Whew. This is late, I know, but I’m just getting my feet under me again from a whirlwind of a weekend. If you follow me on social media, you know I returned home to two sick kids and a husband with a MAN COLD, so it’s been kind of crazy. But no worries. I think they’ll all survive.
Anyway, it was my pleasure to attend Authors After Dark in Atlanta this past weekend. I arrived on Thursday (curbside service–Ivan dropped me off!) and the first person my roomie Melanie and I ran into was my wonderful friend Kimmie Kim, who knows everything and everyone at AAD. It was fun to sit with her for a while and pretend I was as popular as her!
Thursday night I attended the Bookie Awards, where authors like Carrie Ann Ryan and Sherrilyn Kenyon cleaned up. My lovely pals Joey W. Hill and Jenn LeBlanc won awards too. Also Thurs night: Melanie and I had dinner at Fandangles, with a fabulously hilarious waiter and the best sweet potato fries ever, so that was great. Lisa S. joined us, and Sylvia, and Riane, and Candace, and my friend Tiffany, and a new friend named Rhonda.
On Friday I attended some panels on BDSM limits (ha!) and Fantasy vs. Reality in Erotica. The last panel only had four people in it so we just hung out and chatted. That’s the really fun thing about these cons, just chatting with people. After that, it was time to get dressed for the Tiara Ball. I was SO FREAKING EXCITED for this because I love dressing up. I was seated at Normandie Alleman‘s table and GUESS WHAT? We had vibrators in our goodie bags. She is a woman after my own heart and she writes great pervy stuff. Now the pics…I have so many pics…
Here’s me and my roomie Melanie:
Here’s me and my straight-talking friend Laura, and my sweet friend Marcia who says she’s going to up her costume game next year. I still think she’s beautiful.
Here’s a photo of me with my adorable and friendly pal Sylvia and kinky romance author Candace Blevins.
And here’s a photo of me with author Julie Morgan. This is becoming a tradition. Our ball selfie!
Speaking of awesome, here’s a photo of me with my friends Jay and Debi. They’re dressed as Patsy and Edina from Absolutely Fabulous. They killed it, seriously. Plus their friend Tracey gave me chocolate on Saturday when I really really needed it. Just mentioning that.
So on Saturday I recuperated (perhaps with the help of all the extremely healthy salads and tofu they repeatedly fed us) and went to the book signing. I saw some wonderful friends like Carol, Felicia, and MANDY!
And ALICIA!
Love their shirts! I also met some new readers and hopefully interested them in checking out Annabel Joseph’s world of perversity. I know one of the new readers picked up Comfort Object as her first AJ book. She’s either masturbating right now, or curled up in a ball of horror. I hope it’s the first one. I did warn her. HAHAHA. Here you can see me sitting beside Melanie and praying that she doesn’t leave any one-star reviews. Just kidding. This is a random photo from Donna, but doesn’t it look like I’m praying? Haha!
I also sold a copy of Odalisque to Joey W. Hill, which is probably one of the highlights of the conference my life. It was so fun, because I love Joey. You should definitely read her stuff.
Once the signing was over, it was time to eat more salad and tofu and enjoy the Bump in the Night ball. This was a paranormal themed event and I sat at Candace Blevin‘s table. There was a jaguar there (not real) and tee shirts for all of us (real!), and delightfully, one of the readers also brought both of us shooters shaped like sperm, filled with ejaculate-like fluid. That pretty much sums up why I love hanging out with readers so much.
Here’s a picture of all the crew from Candace’s table. What a wonderful bunch of gals. (If I look a bit tired and bloated, I blame the vegan diet they put us all on!)
I’m sure I’m leaving a ton of stuff out, including my wonderful conversations with Margarita, and Lisa S, and my blurb writing workshop with S.E. Smith, and late night chilling in Laura and Sheila’s room, and my new Irish friends I made at breakfast Sunday morning, and Felicia and Marcia arguing over the table at the Bookies, which made me giggle repeatedly. Finally, to Melanie: Sorry I was such a shower hog. HAHAHA.
If you weren’t able to come to Authors After Dark, I hope you’ll try to make the Shameless Book Con in October 2016 in Orlando. I’m planning to be there and I’d love to see YOU. You can learn more about Shameless Book Con and even chime in about the planning here: Link to SBCon Facebook group
To everyone who made AAD such a wonderful experience, including Stella Price and her amazing staff, I have a million thanks for you. XXOO