2015 Romantic Times Booklovers Convention Recap #RT15 #Dallas

 I meant to post this on Monday. Really. But then I took a nap. And woke up the next morning, feeling like I needed another nap. Or maybe a coma. Convention decompression will do that. Chasing 5-Hour Energy with Emergen-C for a week solid finally caught up with me. Anyway...

The 2015 Romantic Times Booklovers Convention was held in Dallas this year, which meant it was only a 9-hour drive for me and the man beast. I say only 9 hours, because it sure beats the 14-hour drive we made to New Orleans for RT last year. We've made the Dallas trip before to do a reading with the Circus Freaks at Open Stage and for a book signing at A Real Bookstore in Fairway, which is now closed. T_T  DFW is a fun place. I know lots of awesome people in the area and nearby. I also have some friends in Austin and Houston, so I'm hoping to be back in Texas soon for more signings.

Back to RT. Paul and I arrived a day early to get settled in and to sneak in a movie at the local AMC. Finally got to see Avengers 2!!! It was a great start to our week of awesome.

I met two of my critique partners (Kory M. Shrum and Kathrine Pendleton) in person for the very first time, which was beyond cool. The Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse are really spread about: Missouri, Washington, Michigan, Tennessee. We were really bummed that our fourth horsemen, Monica La Porta, couldn't make it, but my husband is a good sport and he played along so we could at least pretend Monica was with us....

 

The strange looks were totally worth it. 

This year, I was a little more prepared to meet my squee authors than last time. Just a little. I still had fangirl moments, but I was more adamant about capturing them--the moments, not the authors. I snagged these photos before my brain shut down entirely.

This one was taken at Scrapbook Mania, Tuesday night. That's Darynda Jones standing next to me! @_@  The other epic authors pictured include: Rachel Caine, Jennifer L. Armentrout (aka J. Lynn), Celeste Easton, Jeffe Kennedy, Ciara Knight, & Kim Meyer.

With Patricia Briggs, author of the Mercy Thompson series. I mark my calendar for her releases. She and her husband were super nice and funny.

With Gretchen McNeil, author of one of my favorites, 3:59. I met Gretchen last year too, but I was so in awe of her that I didn't even think to get a photo. If you like horror and sci-fi, monsters and alternate dimensions, weird science and a bit of romance, you really should read 3:59. It's one that I'll read again and again.

With Vicki Pettersson. OMG. OMG. OMG.

This one took me by surprise, and I'm amazed that I managed to form enough words to request a photo. Vicki wasn't actually signing at the big book fair this year. She and her daughter were just checking it out. I read her blog, because it's amazing, but I wasn't online much during the week of RT, so I missed her post about strolling through the book fair with ARC copies of her new book, Swerve, coming out in July! I spent the rest of the book fair completely stunned. Definitely my biggest fangirl moment from RT. ♥

My honey didn't attend as an author this year. His badge said companion which instantly made me think of Inara from Firefly. And he didn't get a fancy ribbon label like my "Published Author" ribbon. So I made him one. It says "Love Monkey". He wore it proudly. ♥  He also met a bearded cover model who inspired him not to shave off his winter fuzz like he'd planned to do by the end of the week...

All in all, it was the best week ever. We saw a lot of familiar faces that we haven't seen since last RT in NOLA. And we made a few new friends. I got to meet some awesome readers (new and old), giveaway books and swag, hang with my horsemen, squee at my favorite authors, learn more about the business of writing from the epic panels. I have more pictures, and they might make it on Facebook eventually. But for now, I need another nap. xoxo

Upcoming Events and Secret Handshakes

“The time has come!” the walrus said. “To speak of many things…”

I feel like a circus clown juggling chainsaws right now. I’ve come to the realization that I’m not very good at saying NO. But I’m getting better at it. I’ve also come to the realization that I am not a super hero, and that’s okay. I actually do need more than 5 hours of sleep at night. Using Redbull in place of water when brewing coffee will only work for so long, and if I don’t want to burn out or have a nervous breakdown, something’s gotta give. 

I know how many hours are in a day, and I know where I need to be directing them. I’ve already taken a big step by putting in my notice with my day job. That was hard. Really hard. I like my boss, and he’s asked me a few times now if I’d consider staying. But like I said, I’m getting better at saying NO. I did, however, give 3 months’ notice (I think I mentioned this in my last post). I just finished designing my second to last real estate guide book. And after next month, I’ll be a full-time writer. I’m hoping this will reduce my stress levels by about 25%. And just maybe, this weird eyeball thing I’ve had going on for the past few weeks (like sleepy pins and needles in my eye socket, when I’m in front of my computer for too long) will go away. I’m also looking forward to more sleep, and a faster computer, since I’ll be clearing out a bunch of ginormous graphics files.

With this month’s guide done and off to the press, I scoured over my author email account and noticed an update from my newsletter service, telling me that a hundred new subscribers have signed up since my last newsletter. Ruh-roh. Looks like I’ll be working on that next. I have a lot of news to share—upcoming events, books that friends have recently released, and other exciting things…

With spring comes convention season, and I’m diving in this year! Here are just a few things I have planned in the coming months:

NEXT FRIDAY, March 27, from 4pm-6pm @ Reader’s World in Sedalia, I’ll be signing books and visiting with readers, along with Madge Gressley and Paul Ross. You can find out more on the Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/629253317206789/

FRI-SUN, April 24-26, I’ll have a table at the Writer’s Corner of the Trail’s End Heritage Days event at the Missouri State Fairgrounds. Check out their website for more details on this huge event: http://www.thetrailsend.org/

FRIDAY, May 15, @ 2pm, I’ll be at Club RT at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas, TX. Kory Shrum and I are going to try to nab a table together, so you can visit us both and check out the new anthology we co-edited. We’ll be giving away a few copies! Find out more on the convention website: https://rtconvention.com/

SATURDAY, May 16, 11am-2pm, Giant Book Fair at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas, TX. There will be hundreds (like, around 800) authors signing at the fair. It’s amazing! I’ll have copies of my new book, Blood Moon, and copies of my first book, Graveyard Shift, available. Again, more info is available at the convention website here: https://rtconvention.com/

There’s also a vineyard reading in Knob Noster, MO in June, but I don’t have all of the details yet. More on that to come!

