Reader Con Fun!

A little over a week ago I was lucky enough (meaning I made the time even though I didn’t really have it) to go to the Olde City New Blood Readers Conference for UF and PNR Fiction. It was the first year for the con and they had 46 authors and 140 readers attending. The conference was put on by blogger Jennifer Morris of  the Books Make Me Happy Reviews blog with a little help from her book club and the blogging community. I’m hoping to do an interview with Jennifer about the experience from her side of things, so I won’t go too much into that part, except to say they did an amazing job.

What I do want to talk about are some of my favorite moments from the conference. One of my big thrills was meeting one of my favorite new-to-me-authors of 2012 – Jenna Bennett. Just getting to meet her and play fan-girl would have made the event memorable, but I also got to go to lunch with her and author Lexi George. These ladies are both smart, funny, talented, and most of all, incredibly kind.

All the authors were very approachable and great sports. One of my favorite panels of the weekend was a Character Dating Game. They set-up the front of the room like the old Dating Game show and authors dressed up as and acted as one of their characters. It was seriously funny!

Lucienne Diver was a knockout as her fanged fashionista Gina Covello and Delilah Dawson was creepily sexy as one of her vamp heroes.  Still a little weirded out, but eager to read her books!

Another great fan-girl moment was getting to hang out with KC Burn along with my blogging buddy Chudney. We got to hang out off and on throughout the conference. If you remember this post or this post, you will know I’m a big fan of KC’s SciFi Romance, but I am now also a fan of her paranormals. I got to hear her read from one at the conference and it was hysterical.

To wrap up I want to do a bit of name dropping, er, shout-outs  to some of the other authors who were really generous with their time and very cool to meet and talk to: I ate lunch with Dianna Love one day and listened to her hysterical stories of being on a book tour with Sherrillyn Kenyon. Had a great talk with JA London who writes YA dystopian vampire tales with her son, but is also Lorraine Heath historical romance author. Met the funny and fun Hildie McQueen.  Talked everything but world peace with Caridad Pineiro during a meet and greet-another super smart lady. I got to congratulate Jax Cassidy on her new book deal. She is an author to watch in the coming years. Big things ahead for that little fireball.

Author readings are a great part of the reader-con experience. You hear the authors voice their narrative and their characters. It can really put you right in the book. I think hearing Damon Suede read from one of his in-progress books made the entire audience a bit hot and bothered.

Last but not least, I got to share a room and a meal or two with my pal, the talented Urban Fantasy romance author, Lee Roland. So that is it for this post, but look for a few guest spots and interviews from authors I met at the con in the coming months.

Have you ever been to a reader con?