When I get home from RT tomorrow, I'll give you some of my philosophical musings on the whole experience--for lo, I have had many. For now, I've got something like, oh, four days worth of pictures to share with you. I've also got some videos, but those might be rough to load up over this connection. So, let's just stick to pictures.

Brace yourselves. There's a lot of 'em.

WEDNESDAY




This is me with the fantastically fabulous Michelle Rowen. Michelle writes paranormal romances and shares an agent with me and Mark Henry. She's Canadian, which I suspect she is tired of hearing me point out. I have an inexplicable fascination with Canada and all things Canadian. I think this has something to do with my formative years being influenced by Anne of Green Gables.




A bunch of us went out to Palomino, a bar across the street from our hotel. It quickly became our RT hang-out. There wasn't enough room for all of us to sit at the same table this night. Most of the group chose to sit here, with famous author Barry Eisler seen on the right...





...while some of us ended up at the "kid's table" next to it. I think it goes without saying which table had the most fun.





Fortunately, the lovely Cheyenne McCray joined us for a while, which was fantastic.





We also eventually managed to lure over vampire author Jeanne Stein. I love Jeanne. She simultaneously manages to be one of the nicest people I know AND have a lovely and dark sense of humor. Jeanne is part of Team Denver, thus far the only author team who seems prepared to have a dance-off/knife fight with Team Seattle.





Here's Mark and his wife Caroline. I adore her both because of her sense of humor and because she makes me feel like less of a lush by making bar runs with me.





This is author Patrice Michelle who read and loved Vampire Academy--and who called me out on a point that I hadn't particularly described well in the book. I think I managed a reasonable explanation for it. Emphasis on the think.





Me, Mark Henry, and Michelle Rowen. Maybe we aren't our agent's favorite clients (though probably we are), but we're pretty confident we're his silliest.





No, seriously. This is how we ended our evening. Don't ask.



THURSDAY


Thursday is when Caitlin Kittredge, Mark, Jackie Kessler, and I had our Club RT mixer type event (the one with the basket from a few posts ago). As you can see, everyone loves Jackie Kessler. But seriously, why wouldn't they? Mary Janice Davidson fans will recognize the infamous Blake there on the left.





Meanwhile, Caitlin got thrown in Author Jail.





It was also at this point that I discovered Adrian Paul from the Highlander TV show was going to be at a special $100 per seat RT dinner. After Joe Flanigan and lolcatz, Adrian Paul is the sexiest man on the planet. While I didn't have $100 for the dinner, I could have bought a $10 raffle ticket to win either a seat with Adrian at dinner OR this classy acrylic painting you see displayed before you. $10 also buys a mojito at Palomino (see earlier pictures)...so, well. What would you do?





Later that night, Jackie, Mark, and I went to a cocktail party (yes, at Palomino) being hosted by our mutual publisher, Kensington Books. Here I got to meet the lovely Maureen Cuddy who has been instrumental in helping me book my L.A. trip. Maureen also gave me lots of sage advice about promotion, which I hope I can apply successfully.





We also got to hang out with paranormal romance author Marjorie Liu who is beautiful, successful, and has business cards that read Marjorie Liu, Author and Attorney. Dude.





After the cocktail party, the gang and I headed over to the Under the Sea Faery Ball. Here we met Christina and Erika (L-R). Erika made those costumes from scratch, and the fact that she only got 4th in the costume contest is a crime.





Paranormal romance author Dakota Cassidy strikes a pose. When we first met, I thought her sultry, husky voice was amazing. I envied it. Turns out she just had laryngitis.





Romance cover models walk all around at RT. We thought this guy was one of them, though current intelligence suggests he might actually be a porn star instead. Mark got him to pose with me and Caitlin by saying, "How about one for the ladies."





Do any publishing savvy blog fans know who this witch is?




FRIDAY


Friday morning found paranormal romance author Jacquelyn Frank holding court at her Studmuffin Breakfast Mixer. There were both studs and muffins there, but they were out of coffee, so I had to keep movin' on...





...to my new favorite coffee shop evah, Crazy Mocha. Your eyes don't deceive you. They have a goat for their logo. A goat drinking coffee.





Friday was the day I had to pull my weight at RT as "Urban Fantasy Captain." I was in charge of staffing and running the UF panels at the con. It was super fun but also a hard job at times. This is my "Urban Fantasy 101" panel, but sadly, the picture cut me out on the far right. Awesome editor Heather Osborn of Tor was cut off on the left. (FYI - Heather is so cool, I now want to write a fourth series, simply to sell it to her). The rest of these ladies (L-R) are: Kelley Armstrong, Jeri Smith-Ready, Keri Arthur, Rachel Vincent, and Jeanne Stein.





That night was the Vampire Ball. Above (L-R) is Kim Harrison, Jocelynn Drake, and "Guy." Fact: Mark Henry and Kim Harrison are TROUBLEMAKERS. The two of them broke into this party earlier in the evening and then left the rest of us to take the blame. Not cool, guys. Not cool at all.





Erika (the mermaid from the previous night) came to this party as a zombie, much to Mark's delight. She actually ran over those pajamas to make the tread marks.



SATURDAY


Man, these pictures are a lot of work.





Saturday was the ginormous book fair. Here's me signing and selling books. I sold over fifty books, plus lots of people brought in books from home for me to sign. Good times. It was so much fun talking to readers and hearing what they had to say. Jocelynn has more pics of authors signing here.





Afterward, some LJ folks who had driven up for the book fair went out to lunch with us. It was super fun. Urban fantasy author Jeaniene Frost made a quick appearance in the back there with Rachel Vincent.





Later, we went to the infamous Mr. Romance Pageant. The theme was "Men of Steel." See what they did there? Pittsburgh? Manly Men? Mark did a pretty succint write-up of it over here.


And since no other pic can probably top that, I think that'll wrap up my photo commentary. Our evening found us over at Palomino (or in the words of the funny and awesome Jenna Black: "You guys are in the bar again. Imagine that.") for more hijinks.

And that, my friends, pretty much concludes RT. Tomorrow, Caitlin and I fly back to Seattle with the Henrys. I'm looking forward to being home, but my usual flight anxiety is starting to flare up quite a bit. I've got to just deal with that tonight since Xanax is for flying only. Sigh. I'll report in when I'm back in the Northwest tomorrow!