My time at RT - a photo essay

I don't get out much. People who know me, know they can find me at home...a lot. My husband starts shaking if he's required to stay awake past 8pm most nights, and quite honestly, after this weekend, I have confirmed (embarrassingly enough) that the few occasions I'm able to stay up past midnight are just that...few...and far between.

However! This weekend, at the RT (Romantic Times) Booklovers Convention, I gave it the college try. And had an unbelievable time hanging out with some amazing talent, and some of the coolest, kindest people I've ever had the pleasure of cocktailing with.

I also ate and drank WAY too much. Below is a depiction of my time at RT - a photo essay if you will...
 Here's where I parked at Midway Airport. 
Always good to take a pic if you're going to be gone for five days.

 Here's me in the back of Michelle Mankin's Navigator with the fabulous Elizabeth Hunter. I took this picture to make my friend Meg (a.k.a Elizabeth's biggest fan) jealous. I was smiling so hard at said jealousy, that those ugly tendons in my neck popped out.

Here's me at dinner with the awesome, energetic, adorable, 
Rebecca "I drink tequila like water" Donovan. A fellow APub sister :)

 Here's a shot of the menu to make my hubby jealous. 
Does anything sound better than duck fat fries? Be honest. No, nothing sounds better.
(see below)





 Duck fat fries. Shared with me by Fred LeBaron.
And by shared I mean that I allowed him to have three of them.



This is what I ordered for dinner. Blackened shrimp & grits. 
It was to die for.


 Just as everyone was finishing dessert, I took this picture of my son on television.




 A full, motley crew. Including Fred, Rebecca, Elizabeth, moi, Killian McRae and Michelle Warren.
Sadly our hostess with the mostess, Michelle Mankin, was outside warming the car for our sorry asses because it was SNOWING IN MAY!


 This was my set-up for the Indie Book Expo on Thursday. 
 Kitty is my only indie title anymore!


Here I'm pictured with Larry Kirshbaum, Vice President of Amazon Publishing. 
I hope I'm getting his title right, because I think he's also my boss. 
I am very fond of him. 


 Here is the warm brie and parmesean pita chips I had at Rebecca's hotel. Delish! 
I also had braised short ribs over orzo, but I can't find that pic. 
I sense your disappointment in missing that photo, so we'll move along...


 I never wear dresses, so I thought I should include this one of me in a dress.
This photo was taken after I lead a workshop on self-publishing along with the awesome duo of Rebecca Donovan and Tracey Garvis-Graves. 
We were told we did a fabulous job, so we're going to take our show on the road. 
Large arenas in major metropolitan areas are hard to reserve, so...tour dates to come.



 Here I'm following Jamie McGuire onto one of those limo/party bus things that have stripper poles and flashing strobe lights. In fact, I may still owe Tina Reber money for this. Hopefully she will let me buy her a drink next month in Orlando.



 Here Jamie and Abbi Glines react with shock and awe when they hear that 
Tracey has never seen the movie Tombstone.I think it was Tombstone. Oy vey.
Y'all look out if I'm wrong!


 Housemade mozzarella. Delish. Odd pairing with asparagus, right?



Capellini with peas, mushrooms, and prosciutto. 
If only it had more sauce...



 I took this picture and sent it to Jessica Park, wishing she were with us being snarky.



 My table set-up for the Saturday Book Fair. 
Sat right behind the cutie-patootie couple of Jasinda Wilder and her hubby.


 My number one fan-girl, Rebecca Donovan. 
Wishing she had pink covers on her books...



Well, that about does it. The rest of the photos are filled with black-mail-able content, and while they would have made for a more interesting post, I'm going to hang on to those for now.

I really want to name drop all the awesome authors I had the pleasure of hanging out with this trip, but I'm afraid I'm going to leave someone out. So let me conclude by saying how truly humbling and inspiring it was to be surrounded by such wonderful women...and equally wonderful writers.

Who's going next year??

New Orleans 2014




2 comments:

  1. What a lovely post, it's helping assuage my post RT withdrawal! Those three fries were awesome, btw, thanks so much!

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  2. Ha! Just saw this when looking for a picture of myself. I like this one best! THAT was one awesome dinner.

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