10. I arrived in New Orleans, or how the cool people say it, NOLA on Tuesday. I’ve been in a drunken haze ever since. Kidding! Bourbon Street hasn’t owned me yet. *shifty eyes* Anyway – I still have two full days of this super fun conference, but I thought I’d recap the events of the past few days. Top Ten style of course.
9. I met Kristen Ashley, otherwise known as the person who created Tack. I played it cool, but it was hard. She was on a panel with Rachel Gibson and Susan Mallery (Susan Mallery was pretty funny). Among the tidbits she shared – she is currently writing Deacon’s book in her Unfinished Heroes series. If she had to choose one of her heroes to date, she’d pick Mitch. She loves writing sex scenes but worries about using the same language over and over. When she writes it is like a movie playing in her head, and she just writes what she sees. She said she tried to write shorter books recently and it didn’t work for her (or her readers). So from now on it’s long books (yay!)
8. Sarah from Smart Bitches hosted an hour long chat with Lisa Kleypas yesterday and it was sooooo much fun. Lisa is such a great speaker and so genuine. She shared so much about what motivates her to write her stories. She really stressed how important sexual tension and chemistry is in a book, and how she loves to bring tons of baggage and the damaged pasts of the characters into the bedroom with them. In sad news, Brown-Eyed Girl aka Joe’s book is being pushed back to May 2015 because the publisher feels it is more of a summer book. But in good news, Lisa has signed a deal with Avon to write more historicals. She is in the early stages of planning the series, but she wants it to have 4-5 heroes who all know each other or are in the same group. And they might not all be nice. (I approve of this!).
7. Another brilliant speaker was Suzanne Brockmann. I could listen to her speak for days. She was on a panel hosted by Sarah Frantz with SE Jakes (aka Stephanie Tyler), KA Mitchell, Heidi Belleau, and Marie Sexton. An amazing LBGTQ panel – they talked about the genre and writing gay characters and just all good stuff.
6. Lily Everett, Roxanne St. Claire, Julie James, Jaci Burton and not pictured – ReaAnne Thayne and Victoria Dahl (I’m not a good picture taker apparently) did a panel about writing real sex in a contemporary book. As you can imagine, it was a lot of fun. They talked about what language they use, and how to keep it exciting after writing a gazillion sex scenes. And how it’s hard if your characters are not in the house, to just have a condom sitting around. It was a lot of fun.
5. Nalini Singh, Jeaniene Frost, Kresley Cole and Meljean Brook (not pictured) did a really fun panel about writing paranormals. Kresley Cole is super funny – I’d love to hear her talk more. And Nalini Singh hinted that she is writing a contemporary and that she will have official news soon-ish. Squeak!
4. Yesterday I was on a panel with Sarah from Smart Bitches, Vida Engstrand, a publicist with Kensington and Jennifer Estep! We talked about blogger, author and publicist relationships and how to all work together.
3. Beignets. No other words needed (I’m totally eating one right now as I type this post).
2. I’ve met sooooo many peeps here! That’s Kate and me above. Twitter friends, bloggy friends, author friends. If you sit in the lobby bar, there is a 100% chance you will end up in the middle of a group of romance readers with everyone smiling. It’s so much fun. A bit overwhelming – but as I was telling someone yesterday, you can make RT as crazy or as not crazy as you want. I really think this is one of the best conventions for romance readers.
1. Tomorrow is the big book signing with 700 authors. I’m going to sneak in and walk around and hopefully tweet out pictures of authors tomorrow. I also have shopping on my schedule! Hope everyone has a great Friday. I haven’t read a book in days. I’m starting to get sweaty!
I’m so JEALOUS!! It looks like you’re having a fab time.
I miss you. *sob*
GAH! You suck!! But, I mean that in the nicest way! I would be totally dorkily (real word…) fan-girling there. So many great authors. I am so jealous! Can’t you say the weather stinks or something to make those that didn’t go feel better? :-)
Seriously… I am glad you are having a blast!
The weather did drop into the 70’s one day and I got cold.
(is that better? ;)
Jealous! It looks like all the cool kids went off to the Crescent City! Glad you’re having a good time, and maybe next year I’ll make it to RT.
I’m very jealous, several of my reading friends are there this week too. From your post and the other photos I’ve seen that people have shared, it looks like the whole thing is going great. And New Orleans is such a great city to hold it in! So many cool things to see there.
I’ve been obsessively reading tweets with the # RT14. Looks like so much fun.
Isn’t it in Dallas next year? I’m all about RT15 if that’s the case.
Yep – Dallas!
Nalini Friggin Singh!!! Yessssss I adore her!
This looks like an amazing time Mandi!
oh how fun!! I have got to make it to one of these ONE day :))
Please share more pictures.
I squeed myself a little bit when you said Kristen Ashley was only going to write long books from now on. I love her worlds and long books mean I don’t have to leave so quickly!
Yes..sooo glad she feels this way
My sister is in NOLA celebrating her 30th birthday and she couldn’t care less. Kresley Cole and Nalini Singh on the same panel… So jealous!
It was such a fun panel :)
Like others, I am super jealous of all the fun you are having. Those panels sound awesome! Keep the pictures coming!
Hi Mandi,
Thanks for the awesome recap. Sounds like a blast! I’m so jealous! It looks like a lot of fun. I was wondering if I could post your recap of the conversation with Sarah and Lisa Kleypas at Goodreads in the Lisa Kleypas Fans Group? There’s a thread for news/updates about Lisa’s announcements and updates on her upcoming releases & books. Since this is your recap I don’t want to copy and paste something without asking your first. I will post a link.
Of course! :) Feel free to copy/paste anything you like.
When I have time I can scroll back on twitter and find my tweets from the panel. I may have tweeted more info.
I wish I was there :/
OMGosh this looks so fun! Some day I’ll make it to RT. Some day Mandi!!
Ooh, I’m very jealous of the Lisa Kleypas chat!
I love seeing everyone’s lists – I was there too, but my list is totally different b/c the conference was SO HUGE, I had no idea it would be so many choices and so many people. It’s fun to see what everyone else did. I think our only list overlap was beignets and the panel you and Sarah Wendell did on blogging … very helpful!
I went to the Lee Child/Jack Reacher roast. Holy hot dudes, the guy who is the International Jack Reacher lookalike contest guy – Duncan Munro – is freaking awesome. He was the perfect emcee for the roast, and absolutely breathtaking – an officer in the Australian military, 6/5″ and buff and brilliantly funny – the whole room probably would have run away with him right then. You can look him up on the internet and be awed by a real life guy like I was.
And Lee Child and Charlaine Harris doing a chat together was also wonderful – those two have the funniest chemistry. Their books are completely different, and yet they both seemed so bonded together. Loved them.
Other things I’d put on my top ten – the crowds were just so friendly. Waiting in lines, everyone was chatting, and I never met anyone who was super-annoyed or super-complaining about the lines. It was such a warm and fun event (yes, I was a first timer totally overwhelmed by the crowds and the choices and how much fun it was).
Also – shout out to the RT Fit Club ladies – including Sara Humphreys – I managed to do one of the morning workouts and that was fun!
Mandi’s social media panel was pretty awesome too. :D