So unless you've been under a rock (or offline) the past couple of weeks, you know by now that I went to New Orleans recently for the Romantic Times Reader's convention. It was five fun-filled days of books, cover models, books, drinking, books, swag, books, authors, books, readers, books, beads, and did I mention books?
One of the first authors I ran into was Jade Lee (aka Kathy Lyons) whom I absolutely LOVE! She makes every event unforgettable and is one of the nicest people I know.
Any time spent with Jade is guaranteed to be a good time.
One of the major events was a Mardi Gras 'parade'. Authors stood on the floats in the warehouse where they're stored as the crowd walked down the aisle between them. Throwing out beads was a awesome!
No trip to NOLA is complete without a pub crawl down Bourbon Street. There were ten bars being hosted by various publishers and most of them were handing out free drink vouchers. Yeah, I got a little (ahem) inebriated.
Directly after the pub crawl was Samhain Publishing's Saints and Sinners party where I hosted a table as a drunk nun (oops!). It was a lot of fun meeting the ladies who joined me at my table. One of them traveled all the way from Thailand.
I didn't take nearly as many food shots as usual because I kept forgetting to do it before digging in. This was the chicken served at Heather Graham's Mrdi Gras Magic and Mayhem dinner and dance party.
Beignets abounded throughout the event, but cheesecake is always a good choice too.
There were lots of beautiful and creative costumes, including Heather herself on her very own dragon float.
One of the biggest draws for readers is the giant book signing. I was honored to be in a room full of so many talented people. Sitting next to Kelly Jamieson was a blast!
And last but most certainly not least, I got to meet some of my favorite authors:
