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#RT2016, RT Booklovers’ Convention Roundup

Simply Romance Posted on by

Smack in the middle of the A to Z Challenge I took a full week to attend my first RT Booklovers’ Convention, this one in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Home

I’ve been to a number of conferences over the past few years, but with over 3100 people in attendance, this was the most overwhelming! Most impressive was the number of Romance readers and bloggers. It was awesome to chat with readers from all points in North America.

RT Booksigning

RT Booksigning

Authors and readers from England, Europe, and Australia also came ready to party. And party they did! One of my favorite events was Viva La Historical, hosted by 20 historical romance authors.

RT historical authors event 2

Dashing cover models served champagne and chocolate truffles, and historical costumes from different eras were displayed throughout the ballroom. Here’s my favorite:

RT historical authors event

I also spent an afternoon in Club RT chatting with readers passing through on their way to the goody room, and I raffled off a themed basket.

RT raffle basket

And the winner was—Valerie Pitts. Congratulations, Valerie!

RT basket winner

I had a chance to attend workshops and connect up with some local Southern Calfornia authors. Here’s the San Diego RWA president Tameri Etherton, on the far left, leading a panel presentation on booksignings.

RT Panel on book signings

And three members of one of my favorite blogs, The Word Wenches, presented a workshop on Rakes, Rogues, and Warrior Poets.

RT word wenches

Patricia Rice, Mary Jo Putney, and Anne Gracie

I got to meet and chat in person with fellow Soul Mate Publishing authors, including Petie McCarty.

Here I am with Petie McCarty at the book signing

Here I am with Petie McCarty at the book signing

One of the shortcomings of this convention was the difficulty in getting my morning coffee, but even that presented opportunities to chat with authors and readers. On the second last day of the conference while waiting in the twenty minute Starbucks’ line, I struck up a conversation with author Ciara Knight about caffeine angst and next year’s conference. I wished her luck at the party she was hosting that day and safe travels home after.

“I always go home sick from this conference” she said, “but this year I feel pretty good.”

“Oh not me,” I said. “I never get sick.”

Well, you can guess what happened–the day after arriving home, I came down with the RT sniffles!

Have you attended this year’s or a past year’s RT, or any other reader events? What did you think of it? And what’s your favorite way to interact with authors?

 

Image credits: RT Banner, RT Book Reviews; All others, the author

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Comments

#RT2016, RT Booklovers’ Convention Roundup — 2 Comments

  1. Nice briefing on RT. Maybe I’ll go next year. I go to Literary Orange in April every year. Best deal in a one day conference ever!

    • I’ve never been to Literary Orange. It always seems to fall on a date when I have something else going on, darn it!
      RT is in Atlanta next year, so I imagine it won’t be quite as crazy as Vegas and the hotel will probably be better. Before you even sign up, talk to me, and especially talk to Louisa Bacio and Beth Yarnall. I’d recommend having a strategy in place, and now’s a good time to start planning because they book the author parties really early!

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