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Posts Tagged ‘las vegas’

Quick ROW80 Update 8/14/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 14, 2013| 10 Comments »

As most of you know, I haven’t been writing lately. There are several reasons for that, but not very good ones. I spent the last week at the RNConvention in Las Vegas, so I’m hoping being around a couple of hundred authors all week and sitting in on amazing classes will jump start my writing. So far, I still seem to be suffering from jet lag or something. Or maybe the little bout of dehydration (or heat exhaustion, who knows?) because of my stupidity in Vega. I hope I feel better by tomorrow!

Happy writing, everyone! Here is a picture from the RNConvention book fair. That’s me signing something. 🙂

me signing

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My Final Thoughts on RNConvention in Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 11, 2013| 8 Comments »

Tomorrow, I will be getting on an airplane and heading home. I can’t wait. I miss my family. I miss my cats. I’m ready to be home!

The first day of the convention was work. We volunteers spent hours filling swag bags. But it was fun. That’s when I first met many of the people who I knew through Facebook. Later that night, as you all know if you read my blog, I got upset because I felt like I was abandoned by my friend. I was just having a hard time for some reason.

Thursday was filled with interesting and informative classes. That was great. That night, we had the costume party, which was fun.

Friday, more awesome classes. Then the RONE awards. There was great entertainment, including an illusionist and a singer.

Saturday was the book fair, which was the most disappointing part of the whole convention. I’m not going to say much about that. Saturday night was the Mr. Casanova contest. The contestants did skits from excerpts of romance novels. Let me tell you, these guys have great senses of humor. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.

Sunday was about relaxing. The only thing going on was model photo shoots with the Casanovas. We just kind of wandered in and out of where that was going on all day.

Now for my adventure. Saturday, I walked to the Silver and Gold Pawn Shop where they film Pawn Stars. I didn’t take into consideration the extreme heat. It was a mile to the shop. On the way back, I started feeling funny, rapid heartbeat, hard to breathe. Then I started feeling chilled. I guess I was dehydrated. I STILL don’t feel right, and it’s been over a day. I won’t be doing anything like that again!

All in all, this was a pretty good convention. It had lots of glitches, but this was the first one. It was geared mostly toward indie authors, although trad published authors were also there. I met book reviewers as well as some WONDERFUL fellow authors.

One person really did a nice thing for me. I didn’t know how I was going to get my 50# box of books home. A friend of Anya’s had driven in for the book fair. She took my books home with her and is going to ship them to me! What a nice person she is. She’s now a friend of mine, too.

Will I go again next year? That’s going to depend on a lot of things, one of which is whether or not I can get hubby to go next year. I’m not that crazy about Las Vegas, and I really wish they would consider another venue. So we shall see.

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Day Two in Las Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 9, 2013| 4 Comments »

Today’s post is totally different from yesterday’s. Everything got worked out that had hurt my feelings. The cigarette smoke still bothers me, but at least I don’t have that bad feeling about the city anymore. I was just so stressed last night, and I felt terrible.

Today’s classes were great. The high points for me was attending H.P. Mallory’s class and getting to meet her in person. She and I started this indie thing at about the same time. I didn’t think she would remember me, but she did. 🙂 Then I got to do Mark Coker’s class. I’m sure most of you know he is the founder and owner of Smashwords.

Then there was the costume ball. Anya and I dressed up in our finest and had fun. There was actually a wedding during the party. I didn’t know Jimmy Thomas had a license to marry anyone, but he did. It was cool. The best part was seeing all the costumes and taking pictures. When I get back home and save to my laptop, I’ll post some. I’m on my iPad right now because it has 4G on it. The wifi here is too expensive, so I haven’t used my laptop.

Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun today, so now I feel bad about whining yesterday. But I felt so depressed I had to share. Things were much better today!

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What I Want to Bring Back from Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 5, 2013| 7 Comments »

My brain is all over the place right now. I leave for Vegas tomorrow evening for the RNConvention, and I’m nervous, excited, and other emotions that are all over the place. I haven’t even posted in about four days because there’s been so much to do. I also haven’t had time to comment on other people’s posts, so I hope I’m forgiven. 🙂

Anyway, there’s a buzz all over Facebook about this convention, and there are so many excited people posting on the event page about all kinds of things. But I’m seeing a trend that’s bothering me just a bit. Yes, I KNOW it’s Vegas. And Vegas is about fun. But this is a convention with lots of classes that Jimmy set up for us to learn. He worked hard on getting the speakers lined up. But I’m not seeing ANYONE saying how excited they are to be attending these classes. It’s all about drinking and dancing. I’m not criticizing this at all, because I know most of these people have never been to Vegas, and many of them have never been to any writing conferences. It’s okay to have fun. (I’ve even posted about how I’m worried about what clothes to bring.) But I think some people have missed the whole point of the convention. As writers, we need to learn all we can about this business because it’s not as easy as it used to be. When I first started publishing, there was very little competition. Now there’s LOTS of competition, so it’s hard for readers to find us unless we stand out. Yes, we need to write a good book. But then readers have to FIND that book. It’s getting harder. I’m hoping to learn some marketing strategies as well as how to write a better book.

So what I want to bring back from Vegas is lots of knowledge that will help me in my business. Well, that and something for my husband from the Pawn Stars shop. 🙂

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Going to Vegas Next Year!!!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 2, 2012| 13 Comments »

I am absolutely on cloud nine. Because of this.

RNConvention

One of the cover models I use on my books is putting this event together. His name is Jimmy Thomas, and he’s not just a pretty face, um, or body. He’s a savvy businessman who launched the website romancenovelcenter.com. It’s a place where authors, cover artists, editors, readers, etc. can get together. It’s a great networking site.

The convention includes classes, seminars, parties, a costume ball, meet and greets, and so much more. There are so many things to do, I can’t list them all here. And the price is all inclusive! I think it’s a reasonable price for the hotel rooms, the classes, the food…awesome. Anyway, you might want to check it out. Just click on the link above and you’ll have the info you need. There are some things they haven’t gotten completely worked out yet, like the full schedule, but it’s almost a year away. I can’t wait!

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