My first author-reader conference!

Hello and welcome!

I am still grinning from two weekends ago when I attended my first ever author-reader conference at the Romancing the Capital in Ottawa, organized and sponsored in part by Eve Langlais and other fabulous authors, helped by her awesome minions.

I didn’t know what to expect, I was a bit nervous, but a whole lot excited. The closer the date came, the bigger the excitement and as usual I thought of my costume on Wednesday night, I was up until 3 am to get it done I was the book boyfriend sorceress, had a whip too so I can keep them in check 😉 Went to work in the morning, then took off a bit early. My friend, Carolann, came with me. The previous post on my blog was my chat with her. She is a good friend, she put up with my endless chatter and bubbling as the event came closer ( we work together! ) and she drove the whole way to Ottawa, bless her heart… and back too!

I met a lot of new authors to me, among them Reece Butler, Ashlyn Chase, Viola Grace, Cynthia St. Aubin, Trinity Blacio, Jessica E Subject, Leah Braemel, Robyn Peterman, Kellie Kamryn, H. A. Fortman, and many more. I met a few whose book I read and looooove: Deborah Cooke, Zoe York, Eve Langlais.

Zoe York has been a guest on my blog before, we had a chat recently. I also had Liam, one of my book boyfriends from one of her series.

I will have Deborah Cooke‘s Erik, who is my Pyr book boyfriend coming soon for a chat *sigh*

I am hoping I can choose my book boyfriend from one of Eve Langlais‘s books, but I still have lots to catch up in her series 😉

I bought quite a few books at the signing held the Saturday of the event… a few are not in the picture because they were e-books or surfaced later from the many folds of my luggage…

… and also received a few as gifts 😀 The top middle one is Erik’s book, which I read before but this one is a signed gift from Ms. Cooke and I will treasure it forever.

SQUEEEEEE  Sorry, I’ve been doing that a lot, I mean A LOT 😀

I am looking forward to get lost in each story and find a few more book boyfriends along the way.

Met lots of readers, bloggers. Some brought their daughters, some their grannies and some their husbands. Cool, eh? The costumes at both dinner parties were from awesome to cool, we had a blast! Some chose not to wear costumes or only partial ones, but that was ok too. We took part of discussion panels during the day, where we got to ask questions and listened to authors share their insight in their respective genres or had fun doing crafts, naughty ones ;), or do puzzles or play games for prizes. There was a lot of laughter and cheers all over the place.

AAAAH THE MEMORIES!!! Check out the pics on the event page. I think the giddy feeling I had at the event will stay with me for a long time, it felt really good being among those who love books as much as I do. So few of my real life friends read, some do not read at all and I see when I talk about books ( true, I do talk a lot about books ) their eyes start to glaze over LOL

I am so happy that I found many fabulous ladies on the web from all over the world who love books, read the same books as I do and a few have become really good friends. We support each other in times of joy, sorrow and everything in between. Great ladies, I hope I will get the chance to meet them face to face one day.

The planning for the next event in May, 2016 is started so don’t miss out, here is  the link to get your ticket. Early bird prices are still going, but not for long. I will be there, wouldn’t miss it for anything!

I took with me a lot of swag I had extra on hand to share with fellow readers from M. A. Abraham, Sharon Hamilton, Cara Covington, Heather Rainier, Brandy Walker, Michelle M. Pillow, Melissa Schroeder, Diana Cosby, it was swept up in less than an hour … ALL OF IT. Also put together a basket from Sharon Hamilton that was put in the Friday night event’s draw, the lucky winner was sitting beside me at the dinner table, talk about a small world. There were a lot of happy readers on both days I tell you.

I brought back a lot of swag, some of it already on its way to my biggest supporters here on my blog and I have two bags left which I would like to share with two readers, all you have to do is comment on this post what kind of swag do you like the best and which bag, red or green, would you choose. As you can see in the picture below, there is a lot of swag in each bag, most of it from the event and a few of what I have left extra in my own stash. No chocolates though, those I kept for myself 🙂

The winners will be announced after 3pm, EST, Wednesday, April 29, 2015. GOOD LUCK!

Until next time read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!