Romcon 2013

Wow! Yesterday was run, run for me. I hosted or participated in five events!

Me calling out Bingo

Morning started off with First Kiss Scenes. Ten authors submitted first kiss scenes from one of their books. The scenes were mixed up among the authors and we read them one at a time and the audience had to guess which author read the scene. When the book signing arrived later in the day, I had two people purchase Secrets of a Mayan Moon because of my first kiss scene that was read from that book.

The next event was Romance Bingo during lunch. I was the person in charge of that event. I'd garnered 100 book covers and my technically adept daughter made 200 bingo cards that were passed out . I also gave them smarties to use as the markers on the cards, but the tables were small and just the plates really had room on the table so people ate the smarties and used pens to mark their cards. We gave out prizes for first lines filled and then the grand prize for a full card came at cover number 82! It was a fun event to host.

Bingo participants

From there, I hustled to the Speed Dating event. Authors sat behind tables around the edge of the room and the attendees took seats. We talked books and reading then every two minutes they shifted to the right. I started passing out my "survival tins" at this event.


Next was the Cowboy Corral, myself and five other western authors: Randi Alexander, Helen Hardt, Lorelei James, Donna Michaels, and Cindy Woolf hosted the event. We had a hot cowboy for the attendees to get their photo with and we passed out our books as well as moved from table to table talking with the attendees.

Cowboy Corral Gang with Model

From the Corral, I flew to the book signing. I passed out more tins at this event, sold books, and passed out all my flyers that had all my books.

Me at book signing.

I continued passing out the tins everywhere I went the rest of the day and plan to carry the bag with me today and get rid of all of them. They are getting rave reviews!

Speaking of reviews...Secrets of a Mayan Moon is a finalist in the Romcon Reader's Crown contest for Suspense. So keep your fingers crossed! I learn tomorrow if it is a winner or not.

Gearing up for Colorado

I'm making my first trek to Colorado in June and I'll be driving it solo. I'm excited and scared. Excited to see some country I haven't seen and hopefully feel brave enough to stop along the way and see sites.

When I drive alone, I tend to lock myself in the car and only stop for rest areas and food. I don't think I give off an aura of a scardy cat who would make an easy mark, but I tend to prefer not going to unknown places alone. Weird when you consider I love living out in the boonies all alone but then there aren't other people milling around either.

My plan is to make it to Colorado Springs in two days, making note of places I'd like to visit on the return trip. Then after the brunch on Sunday, I'll get  in the car and drive to either a site I wanted to see or a place to spend the night and work my way home stopping to take in the scenic wonders and interesting historical places.

If you happen to know any interesting places to check out between Oregon and Colorado, let me know.

Right now I'm putting together "survival tins" using Isabella Mumphrey's survival tin as a proto type. Only these tins, which the attendees at the conference will receive, are a domestic survival tin with band aid, chocolate, emery board, wet one, antibiotic, Advil, and such items.

I am also donating several gift baskets to the various events at the conference I am hosting. What I'm looking forward to is the Cowboy Corral event. Half a dozen authors pitched in and ordered a male model to come dressed as a cowboy for the attendees to get their photos taken with. Should be a fun event!

A romance bingo event I'm hosting will be fun as well with lots of prizes donated by the participating authors.

Looking forward to meeting and visiting with readers and catching up with some author friends.