#RT2012 in Review: Vampires, JR Ward, Spoons & More!

Hey everyone! I'm back and recovered from the 2012 Romantic Times Convention and had such a great time! I wanted to share some of the highlights with you.
One of the first exciting things to happen at RT was that my Entangled publisher tracked me down to give me a copy of WEST OF WANT! It was the first time I'd seen it in print, and Zeph looks sooooooo good! LOL I also got to see the reformatted print book of NORTH OF NEED, too--and the new mass market trade paperbacks are so beautiful! I can't wait for you all to see them!
I signed at two book fairs at RT. The first was the eBook Expo, which I think is just the coolest idea! You signed a fun swag item for the reader, and they purchased an ebook download of the book! I love that RT supported ebooks that way, and it totally makes sense since so many people read ebooks these days! Go RT! I got to meet so many readers during the fairs--totally loved it!NAME THAT VAMPIRE!



Friday brought the first of two game panels for readers that I was on. NAME THAT VAMPIRE featured me, Caridad Pineiro, Laurie London, Lisa Kessler, Elisabeth Staab and Joyee Flynn. Can I just say how great all these ladies were? We had about 60-70 attendees, which was awesome. We read excerpts of vampire romances and the readers had to shout "I can name that vampire!" If they were right, they won a prize (and we had, like, 40 way cool prizes), and if they were wrong, they had to wear a vampire bite temporary tattoo--which people liked as much as the prizes! LOL
JR Ward & Jessica AndersenOn Friday, I also got to see J.R. WARD! You guys! She is AMAZING and funny and down-to-earth and beautiful and curses like a freaking sailor!!! I could've listened her talk about writing the books and the Brothers themselves for hours! She shared some spoilers, talked about the challenges of writing the series, talked about the scene that most made her cry (when the Brothers tell Tohr Wellsie died--I completely agree, that scene is a 5-hanky alert!), and talked about her writing process (man what I wouldn't give to see into her head!). I didn't think I could love her or the Black Dagger Brotherhood more, but now I totally do. And now that I turned in a manuscript to my editor yesterday, I can finally let myself read Tohr's book! Woot!
Meeting a reader/blogger friend [Day Dreaming Blog]Saturday brought a signing at the Giant Book Fair (where Susanna Kearsley and I bonded again--it was the second time we'd been seated next to each other!--and she's such a cool, fun person!). I met so many people and was thrilled to see people bringing NORTH OF NEED in for me to sign! I also participated in my second reader game panel of the convention--Entangled Publishing's Candy & Spoons party. OMG, have you guys ever played spoons? It's a card game and it's a hoot! There were nearly 150 attendees and there were some fierce players! LOL Spoons were flying, chairs were falling over, and people were laying on top tables fighting for spoons! Entangled gave away the first print books of West of Want (squee!) and had a huge foam board poster of the book's cover made that I got to bring home! (Can I just tell you how freaking good Zeph looks enlarged??? Ahem.) My Spoons Crew! Yes, that's Stefan Salvatore! (and me LOL!)And then, and then, as if all that wasn't good enough, on Sunday morning, just two hours before I had to be to the airport, I got together with a group of friends for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and who walks in? Paul Wesley who plays Stefan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries. Seriously? Seriously? I got a real life vampire in addition to J.R. Ward? He was the cherry on top of my RT sundae! LOL
So, I guess you can tell, but I had a blast. I met so many people as well, way too many to list here, but just know I cherished meeting each and every one of you and can't wait to see you again!
Thanks for reading,Laura[image error]