I've been an Romantic Times reader for a few years. Not very long compared to some, but long enough to have watched Janice Lynn take the first American Title Contest and to have found hundreds of wonderful books and dozens of favorite authors in a variety of genres. I've seen the pictures of past RT cons, read the blog posts, and have had folks tell me how crazy they are (The cons. Not the folks). Even so, I arrived in Pittsburgh completely unprepared.
We were a little overwhelmed at the sheer amount of people milling around the lobby when we got to the Hilton Tuesday night. Turns out that was nothing compared to what we'd see later on in the week. We checked in, met the lovely Evonne, and, despite our best intentions, conked out in the room after our 9 hour drive. Yep. Morgan and I are wild and crazy people.
Wednesday, I made sure to hit the RT Virgin workshop first thing. The hard-working con organizers gave us great itineraries and other information, but Sahara Kelly and Amanda McIntyre gave us the inside scoop on what to do and what not to do and what to expect at the con. This is THE essential workshop for first-timers.
I was really excited about how much of the programming focused on paranormal and SF/F. That seems to be the hot ticket these days and it's pretty thrilling to actually be trendy for once. Most of the time the kinds of things I like are just left of mainstream and I have to dig for good media. So I was in hog heaven sitting in the audience watching Maryjanice Davidson and Dakota Cassidy cut up and Kelley Armstrong telling us the story of how her Otherworld series came about. J.R. Ward and her critique partner Jessica Anderson have great chemistry together. I was impressed at how Ward took full responsibility for her work and for fan reactions to the ending of her latest.
In addition to the panels, every time I turned around I kept seeing authors whose work I read and love. I rode the elevator with Marjorie Liu, Mary Balogh, Jade Lee, and Hannah Howell amongst others. I even had a few Bertrice Small sightings in the hallway and hotel restaurant. When seen in the wild, she was usually surrounded by fans. Most of the time I had to restrain myself from pulling a Wayne and Garth style "We're not worthy!" episode in the middle of the hallway.
Being an e-book freak, I made sure to pop in to RT's first e-book and small press expo. I didn't win the raffled Sony Reader, but I did come away with a longer TBR list.
Thursday, I went to what turned out to be my favorite workshop of the con: The Surefire Six-step Pitch. I struggle with this - when someone asks me what I'm working on, or what my book's about my brain goes blanker than usual. Diane Whiteside and Treva Harte presented a technique to help writers boil down their books to the most important and most interesting elements using powerpoint slides. The technique can be modified to ten minute, two minute, elevator, and cover letter length pitches.
Later that night, Morgan and I glued on our pointy ears and went to the Under the Sea Faery Ball. At first, I wasn't sure how one would do faeries and water in the same theme, but the court pulled it off beautifully with sparkling streamers hanging from the ceiling and fish-shaped lights on the walls. Party goers' costumes ranged from a little bit strange (there was a girl there in nothing but underwear and wings!) to breathtaking. And I have plans to make jewelry from the silver and blue dolphin party favors.
Friday morning, Helen, Trish, Evonne, Holli, and I got to meet with Liz French, RT's managing editor, for coffee and conversation. She's a fellow former Hoosier and a lovely woman. She worked really hard with us and for us for the duration of the contest and, through speaking with her, I got a better sense of how hard EVERYONE at the magazine works. Like us, they do so much with almost nothing, and they do a fantastic job. I know my reading life would be diminished without them.
We all met up later that afternoon for the awards luncheon. The five of us got to sit with ATI winner Janice Lynn, ATIII winner Jenny Gardener, and ATIII runner-up Judi Fennell. Jenny and Judi were great AT mentors throughout the contest, and it was wonderful to meet them in person! I don't know if my RT virgin-ness contributed to this, but the awards ceremony wasn't as tedious as I expected. Actually, it was humbling to be in the presence of so many long-time greats and brand-new stars. The day's awards are listed here.
One of the many reasons I decided to go to RT this year was to support Trish and Helen during the luncheon when the contest results were announced. Congratulations, Helen! That said, I never expected the rest of us would be called up onstage. Morgan managed to snag a photo of us, me obviously standing in the wrong place (Sorry, guys!) as a result of the sheer relief of not tripping on my way up there. Although there was a very nice, very hunky guy waiting by the stairs to help us. Helen got to take the huge poster of her cover art home with her, and got to sign cover flats and booklets containing the first few chapters of her book, The Magic Knot at the book fair Saturday. Oh, and if you read RT, it says that IV would be the last American Title. But they announced at the luncheon that there will be a V. Yay!
Being the huge nerd that you all know I am, I was SO looking forward to the book fair. Hundreds of authors, in alphabetical order, signing their books and talking to fans. We were a little bit late, so I didn't get to all the folks I wanted to. But it's more than worth the price of travel just to get in there and wander around.
RT was so fun! We hated to leave, but we were so ready to get home and back to real life. Between my signed book fair treasures and all the door prize books and freebies from the goody room, we had to do some creative packing to get it all in the Geo. Which probably contributed to the sudden thunk followed by crunchy noises coming from the vicinity of our back wheel just outside of Louisville. Of course, this was on Sunday. So we called Morgan's supervisor and hunkered down at the Holiday Inn for another night and Assured Auto Care bailed us out the next day by replacing our wheel bearing. We were ready to go right after lunch time.
