Saturday I headed up to Daytona Beach to attend the Coastal Magic Convention.

Jennifer Morris aka @HappyTwilighter hosts a fabulous reader/author convention every year called Coastal Magic Convention in Daytona Beach, Florida. CMC is a smaller convention that focuses on bringing readers and authors together in an intimate setting that faciliates more one on one interaction. This three day event starts on Thurday and ends on Sunday. From big name authors to those just starting out, CMC offers a place to network, rub elbows ith some of your favorite authors, make new friends, reaquint with old friends, and grab some seriously awesome swag.

I arrived around 11:00 (running late as usual) and got to talk with with Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About  (@twimom) and Liza from Blogging by Liza  (@mislizalou) SQUEEE for about 10 minutes before my coffee date with one of my favarite authors, Jennifer Estep. For 30 mintues I and Jen chatted about her recent trip to Germany (her Mythos series is uber hot with German readers), snow, NA books, spitting llamas,  AND she gave me some hints as to where her Elemental series is going. I won’t spoil but I’m positive readers will be pleased.

We broke up around lunch time and I headed to have Lunch With An Author. With events like this, I usually try to book with an author I haven’t read and/or met before. I was SUPER siked to see I was lunching with Jan DeLima (I and Mandi each reviewed a book in her Celtic Wolves Trilogy)  and new to me author H. D. Smith.  Penny (@sweetiepiepen) was also sitting with us and is always guaranteed to make you laugh.

After lunch I went for drinks with Jan DeLima while we waited for the next panel. She is simply lovely and if you ever get a chance to meet her, GRAB IT! We talked about self-publishing, the newer trends that seem to be sweeping the publishing world, and what she is currently writing. A romantic suspense series is on her horizon and I am looking forward to reading it.

I only made to ONE panel that day, I know, I suck, but it was lots of fun. I got to hang with @jaymzangal while we met various authors and discussed contemporary romance. Jade Lee, who is an ABSOLUTE trip, is self pubbing a new pnr shifter romance -Seducing The Skeptic- under pen name Kathy Lyons. Fresh Fiction called it a ‘fast, fun read…peppered with spicy love.’ Seducing The Skeptic is available only in ebook and it is the first in a series. Donna, one-half of the fabulous Kit Rocha team, was also there and after assuring me I would totally do Lex no matter how much I was protesting, informed me that there will hopefully be one more book in the Southern Arcadia series. YAY!!!

 She also gave me this from her and Bree

Be. Still. My. Heart. The lovely @jaymzangal was nice enough to Vanna White for me to take these pictures. I was informed this is the ONLY ONE IN EXISTENCE right now.*swoon* I’m told the tattoo emblem on front is a clue towards Beyond Ruin which is set to release soon. I tried to steal Donna’s laptop to get a sneak peek but she’s much faster then she looks. And to answer the question on everyone’s tongue…no this will not be included in the giveaway.

Afterwords me, Jen, and Liza attended the public book signing and I got to meet a few authors I’ve long admired but was never able to meet. Paige Prince, Megan Hart, Jocelyn Drake (who is writing a spin off to her Dark Days series and will release first one in July), Tere Micheals, Carrie Anne Ryan, and more. All in all, it was a fun day and I’m hoping next year I can just throw caution to the wind and stay the whole weekend.

Now on to the giveaway!!!

There are plenty of conventions that I am unable to attend due to money, time, and location but that doesn’t stop me from coveting all the great swag I see being posted online so I decided to bring the convention to one lucky commenter. Tell us what convention is on your MUST GO TO list and I will send the winner the swag bag and swag I received at CMCon 2016. You will get everything pictured below and a few extras I picked up from the authors themselves.

Only one comment per person (multiple entries from same commenter will be deleted). This is for US residents only. The winner will be chosen on Friday and posted here

EDIT 2/12/2016: A winner has been chosen and contacted. Thank you all for commenting. 

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