In other exciting news, I am now a member of HWA, the Horror Writers Association, and SFWA, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. As an indie author, without a publishing house family, these kinds of connections are usually difficult to forge. We indie authors have to do more research, without an agent or publicist to point us in the right direction, and many of the more prestigious organizations have not been open to us, until now. I’m very thrilled to be a part of these two groups. I admire many of their author members, and I’m looking forward to attending their events and learning secret handshakes! : )

Another group I’m proud to be a part of is my critique group, the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse. We’re coming up on our 1 year anniversary! Kory Shrum, Kathrine Pendleton, and Monica La Porta, you ladies are amazing! Your work is inspiring, and your critiques make all the difference in the world to me. I hope we have many more fantastic years together ahead of us! ♥

I’ve also been connecting with some local authors lately. Madge Gressley, who invited me to the Trail’s End event, met up with me for breakfast a few weeks ago. I’ve started reading her Inescapable series. It’s an interesting sci-fi, thriller, romance mashup that looks like a lot of fun! In that same week, Lisa Medley stopped on her way through Sedalia to have lunch with me. I met Lisa at the RT convention in New Orleans last year. She writes reapers too! If you follow my blog, you’ve probably heard me gushing about her a few other times, in interviews and blog hops.

So that’s what’s what on the author front. There are also some exciting things happening in my personal life, that have been upping my stress levels, but I’m hoping those will be resolved soon too. I can’t wait to share that news with everyone, but it will have to wait until everything is finalized. : )

Wishing you all rainbows and unicorns!

xoxo

-Angela

New Series by Monica La Porta: The Immortals

One of my favorite things about being a writer is making friends with other writers... because then I get to read their new releases before everyone else! Yay!!! Seriously though, writers are readers first, so this is a definite squee for me. ♥

I've know Monica La Porta for a little over a year now. We "met" when YA author Clare Davidson invited us both to participate in a big online giveaway. Then Jason Graves, another author in the giveaway, invited us to submit stories for an anthology, OFF THE BEATEN PATH. Monica and I have followed and reviewed each others books for a while now, and I recently recruited her for my online critique group and for a plot panel at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas next year! (Yay!!!!)

While I'm a big fan of Monica's Ginecean Chronicles, I was really excited when I found out she was starting a new series, and even more excited when I learned that she was dipping into mythology! There are vampires in there too.... but I'm definitely Team Immortals. The Lost Centurion is the first installment of The Immortals. I can't show you the cover yet, since Monica will be revealing that on Thursday. But I can show you this billboard teaser....

Marcus has sworn to avenge his wife's death—even if it takes an eternity to hunt down the vampire who murdered her. Once a Roman Centurion, Marcus is now immortal and, for the past two thousand years, impervious to human emotions. Until the night he rescues Diana…

Diana knew nothing of the paranormal world until her transformation into a vampling, a newborn vampire entirely reliant for survival upon the distant and seemingly emotionless Centurion, who found her in the throes of changing. Her protector turned her without her consent, but at his untimely death, she becomes the cold immortal’s responsibility.

The entire vampire community is determined to kill Marcus as he protects one of their own. While Marcus and Diana travel the Italian countryside, being chased by their enemies, Marcus must choose between avenging his dead wife or saving Diana from the same vampire who ruined his life. Bewitched by the Amalfi moon, he soon discovers his heart has already decided for him.

My review: I really enjoyed how this was a novel with vampires... but not really about vampires. I'm definitely more drawn to the Roman history of the Immortals. The colorful look at Italy was fun too, and though I thought the plot would be predictable at the beginning, I was delighted when it shifted gears and went off in a direction I would have never guessed. Paranormal romance and suspense done fresh and done right.

Monica La Porta is an Italian who landed in Seattle several years ago. Despite popular feelings about the Northwest weather, she finds the mist and the rain the perfect conditions to write. Being a strong advocate of universal acceptance and against violence in any form and shape, she is also glad to have landed precisely in Washington State. 

She is the author of The Ginecean Chronicles, a dystopian/science fiction series set on the planet Ginecea where women rule over a race of enslaved men and heterosexual love is considered a sin. She has published the first four books in the series, The Priest, Pax in the Land of Women, Prince at War, and Marie's Journey. 

She just released two new NA paranormal romances, Gaia, and Elios. She also wrote and illustrated a children's book about the power of imagination, The Prince's Day Out. Her published short, Linda of the Night, is a fairytale love story celebrating inner beauty. She has a new series, The Immortals, coming out soon, a paranormal saga set in Rome. Stop by her blog to read about her miniatures, sculptures, paintings, and her beloved beagle, Nero. Sometimes, she also posts about her writing.

Find Monica all across the interwebs...

Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Be sure to check out Monica's blog on Thursday for the big cover reveal!