So, you've stuck with me so far. Thanks! We were SO busy all week, and we didn't get to see or do a fraction of what there was available to do. But other people did. Judi even got her picture taken with Fabio! For more RT coverage, follow the blog links below!
We were a little overwhelmed at the sheer amount of people milling around the lobby when we got to the Hilton Tuesday night. Turns out that was nothing compared to what we'd see later on in the week. We checked in, met the lovely Evonne, and, despite our best intentions, conked out in the room after our 9 hour drive. Yep. Morgan and I are wild and crazy people.
Wednesday, I made sure to hit the RT Virgin workshop first thing. The hard-working con organizers gave us great itineraries and other information, but Sahara Kelly and Amanda McIntyre gave us the inside scoop on what to do and what not to do and what to expect at the con. This is THE essential workshop for first-timers.
I was really excited about how much of the programming focused on paranormal and SF/F. That seems to be the hot ticket these days and it's pretty thrilling to actually be trendy for once. Most of the time the kinds of things I like are just left of mainstream and I have to dig for good media. So I was in hog heaven sitting in the audience watching Maryjanice Davidson and Dakota Cassidy cut up and Kelley Armstrong telling us the story of how her Otherworld series came about. J.R. Ward and her critique partner Jessica Anderson have great chemistry together. I was impressed at how Ward took full responsibility for her work and for fan reactions to the ending of her latest.
In addition to the panels, every time I turned around I kept seeing authors whose work I read and love. I rode the elevator with Marjorie Liu, Mary Balogh, Jade Lee, and Hannah Howell amongst others. I even had a few Bertrice Small sightings in the hallway and hotel restaurant. When seen in the wild, she was usually surrounded by fans. Most of the time I had to restrain myself from pulling a Wayne and Garth style "We're not worthy!" episode in the middle of the hallway.
Being an e-book freak, I made sure to pop in to RT's first e-book and small press expo. I didn't win the raffled Sony Reader, but I did come away with a longer TBR list.
Thursday, I went to what turned out to be my favorite workshop of the con: The Surefire Six-step Pitch. I struggle with this - when someone asks me what I'm working on, or what my book's about my brain goes blanker than usual. Diane Whiteside and Treva Harte presented a technique to help writers boil down their books to the most important and most interesting elements using powerpoint slides. The technique can be modified to ten minute, two minute, elevator, and cover letter length pitches.
Later that night, Morgan and I glued on our pointy ears and went to the Under the Sea Faery Ball. At first, I wasn't sure how one would do faeries and water in the same theme, but the court pulled it off beautifully with sparkling streamers hanging from the ceiling and fish-shaped lights on the walls. Party goers' costumes ranged from a little bit strange (there was a girl there in nothing but underwear and wings!) to breathtaking. And I have plans to make jewelry from the silver and blue dolphin party favors.
Friday morning, Helen, Trish, Evonne, Holli, and I got to meet with Liz French, RT's managing editor, for coffee and conversation. She's a fellow former Hoosier and a lovely woman. She worked really hard with us and for us for the duration of the contest and, through speaking with her, I got a better sense of how hard EVERYONE at the magazine works. Like us, they do so much with almost nothing, and they do a fantastic job. I know my reading life would be diminished without them.
We all met up later that afternoon for the awards luncheon. The five of us got to sit with ATI winner Janice Lynn, ATIII winner Jenny Gardener, and ATIII runner-up Judi Fennell. Jenny and Judi were great AT mentors throughout the contest, and it was wonderful to meet them in person! I don't know if my RT virgin-ness contributed to this, but the awards ceremony wasn't as tedious as I expected. Actually, it was humbling to be in the presence of so many long-time greats and brand-new stars. The day's awards are listed here.
One of the many reasons I decided to go to RT this year was to support Trish and Helen during the luncheon when the contest results were announced. Congratulations, Helen! That said, I never expected the rest of us would be called up onstage. Morgan managed to snag a photo of us, me obviously standing in the wrong place (Sorry, guys!) as a result of the sheer relief of not tripping on my way up there. Although there was a very nice, very hunky guy waiting by the stairs to help us. Helen got to take the huge poster of her cover art home with her, and got to sign cover flats and booklets containing the first few chapters of her book, The Magic Knot at the book fair Saturday. Oh, and if you read RT, it says that IV would be the last American Title. But they announced at the luncheon that there will be a V. Yay!
Being the huge nerd that you all know I am, I was SO looking forward to the book fair. Hundreds of authors, in alphabetical order, signing their books and talking to fans. We were a little bit late, so I didn't get to all the folks I wanted to. But it's more than worth the price of travel just to get in there and wander around.
RT was so fun! We hated to leave, but we were so ready to get home and back to real life. Between my signed book fair treasures and all the door prize books and freebies from the goody room, we had to do some creative packing to get it all in the Geo. Which probably contributed to the sudden thunk followed by crunchy noises coming from the vicinity of our back wheel just outside of Louisville. Of course, this was on Sunday. So we called Morgan's supervisor and hunkered down at the Holiday Inn for another night and Assured Auto Care bailed us out the next day by replacing our wheel bearing. We were ready to go right after lunch time.
So, you've stuck with me so far. Thanks! We were SO busy all week, and we didn't get to see or do a fraction of what there was available to do. But other people did. Judi even got her picture taken with Fabio! For more RT coverage, follow the blog links below!
