Thoughts from RomFest Gatlinburg, Tennessee 2013

Shew!!  That convention went by in the blink of an eye.  I was traveling with my friend and partner in crime Melinda.  

We met up with our friend/author Melanie Codina (Love Realized is the name of her first book and we are currently doing a blog tour for it...cough cough...sorry the blogger in me needed to promote for her.)

 
We picked up Melanie at the local airport so we missed the Meet and Greet at the local bar down the road.  However, we had a blast at all the festivities through the week.

It started with some author panels where we got to meet the authors and learn a little bit about them.  
I can say I am adding ALOT of TBR books to my already lengthy pile!!!

After the panels we had a fun High Tea Lunch. The Keynote speaker was Jayne Rylon.  She discussed her life of writing while being in corporate America.  Melinda and I made BDSM High Tea hats *giggles*  We even made mini floggers to attach to to the top.  Here is mine....*snickers* Hello Kitty is such a naughty flogger theme!!!

 

Here is what we looked like with the hats.....

After the high tea lunch we went to a few more author panels and attended the White Dinner (BOOOO we forgot to take pictures)

The REAL fun started AFTER the white party.  We went to Liz's room for a Beer 101 class.  Incase you don't know, author Liz Crowe owns a Brew tap room and makes craft beers.  We are big fans soooo we might have gotten some extra special gifts ;)  Thanks Liz!!!

(Also, Liz my husband loves the Beer Wench shirt.  He loves how tight it is across the chest and shows off my....EYES...yes we will go with my eyes here!!)

 Here she is telling us the difference between Lagers and Ales.  We got to sample ALOT of yummy beers.  I found I enjoyed her Black Beer the best which kinda shocked me........


SOOOOO after a night of drinking *cough cough* Thanks Again Liz!!!  We slept in ;)  
 
We woke up and get ready to attend the lunch with Keynote speaker Jacquelyn Frank.  She was alot of fun to listen to because she was very excited to chat about the subject of world building and rule breaking....

After we hit a few more author panels discussing BDSM, tattoos and body piercings....we got a few good "looks" at where some of the piercings people have and where they go!!!  All I gotta say is OUCH and WHY!!

We had a fun Wild West/Steampunk party thrown by Hilde McQueen and Ciara Knight.  We got to play games and then win prizes from the authors....boo we didn't win any :(   Soooooo we decided to go shop and hang out in Gatlinburg....uhm yeah, we kinnnda got caught in a downpour and ended up coming back to the conference looking like this.....

We got back and dried off for the Halloween party thrown by Secret Cravings and Sandy Sullivan. Melinda and I were grapes...lemme tell ya it was very hard to eat with this costume on.....

We got pictures taken with some of our favorite authors we street team for and just love to read....

 Us and Sandy Sullivan

 Us and Paloma Beck

Us and Liz Crowe

The last full day was the breakfast and book signing for authors Books A Million wouldn't let sign at the store.  We got to have books or our kick ass bag signed by Hilde McQueen, Ciara Knight, Paloma Beck, and Kim Law.

At Books A Million we got to meet and have books signed by a ton of great authors...here they are....

OK these two authors area a RIOT!!!!  Kate McKeever and Donna Wright ....seriously I fell in love with these two comedians.  They kept the party going!!!!  Check out their books for me peps!!!

 Kinda a big deal here ....Jacquelyn Frank was in the house!!!  She was so nice and friendly.  She was so excited to talk about writing to us at the keynote lunch. 

 So My friend and Author Melanie Codina told me "Buy her and you wont regret it"....sooooo I did.  I can't wait to read her pick your own ending book...remember having those when you were a teen??

 Ok so I am not a huge YA reader but this series sounded pretty cool...it is Paranormal sooo it is totally up my alley!!!  Jennifer Estep was very thoughtful and quiet but a very positive person.

 SQUEEE!!! Joey Friggin Hill people!!  If you read BDSM and you know I do....She is a biggie.  She also has a paranormal series. I can't wait to get my hands on one of her books from Ellora's Cave to read!!!  I was bummed I was cash strapped and couldn't buy one of her books to get signed....oh well she did sign my bag.....

 Soooo no surprize to any of my friends, we had to get Liz books signed.  I believe I am now a proud owner of alll her paperbacks and they are allll signed.....sign...TEAM EVAN all the way.  Jack is still a bit heart broken about the break up.

I LOVE me some Sandy Sullivan.  I street team for her with Melinda.  She writes some hawt cowboy erotica.  Give her a try because you will soooo keep coming back...i sure do!

 Trista is the organizer for the RomFest event.  I haven't read anything so I had zero clue about what she wrote.  Man when I saw menage...cha-ching went the cash register!!  can't wait for this book either!!!

The last night was a Western party thrown by Destiny Blaine.  Her hubby was in the band that provided some fun music.  There were some raffle baskets so I igured "Eh why not just throw my last $10 in because the money goes to charity."......omg I friggin won the basket I wanted.  I won the Joey Hill prize basket.  I totally went nuts!!!

Here are a few fun Western Party pictures from the party night.....

As you can tell we had a great time.  We made some awesome connections plus met some new authors to read and review for.  I can say my 1st official convention was memorable and  look forward to planning some for 2014!!

The best part of my trip was coming home to this....