last night’s events in favor of spending the evening with him checking out the city sights. This is really a fascinating city. We checked out the downtown area, just watching all the people, the river—OMG I love the bridges!—and we found a great little Mexican cantina (who’d have thought that, this far north?) and checked out some of the cutest neighborhoods. I’m an architect geek, and some of the houses here are simply beautiful and of course all the tulips are in bloom and I’m also a garden freak so it was a great combo for me. Then I spent the night with him at his hotel…don’t worry, you’re only getting explicit content from me in my books. ;-)

So today is set up to be extremely busy. I’ll be in club RT at the Samhain table from 9:30 until 10, then I have workshops all day, I’m going to be a good little author and attempt to learn something. I’m back in club RT from 11:30 until 12 with my friend Karen Erickson, then the awards luncheon and then more workshops.

I’m leaving early, soon after the book fair on Saturday, because I have the chance of driving back with my boyfriend and I don’t want to pass that up, but all in all, this has been a fabulous experience and if you’re even considering going to Orlando next year, as an author, aspiring author, or reader, I highly recommend it. Even for an incredibly shy newbie, I’m having a lot of fun.