So last week I flew out to the RT booklovers convention in Kansas City, MO. I had originally heard about it a little over a month ago at the SoCal RWA conference. I had heard it was a total blast, so I went to the RT Book Reviews site and looked it up. And when I saw the schedule and was amazed at how fun it looked.
Avon Books, Entangled, Tor Forge, Harlequin, Samhain, Source Books, Omnific, Dragon Fairy Press, St. Martins Press, Kennsington Books, and so many more publishers were going to be there. Meeting with people, taking pitches, having parties, hanging out and just all around having fun. Now as a romance writer, how could I say no to that?
So I signed up, got my tickets, got on the plane, (almost died of a panic attack on the plane) landed at 2 a.m. after major delays by Southwest, fell into bed and awoke the next day to the most amazing plotting class on the planet! Being a pantser, I thought there was no way I would ever become a plotter. Boy was I wrong! Wrong about never being able to plot, and wrong about how I was trying to plot in the first place. Author Cherry Adair was amazing, fun, and totally inspirational.
I left the class with a plot for the first of my Spartan Werewolf series. But more than that, she inspired me to start plotting out all seven of my Dark Fairy Lovers books. The first book Red the Were Hunter is already finished and being polished for submission. And tomorrow I am going to start plotting the rest of the series.
Aside from Cherry’s class, I went to classes on Dialogue, by Linda Thomas Sunstrom. Creating Monsters, Creating Magic, Paranormal Beings, Bring Creatures home to mom, and many more.
But the biggest surprise of the conference, was the books. Free books. And I don’t mean a few free books, I mean, a LOT of free books. From all of the publishers, and many of them signed by the authors! 127 books all together, was what I (my husband) boxed up, packed up and brought back. The pile of books in my hotel room was enormous! It was the most amazing thing ever!
Everyone, whether and author, or reader, blogger, or bookseller, should go to this conference. From the costume parties to the book signings, it was an all around great time. And I can’t wait to go again next year, in New Orleans. After I take a year to recover and read all the books I got.