Darling Risky Readers!

I have returned from RomCon and can report back to you all– well nearly all –my adventures. I am very much looking forward to hearing all about Amanda’s experiences, though. I feel it’s safe, however, to announce that our very own Amanda McCabe became a member of the Cucumber Club while she was there. Yours truly was already a member on account of a certain scene in my paranormal My Forbidden Desire. I’ll let Amanda share the details of her initiation, though I will say she was present during a scene of Cucumber mayhem. Make sure you leave congrats in the comments!

My roommie and I flew in Thursday evening, and arrived rather late as our flight was delayed in Las Vegas due to the arrival of Air Force One and the subsequent shut down of all air traffic for half an hour. Thus, our conveyance did not timely arrive in San Francisco to whisk us away to lovely Denver. This is the problem with traveling Post. One is subject to the whims of the road. I mean air.

I was on the Catherine Morland austerity plan (Northanger Abby) so I had with me 12 energy bars so I wouldn’t have to pay for food. (Double Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter, in case anyone is interested … they still taste suspiciously like sawdust but I guess that’s due to all the protein.) Friday morning, my roomie (@SonomaLass — if you happen to be on Twitter, give her a follow!) and I headed down to meet up with Jane from Dear Author.

Jane let me play with her iPad. OMG! We watched a bit of Batman on it and it was awesome. Writing on it would not be horrible at all, especially with the physical keyboard. The software keyboard is much better than I expected it would be. Aside from the cucumber menage, that might well have been the highlight of the con. Then a bunch of us went out to lunch, including Berkley Books executive editor Cindy Hwang, historical author Courtney Milan, Urban Fantasy, Steampunker Meljean Brook, SonomaLass, Jane, of course and several others, including writers, bloggers and readers. Cindy Hwang picked up the tab, which was exceedingly generous.

Then I moderated the Anti-Heroes you Love to Hate Panel. I think I should have had a special hat or maybe an orange vest and some traffic cones. There were 39 people in attendance to hear such authors as Nalini Singh, Jo Beverly, Cindy Gerard and others. No one told me Jo Beverly was going to be on the panel so I didn’t have an introduction for her and when I looked over and saw her among the authors, I had a total fan girl moment and could hardly breathe. If I’d had that orange vest, I could have completed the Carolyn is a Dork moment. I ended up dividing the authors among the tables and letting them have at conversation. Every five minutes the authors switched tables. This gave all the attendees a chance to hear everyone speak in a personal setting. Many prizes were given out.

I attended a couple of events that were on my schedule, most of which were a complete surprise to me. Oh, I’m doing that? Okay! and in between those things I sat around gabbing with folks; bloggers, readers, authors, agents and editors. And it was wonderful great fun! Many of the panels were games and though they might sound silly let me tell you, the games I participated in were a blast. Monster charades with author Carolyn Crane involved participants pulling a slip of paper that contained something to do with paranormal books (authors, titles, characters, creatures etc) for which the person, assisted by an author if needed, gave clues. Good golly, there were women there who know their paranormal romance!

I ran into Julia Quinn several times and I have to say she must be the most charming person in the world. She was very gracious about my gushing over her Ten Things I Love About You, a recent release of hers I read and absolutely loved.

In conclusion, I must say that I would go to RomCon again. It was fun and intimate and really different from most Cons that I’ve been to. I loved the opportunity to just sit and chat with all combinations of readers, bloggers, publishing folks and authors, formally and informally.

I’ve heard rumors the Con date will move to another date, but remain in Denver next year. Having the Con so close to RWA made it a bit tight for me in terms of time off from work and money. Alas, I was back at work Monday. I think having the Con in some month other than July would be a Good Thing. By the end, I was a little sick of energy bars, but they got me through the con without having to pay for any food, except for once when Amanda, Meljean and I decided to order room service Saturday night after the hotel shuttle door jammed, thus preventing us from going off site in search of dinner.

RomCon: Win. If you have the opportunity next year, this is a fun conference for readers, bloggers and authors