Romantic Times Convention

 

Hey Everybody,
 
I had an absolutely amazing time at the Romantic Times conference in Los Angeles! The conference had already started when I flew in so I missed Bollywood night which is terrible! I should have been there since we had the perfect costumes but instead we went to the fairy ball dressed up like an Indian prince and princess (my husband Brad came with).

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The fairy ball was craaaazzzy. They had a fairy oops they spell it faery court who were all introduced and dined on the stage. Our host for the evening was a handsome book cover model with long blond hair (no Fabio but he was a great substitute). During the costume competition they brought out ten male book cover models to escort the competitors across the stage and show them off. They did a good job catering to the mostly female crowd. One cowboy model won the prize when he brought his little dog dressed as a faery.



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The dancing began after dinner and I was lucky to have such a handsome man to dance with. We waited for a slow song but gave up and hit the floor anyway since it was unlikely we'd get a slow song when most of the crowd was female. I felt a little awkward fast dancing in my Bollywood dress mostly because I'm a bit past my prime dancing years now and I think I've lost all my good moves.

 
The next morning I taught a workshop called, "You've Got to Start Somewhere" which was mostly about how I went from a self-published author to a traditionally published one. Veteran romance writer Cheryl Holt attended part of my workshop which was cool.

 
After my workshop I met with an interviewer for the Romantic Times and taped an interview about Tiger's Quest which they will post the first week of June so keep your eyes peeled for that one. My husband took the opportunity to wander the conference and check out the freebies. There were giant posters up everywhere with scantily clad models posing on romance book covers. He loaded his pockets with candy fake vampire teeth and judiciously tried to avoid eyeing the book covers. 
When I joined him to check out the wares, we stopped by a booth with a very tan male model wearing just jeans and an open vest. He gave me a very deep voiced, "hello there" and I had to say "hi" back. It was only polite after all. He was signing his name on probably 300 covers he featured at his booth. Mom would have stood there and giggled with me and maybe even posed for a picture but my husband just pulled me along to the next booth.

 
In the afternoon I attended a panel with Catherine Coulter, Cherry Adair, and Gregg Hurwitz. Fire alarms went off in the middle of the workshop but we were told we could stay anyway. I'm glad because it was fascinating to hear their stories. Catherine talked about how when people come up to her they say, "My mother loves you," or "My grandmother loves you." She laughs about it and seems very cool and calm. Almost like a grand Dame of writing. Gregg told fabulous stories about the crazy things he's done in the name of research such as jumping out of planes, meeting with FBI agents, and watching cadavers get sliced and diced.

 
My next workshop was a YA panel with Holly Black, Ally Carter, Melissa de la Cruz, Sally Wilcox from CAA, and Melissa Marr who was the moderator. They shared their experiences with turning their writing into movies and television and talked about how much input they have and how they felt about the process. Holly's Spiderwick was the only movie/book combo that I had personally read and seen and it was cool to listen to her describe her experiences. I saw Dean Koontz with his bodyguard but didn't get to attend his workshop. I heard he was hilarious though.

 
After talking it over with my husband, we decided not to attend the Vampire dinner and ball that evening but went to a fabulous steakhouse for dinner instead called LA Prime. It was on the 35th floor of the hotel. Fantastic food both steak and fish and we brought a pistachio/chocolate fudge cake back to our room to eat as we snuggled together watching television that night.

 
Saturday was the big book signing event. It was A MA ZING! We were set up in a place they dubbed YA Alley with stacks of our books sitting in front of us to be sold. I set up the huge poster Sterling had sent me and introduced myself to our fellow authors. On my left was The Ghost Huntress author Marley Gibson who graciously shared her 3 Musketeers candies with me and on my right was Michele Jaffe who is exceptionally gregarious and outgoing. Her hair is arranged in bouncy ringlets and she wore hot pink boots, purple leggings, and the coolest striped dress I ever saw. It had a bustle!

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I got signed books from Catherine Coulter, Alexandra Monir, Sophie Jordan, Holly Black, Alyson Noel, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, and my tablemates, Michele Jaffe, and Marley Gibson. I would have gotten more but I was busy signing books and only got to steal away for very brief moments of time. I had the coolest fans come up including a guy, yes a guy, his name was Lance. I had a young lady come up with her mom and she created her own tee with a picture of the white tiger on the front with the saying, "Some Curses Were Made to be Broken" and on the back it said, "Edward who?"

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I even had a screamer fan who squealed rather loudly when I said I'd be giving away galleys of Tiger's Quest in the speed dating workshop. She ran off to get a ticket. I loved being surrounded by other authors and feeling their support and encouragement. I sold out of books which is cool too. I never got to meet Cassandra Clare. Her lines were way too long but I did get a glimpse of her as she left the teen party that evening. 

 
After the book signing, I went to the speed dating session. There were ten tables set up with about ten chairs each. My little group of fans ran up wanting to know where I'd be sitting so they could get a galley. The authors were me, Richelle Mead, Alyson Noel, Ally Carter, Rachel Vincent, Margaret Stohl, Mari Mancusi, Simone Elkeles, Nikki Carter, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes. We sat at each table for five minutes and talked about our books and answered questions. I was able to give out 25 galleys of Tiger's Quest and chat with all the teens. It was so fun! I hope they do that again next year.



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After that workshop, I met with Raffi, my producer, and made plans for this week. I get to go see Ziyka again but she's now double the size of when I met her last, about 150 pounds, and I might get to see Fanindra again, Raffi's pet golden boa.

 
After a quick dinner, we rushed up to the teen party. I signed books, bookmarks, met authors, and did a live video feed with Clare Dunkle, and Dona Sarkar who would be the perfect Nilima by the way. I didn't have time to ask her if she's met John Abraham. She's just gorgeous. I got to answer a question from a viewer which is awesome! I don't know if any of you were able to see the live feed but it is a cool way to get an insider's view of the party.

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That is it for my RT Repot. Next year is Chicago!
 
Have a great week! As for me, I'll be vacationing in LA this week and get home next Sunday so if you are waiting for an answer to a question that you emailed me, you'll have to be patient until next week. 

 
TTFN!
 
Colleen