Storywitch's "Book of Shadows"

How’s that for a long title? I wanted to be sure and catch your attention (wink). First, before I give you a snapshot of the Lori Foster Reader-Author Get Together (RAGT), let me mention two things happening this week that may interest you.

Monday, June 14, 12noon Central to 12 midnight, I’ll be blogging at bittenbybooks.com about vampires. Come answer one of my questions and win a $50 Amazon gift certificate + one book title! Or, if you don’t want the certificate for some reason, you could win your choice of FOUR of my titles! The questions are fun, and Bitten by Books is a great site to find more books for your To Be Read list, so come on over. And, additional note, if you RSVP to this link, http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=25733, you get 25 additional entries in the contest!

And, if you can’t make that, and/or you’re not tired of me yet, on Thursday, Jun 17, I’ll be over at Over the Edge Book Reviews. They’ll post an interview with me that day, but 7-9pm EST that night, I’ll be on a live chat. And of course I’ll be giving away Vampire Mistress, or the book of the winner’s choice, if that winner would prefer something else. Bring your questions or whatever else you’d like to talk to me about, and we’ll have a great time.

Hope to see you at one or both. All right, on to the Lori Foster write up!

This year was the second time I’d attended RAGT, and as before, it was a pleasure. It’s a very low key atmosphere. Most of the event takes place in the main ballroom, where authors set up at round tables and readers are free to move among the tables to visit with the authors of their choice, get books signed, etc.

Please forgive my inept picture taking, but above was my table. Four authors were allowed at each table, so I had the delight of sitting with Cheryl Dragon, Desiree Holt (and her lovely daughter Amy) and the writing team of Violet Summers. I also came home with Cheryl’s Sexual Misconduct and Desiree’s Cocked & Loaded, so I’m looking forward to reading those when time allows.

I had the pleasure of meeting some new people, as well as touching base with past friends. I won’t be able to cover them all here, but let me hit a few.

Though I’ve talked with her many times via email to coordinate my book reviews with Long and Short of It / Whipped Cream Reviews, this was the first time I’d met Chris, who handles a lot of the administrative load for this wonderful site. She was so cheerful and enthusiastic, and gave me two keeper quotes that I’ve written down to keep for future smiles. First One: She’s an obsessive compulsive person like myself, only she categorizes it as CDO. “That’s OCD, in alphabetical order, as it should be!” (as any obsessive compulsive knows – lol). In describing my mermaid series to another reader as lighter than my usual BDSM fare, she characterized Jonah of Mermaid’s Kiss thusly: “He won’t tie her [Anna] up, but he’ll hold her down.” Priceless.

After the joy of meeting readers/reviewers, probably my second favorite thing about these conferences is the chance to talk to aspiring authors and authors on different rungs of the career ladder, so we can share information and help each other. I was greatly flattered to be approached by Kestra Gravier and thanked for the inspiration my work has provided her. Since we met last year, she’s been published by Siren Publishing and has a provocative free story over at Oysters and Chocolate called “Hangar”. On top of that, I had the joy of seeing J.A. Saare, who is a particular friend and strong supporter of my work. Her husband was brave enough to attend with her, and I consider her quite fortunate, since he’s kind enough to run out and buy my books for her (laughter). Seriously, they seemed like a wonderful couple. She and Wendi Zwaduk tag teamed me later to discuss books. On a normal day, I’m about as energetic as a sloth on Ambien, so being in the middle of their creative energy was a pure shot of adrenaline. Though I only had a pleasurable moment to chat with them, it was great to also see both Judi Fennell and Stephanie Julian again. (Judi and I did a mermaid workshop at Authors After Dark last year.)

I also discussed the pros and cons of balancing writing vs. family and dayjob demands with Ashley Ladd. Finally, Mary Hanson (pictured here) was attending the conference to absorb all lessons, big and small, about the writing journey. I hope to hear more about her work in the future. 

Saturday night, the wonderful DeNita Tuttle and Author Island hosted a pirate party, complete with fun pirate-related party games. Below is a great picture of Dotty in great pirate wench style. Dotty is one of my long term readers (who brought her delightful friend Lisa), and she’s posing with the fabulous two-woman writing team of Violet Summers. My friend Laura of Topaz Promotions (and a vital part of TwoLips Reviews)  decided that I completely suck at trivia games, particularly those that require a working knowledge of books. I couldn’t argue at all, seeing as I read an embarrassing dozen books a year these days due to all the editing/deadlines. It’s okay, though – she said she loved me anyhow. And I did mildly better on the historical pirate trivia games, thanks to the extensive research I did over ten years ago for Legacy of the Raven. (Nope, that one’s not yet published – a backburner labor of love, an epic fantasy novel that crosses historical romance with fantasy in the time of the Golden Age of Piracy.)

Anyhow, here’s another shot, featuring Pam, another fabulous reader, and the incomparable Stephanie Burke – known fondly as “Flash”. She and I had a marvelous conversation about her story idea involving a shape shifting sheep. At least that’s how I remember it – it was a crazy weekend (laughter).

One of the particularly nice things about the Lori Foster event is how much it is geared toward benefitting local charities. There was a wide variety of raffle baskets brought by authors, readers, and other book-related organizations. My vampire basket had a giant stuffed bat, the entire Vampire Queen series, and a $100 Barnes & Noble gift certificate, but it was hardly the most amazing basket – there were Kindles, Ipads and other things raffled off as well. All in all, the raffles raised about $5758 for One Way Farm. Money was also raised to support the troops and the local animal organization, Animal Adoption Foundation.

Anyhow, those are the highlights. Games, great conversations, good deeds, and a celebration of books and writing. Definitely a weekend well spent. All those who were there – I wish I could mention you all – thanks for making it such a great time!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 4:31 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.