Monday, October 14, 2013

Fun at IRC 2013

IRC was my 7th conference/convention this year. My energy tank was running close to empty when I went but--WOW--did I get filled up. The attendees were awesome. Conference coordinator Laurie Garrison did incredibly well in keeping the convention on track, especially since popularity and growth had forced us into multiple locations. I averaged 20 plus attendees for every panel and discussion. As an author, it felt very worthwhile. As a fan girl, I loved meeting new authors and seeing some I had been looking forward to meeting for ages.

Next year's convention is already looking incredible. Now that I've sampled the fun, IRC 2014 is going to be a primo reader-author get together that I'll be looking forward to attending again. For those of you interested in possibly attending IRC 2014, here is the mega cool website. Bookmark it for future reference and watch for tickets to go on sale. Laurie is growing the capacity, but I expect it will fill up quickly.

Winner #1
Winner #2

This year I had a contest and two of my readers got to attend. It was so much fun getting to meet them in person and talk to them directly. 

I hope to get to do this sort of giveaway again so watch my sites for information. I'm going to be running this during next summer sometime. That will give winners time to make plans.




Did I mention I got to play fan girl too? I got to see so many terrific authors. Many I knew prior to the convention and enjoy spending time with whenever the opportunity arises. Others were new to me and I'm very excited to meet them and check out their work.

Among the authors were Sharon Hamilton, Victoria Dannan, Victoria Vane, JM Madden, Hallee Bridgeman, Kallypso Masters, Seraphina Donavan, Cherie Marks, Red Phoenix, Lori Brighton, Annabel Joseph, Angela Brown, Jordan L. Hawk.

Among the bloggers I met with were Bitten by Paranormal Romance, The Jeep Diva, Romance Book Junkies, and Babs Book Bistro.

There were also opportunities to talk with people who promote romance such as Myra Nour of BTS eMagazine (Book and Trailer Showcase) and Mayas Saunders of Reading by the Book Promotions.

My brief mentions of authors here were just the ones I spent the most time visiting with while at the conference. There were many more incredible people in attendance, including more promotional groups and an assortment of talented graphic artists.

Sharon Hamilton necklace
Eve Langlais at the book signing
The authors that did attend brought fun bling to share.  I wanted share just a sample of them.

Eve Langlais gave me a wineglass which I have joyfully used already.  Sharon Hamilton gave me a dog tag necklace that I love and wear regularly. It feels really good and is very light.

Both these amazing authors have given me great ideas about what to bring next year.

Unbelievably, I've been home a week and I'm still writing to people I met. That's the sign of an awesome convention. If you would like a chance to meet the indie authors you read, check out this convention.

Happy reading this week. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I had a ball thank you so much for the chance to go

Unknown said...

It was so good to meet you!