Romantic Times Convention 2010 Hot Topics

*Check out the contest for Passion Sense members at the end of this post.






I attended the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, Ohio last week from April 28th – May 1st, my third RT, and as always it was a blast. I enjoyed seeing my author friends and making new ones, talking about the business, books, promo, etc. I helped out with decorations for the Ellora’s Cave party on Tuesday and Wednesday and was totally amazed by the amount of work the EC staff puts in for this event. Same goes for the staff at the RT magazine.

There were a number of great workshops and panels. It was hard to choose many times. I did sit in on a panel about vampires with Charlaine Harris and a number of others. It was fun to watch fans go up and descend upon the speaker table. I sat in on workshops about marketing and promotions, contract issues, various publishers’ spotlights, the agents’ panel, and a panel about steampunk.

Water and Fire element faeries
Steampunkish

Kathy Kulig - Faery Ball

Cris Anson & Lacey Thorn

It was great to finally get to meet some of the FF & P gang at the Happy Hour and trying some of the interesting cocktail concoctions. Thanks to Liz and Dawn and everyone who set that up. What a nice group.

Mark & Tracy Cooper-Posey, HOT, HOT, HOT




















Cindy Spencer-Pape, pretty & earthy


Stephanie Julian & Judi Fennell














Kathleen Coddington & Tina Gallager
Ellora's Cave Party

The two panels I did went well: Twitter Unplugged and Building Paranormals from the Ground Up. I have a few new Tweeple following me and everyone picked up my handout “Why am I Not Being Followed”. I had a fan girl moment chatting with Rebecca York who sat next to me on the panel. Squeee! We talked about gardening, shapeshifters, and Sedona, Arizona. She’s planning a trip there and wants to write a future book/series with that setting. I told her DAMNED AND DESIRED http://www.jasminejade.com/pm-8075-327-damned-and-desired.aspx is set in Sedona. She had her husband stop by my table at the book signing to ask me about Sedona some more. Stella Price was on the panel too and what a sweetheart. I loved her steampunkish outfits. I could get into that.


I also had the pleasure to talk briefly to Barry Eisler and JA Konrath. I’m a fan of both. Joe Konrath played a part in Heather Graham’s Vampire Ball play. What a riot. I kept having flashback images of John Belushi in Animal House. Except Joe had some kind of furry hat. (Sorry Joe).
Barry Eisler, Kathy, JA Konrath

The book fair was PACKED. Quite a turn out. Off course fans swarmed to JR Ward and Charlaine Harris. After a short time, fans had to take numbers and they announced about 20 or 40 at a time to help keep the lines manageable. JR Ward cut off signing at 1500!!! A YA author Rochelle Mead sat across from me and she had a huge line. Finally, they moved her to her own table. She stayed late to sign everyone. Never heard how many.


The Dorchester Party had a theme – Prom Night. Old 50s, 60s Prom night. Some people wore prom type dresses and they played oldies. It was fun. But the best part of the night was that in the smaller ball room adjacent to our ball room, there was a REAL high school promo going on. One cute young couple apparently walked into the wrong ball room. They took one look at the dance floor and realized their mistake. OMG wrong prom! They quickly left.



CONTEST for Passion Sense Newsletter members only:
Win a Jimmy Thomas tote bag. Jimmy made up these fabulous oversized tote bags for the RT Convention. And I have two to give away.

They’re a burgundy red color decorated with photos from the book covers he has modeled. All in vivid color. Some of the covers include: PUNISHMENT AND MERCY by Cris Anson, PRETEND WITH ME by Amber Skyze, and DRIVEN BY HUNGER by Desiree Holt. There are 36 covers total. It’s gorgeous. People at the RT Convention were carrying these around.

To WIN: You must be a member of my PASSION SENSE NEWSLETTER. It’s a once a month and occasional announcement Yahoogroup. If you're not a member, click here to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PassionSense/
or send a blank email to: PassionSense-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

As a Passion Sense member you're automatically entered. I’ll draw a random name on June 1st and July 1st. I’ll announce the names in the newsletter.