Storywitch's "Book of Shadows"

Mermaids and Myth! That was the mini-event that Judi Fennell and I hosted at the Authors After Dark conference in Suffern NY October 23-26. We were scheduled for a poolside event at 4pm on the day of registration, so I thought, “oh, we won’t have too many folks”. Instead, we had nearly thirty! One of them, Carol B, even wore a special embroidered mermaid skirt in honor of the event. She quite graciously allowed me to photograph her backside (lol).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time talking about our respective mermaid books and how we used mermaid lore and various mythologies to craft our tales. One of the most lively topics was readers’ varying reactions to “mer-sex”. Interestingly, we concluded that one of the reasons there may not be more mer-romances is that publishers are kind of leery because of the perceived “turnoff” of heroes having a tail or reader aversion to “mer-sex”. But this group agreed that, if done correctly, all of that was acceptable (the age-old writing maxim – ANY story will work, if written right!). As we had this fairly animated discussion about the topic, it was fun to see the expressions of hotel staff members and non-conference guests as they walked by our event and got to hear eyebrow-raising snippets!

We brought these great keychains to hand out (they came from Zazzle.com, $2.95 apiece, if you can’t live without one – grin), and they were all snapped up. Judi also included beautiful silver mermaid charms in all the welcome bags, and mine is now hanging from my lotion bottle on my desk. Here’s Judi below and to the right, who was a delightful person with whom to do an event, and a very talented author. She’s written a humorous and lovely mer-romance series, and the first one is called In Over Her Head. I’m looking forward to finishing it on my upcoming vacation. She’s also coming out with a genie series next year.

 

 

Judi also has a great story about meeting Fabio that you have to hear in person to appreciate. She was at the conference with friend and author Stephanie Julian. Stephanie was not so impressed by Fabio, so it was a riot to watch Judi recount the story with such huge enthusiasm, while Stephanie sat next to her with dubious expression and eye rolling (laughter). Judi gave a much abbreviated summary on her blog (along with photos), but if you ever corner her at a signing or conference, make her tell you the whole tale – if Stephanie’s there, she’ll threaten to choke me, I’m sure!

So how about the rest of the conference? There were almost 100 attendees, which is a great turn out at a first-ever, author-sponsored conference. Jacquelyn Frank, author of the Shadowdwellers and Nightdwellers series (I loved Ecstasy, first of the Shadowdwellers, and Rapture, next in the series, is one I’ll also take on vacation – notice a trend here?), was the sponsor. Here’s a photo of her waving, below.

Through the tireless efforts of Stella Price, fellow author and friend of Jacki (photo a little further down,  at the masquerade), and many of their friends – hope I get these names right, because they really worked hard: Susan and her daughter Sierra, Crystal, Anne, Kim, and others I’m sure I missed – this conference was incredibly well organized and offered so much to readers. We had all sorts of genre forums for readers to have Q&A with their favorite authors of vampire, shifters, demons, greek gods, witches, etc. stories. I had the pleasure of serving on a couple of these panels. On the vampire one, the irrepressible Rosemary Laurey kept us in stitches. I had my fangirl moment, sitting next to Sunny of the Mona Lisa series fame. She signed Mona Lisa Blossoming for me! Here we are to the right. There were so many talented ladies on these panels, it was an honor to be rubbing shoulders with them.

Literally several hundred books (at least!) were given away through the welcome bags, events and contest giveaways. As an example, I brought eleven of my books, which were given away Saturday night as door prizes. Then there were all sorts of promo goodies, like soft-sided coolers, pens, makeup mirrors, etc.  Of special note were all the raffle baskets. They helped raise over $1500 for Pets Alive, a local animal organization. PA even brought a couple of the puppies by to schmooze with all of us, making me miss my furry babies all the more! My basket included a complete set of the Vampire Queen series, $75 B&N gift certificate and some cute vampire stuff, as you can see, in a bit of a blurry bitmap photo I borrowed here. My basket was nowhere near the best there – there were advance copies of yet-to-be-released books, a whole basket of Estee Lauder products, etc. Here’s Lindsey, one of our pajama’d conference attendees (and one of my delightful readers!), with a long string of raffle tickets, waiting to see if she won!  

On top of all the giveaways and genre forums, there was oodles of time for authors and readers to spend time together and talk about what we love – paranormal books! Friday night was a pajama party, along with a contest for “Best Stuffed Animal Sleeping Buddy.” While I have no pictures of me in my pajamas, you can see my possum, Artie, below, guarding my pink kitty pajama set. Also shown is Judi with one of her Hello Kitty slippers and her “Tas” sleepmate. Below that is “Froggy” (Anne), one of the quintessential volunteers for the event, who obviously likes the green amphibians.

   

Saturday night was a masquerade party. I wore a witch costume in honor of upcoming Halloween, and as you can see below, I was in good company! From left to right is author Cathy Clamp, me, author DL Cocchio and Veronica, one of our wonderful readers.  Teresa Noelle Roberts, with whom I had the pleasure of sharing the Witch panel forum, dressed as a cat, so there were quite a few shots taken of us as “witch and familiar.

I met so many incredible readers at this event, and had the particular delight of meeting for the first time some who have been long term fans and supporters. Here’s a before and after of Carol and Amy – from the mermaid event and then at the masquerade! Then there was the lovely Lady D, with whom I shared a late lunch on Saturday. Barbara and Veronica (as mentioned above) were such a genuine pleasure– Barbara brought me a pair of fishnet stockings with satin ribbon and tiny handcuffs at the top band. I wore them at the masquerade, as you can see below in the picture with Stella!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On that same note, Stella, organizer extraordinaire and general of the troops for this event, dressed as a faun for the masquerade. While I’m showing off my stockings, she’s letting us see her very cool and sexy shoes that had a unique heel. Here’s an inset so you can see it a little better. On my stockings, unfortunately the ribbon came through, but you can’t see the handcuffs! Trust me, though – they were awesome. And I think adding striped socks really enhanced the look (wink).

We of course had a signing on Saturday that gave us the opportunity to meet and greet more readers.  This photo below is the obligatory shot I ask some nice author or reader to shoot at each of my signings so I can prove to my mother I combed my hair, didn’t dress like a bag lady (she can’t see the plastic bags on my feet if I’m sitting down), and looked reasonably well put together. Even wore makeup – yes, a miracle. That’s why you can actually see my eyes (lol). In between readers coming by, I was vastly entertained by Rosemary again, who sat next to me. She told me a story about her boys when they were growing up that had me in stitches (it involved butter, sliding across a kitchen floor and all sorts of unlikely trouble that boys get into).

So on Sunday, it was time to head for home after a very worthwhile weekend. On a final note, many of you probably live in very fall color rich areas, but the NC coast is filled with primarily evergreens – pines, live oaks, etc. While these are incredibly beautiful trees, too, I always enjoy the chance to see the autumn leaf changes, and this drive gave me ample opportunity to do so, particularly through Virginia and New Jersey. These photos were actually taken in the Suffern hotel parking lot! This hotel allowed dogs, and right before I took this shot, I saw a guy bring out THREE adult Irish wolfhounds. So huge and gentle, and I couldn’t help but think fondly of Bran, Lyssa’s faithful canine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t show all my pictures or mention all the wonderful authors and readers I met, but needless to say, if the other attendees felt as good about their experience as I did, we’ll all be back next year. Hope to see new faces as well, as word of this event spreads! If you’re interested, be sure and stay tuned to the Authors After Dark site or blogspot for details.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 5:05 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.