Reading, Writing, and Life...Oh My!: June 2011

For the second year in a row, Kassa from 3am, has set up the Fan Letter Blog Crawl. I participated last year & had a blast. Am super glad I can go again this year. Literary Escapism wrote hers yesterday, mine is today & Orannia's is tomorrow! Huzzah!

I hemmed & hawed over whom I would choose. Would it be Nalini Singh whom I adore? LaVyrle Spencer for writing my all-time favorite book? Mercedes Lackey for her Valdemar series? Hmmm....

But, as time progressed, I realized I knew exactly who to write to. So, my letter below...

Dear Lauren Dane,

I figured I would write this to you & tell you how much I enjoy your writing. I only came across your books a few years ago, but have read just about every single one. I love the Cascadia Wolves series & such, but it's your Brown Sibling series that does it for me. You write some of the hottest heroes out there. Rough & tumble, but so unbelievably hot, especially around the heroines.

The emotions you evoke in these stories just about rips me apart. The sex is amazing, the romance is gorgeous & the stories are just fun to read. I wish I could articulate why I love these books so much, but sometimes just saying they're good is good enough. :)

Sincerely,

Your Devoted Reader

So, this weekend was a trip and 3/4s...in the best possible way. :) Remember how I said I was going to the Lori Foster Event? Well, I did & it was amazing!

I left Friday morning around 8:45 to go pick up my rental car. The event was down near Cincinnati, which is about a 4 hour drive. I didn't want to risk my poor old car on the trip, so I rented a car. It's a gorgeous, spankin' new Chevy Impala, which is just yummy! If I had the money, it would be my new car. :) Drove smooth as butter. *sigh*

Anyhoodles, got down to the Event around 1ish and went to check into my room. I was up on the 7th floor, so I got some lunch and then went up to my room. I dropped my bags on the floor and chilled out for a bit.

My Twitter friends were all on their way & when some of them arrived, they made mention on Twitter that they were going to be meeting up in the lobby. I sent a message telling them what I was wearing & the next thing I knew, I was talking to Mandi (smexybooks) and Belinda (bellie7) who were as sweet as can be. We went to sit down and just a few seconds later, Kati from katidom was coming down with her friend, LeAnn (hope I'm spelling that right).

We chatted for a bit and then Stacy showed up (trelaina). Lots of squeeing & hugging ensued, which rocked! lol

Friday is honestly a blur. We registered & got all that stuff done. Found a table, had dinner, & basically went deaf. It's amazing how loud 400+ people can be. Ha!

I got up to wander around & well, that's when it happened! We made eye contact, screaming was involved & then we were giving each other a giant bear hug. Yes, I am talking about Nalini Singh! *faints* She is sooooo sweet! I've "known" her for what seems like forever & it was amazing to actually meet her face-to-face. We chatted for a few, but she was surrounded by industry peeps, so I left her.

I turned around & saw Dana Marie Bell sitting at a table. We had a squee moment & then started talking. This was about 7ish. Somewhere along the line we decided to go to the bar and well, 5 or so hours later we finally decided to go to bed. lol. It was just awesome! She's hysterically funny & so cool! *sigh*

Got up to my room around 12:30 & was so hyped up I couldn't sleep. Ugh! So, I read for a bit and finally fell asleep around 2. Got up at 7:45 and got dressed, before going downstairs. Kati had found the room where Nalini was scheduled to give an intimate chat & was holding seats, so I grabbed some breakfast & found my chair.

The chat was great! No spoilers (poo!), but a lot of insight into her writing & such. Katiebabs will be disappointed to know that we couldn't get her to tell us if Kaleb will get a book (poo!), but she did go into a bit of detail about the current story arc and her plans for when that particular arc is over. More of the hawk shifters & such, so that's super exciting! :)

After the chat, we all kind of dispersed & went about our own business. I ended up talking to a bunch of different people, which was great! I got to meet Shiloh Walker and so many other authors. It was pretty nuts! After lunch I went up to my room for awhile to get away from the noise & try to take a nap (sadly THAT didn't happen...poo!). I had already gotten the signatures I wanted, so just chilled for awhile.

When it came time for dinner, most of the girls went to PF Chang's, but I didn't have a lot of extra money, so stayed for the dinner with Bells. As we were eating, Nalini came up with Leah from Sourcebooks (I can't remember how to spell her last name) and asked if she could sit with us. Well, of course they could, so they sat down with us. I moved closer because I honestly couldn't hear them.

I got to ask Leah so many questions, which rocked. She's an editor and was able to give me some great tips on things like pitching & just about everything else a newbie author usually does wrong. lol. So, I learned a great deal & hope it helps me out.

After dinner, Nalini excused herself and I went upstairs to take a sleeping pill. With so few hours of sleep the night before, I was zonked & really needed some sleep. Came back downstairs & chatted for a bit with others, before calling it a night around 10 & crashing upstairs.

Throughout the day they called the winners of the raffle. I won a great prize offered up by Monica Burns. I got to chat with her for awhile. She's a hoot (just a fyi).

Got up this morning & took off. So, there's my weekend in a nutshell. I'm exhausted & exhilarated all at once. Below are some of my pics. I hope you enjoy! :)