RT Booklovers Convention - the Convention high spots.

I attended my first RT convention as an unpublished writer. It was in Pittsburgh, I was a finalist in the American Title Contest and I had a wonderful time. I made up my mind right then that if/when I was published, I would be back. With two books to my credit, Kansas City seemed like the right time, right place. The fact that it was the 30th anniversary convention was a bonus. I can only highlight a few of the special moments, or we'd be here for the rest of the week, but actually the entire convention was one long high spot - enthralling and exhausting in equal measure. I have to admit I did not make it to all the parties, but those I did were all completely fabulous. Having been there for the pre-convention it was fascinating to watch the hotel transformed for an invasion of romantics. I think my favourites were the decals that went up on the elevator doors.

Elevator doors!

The 'day job' part of the convention consisted of panels and workshops. I was involved in four with fellow Choc-Lit authors and also a panel on archetypal heroes and heroines in romantic suspense with four very big names - Cherry Adair,  Robin Perini,Caridad Pineiro and Gennita Low. I don't know about the audience, but I learned a lot. There are scores of events going on the whole day, for five days, and it is immensely difficult to make choices - there was so much I wanted to do, and a lot of it happening at the same time. The sooner someone comes up with a foolproof way of cloning an author, the better.

The hotel foyer

That, and a suitcase which will walk to heel. The only good thing about flying is checking in your heavy bag and not seeing it again until you get to your destination. And the bag was a lot heavier leaving than it was arriving, because of the swag and the books - and I was very restrained in what I collected - given a free hand and an extra suitcase ...

At the ball

Mostly I did panels on useful things, from the craft and genre strands - until Friday morning. I was supposed to be going to a session on locations, but on the way there I was diverted by an author in a tiara and a glimpse, through an open door, of leopard skin patterned goodie bags. Well, what would you have done? Abandoning the locations workshop and my
British inhibitions I spent a hilarious 'Goddess' hour, learning a lot about the love lives of some of my fellow convention attenders. But, of course, what happens at convention stays at convention.
Saturday was the huge book

Getting my pitch ready for the signing.

signing. I had a pitch between Christine Warren and Shiloh Walker - two lovely ladies - and I'm now one of the privileged people who know what Shiloh actually looks like, as she prefers to preserve an element of mystery when it comes to photographs. On Sunday we had fun with a Brit quiz, when I wore my Welsh costume, complete with steeple hat. A few pictures of that are circulating, but I forgot to hand my camera to anyone so I don't have any.
Then, next day it was back to the aeroplanes, bound for New Jersey, to spend a week with my cousin, Bernice  ...