Reesa Makes Penis Jokes In Public, Or, An Authors After Dark 2011

I maybe have mentioned this before, but I’m really, really bad at travel posts.

Because I can never get it together enough to post actual, thoughtful write-ups, you’re getting a list of highlights from my experience at Authors After Dark 2011.

Events and Things

• Moderating a panel for the first time, even if it was by accident.  Writing With A Partner featured panelists Larissa Ione, Jess Haines, Augusta Li, and Eon de Beaumont.  I was really worried about filling up all the time, but the audience had great questions, and everyone on the panel was funny and insightful.
• The Menage and More panel, where Michelle and I apparently broke the brains of 80% of the room (including all our other panelists) by telling them that The Slipstream Con is a “sweet” romance, even though it features a polyamorous relationship.  Another great panel, with lots of fun readers who were really engaged and enthusiastic.  Loved it!
• Giovanni’s Room, an amazing gay bookstore just a few blocks from the hotel.
• Getting an actual Philly cheese steak, and being totally vindicated in my choice of Cheez Whiz, when it turned out that Michelle’s, with provolone, wasn’t anywhere NEAR as good. Ha! (To be fair, I feared the Whiz when I ordered it, but it had to be done.  That’s me, you know, always willing to take one for the team.)
• Max Brenner’s Chocolate restaurant.  We were going to Appleby’s, but then we smelled chocolate across the street.  We had the most adorable table, right in the window, facing onto the street, and you guys, the chocolate eggrolls were so good that I -dreamed- about them the following night.  Completely amazing.  (Apparently we missed the floor show at Appleby’s, though.  Dancing cockroaches.)
• I won a huge goody bag of books, some of which I’ll be giving away in the next couple of weeks.  Watch this space.
• And my favourite part of the whole weekend- the book signing.  Getting to talk to readers, potential readers, and the people kind enough to stop by and tell us how much they loved our books, was worth the traffic, the drive itself, the BURNING TRACTOR TRAILER we passed in Maryland, and pretty much blew me away.  I’m sure I said it at the time, but in case I missed gushing at you when you were standing in front of me- if you stopped y our signing table, you made my month.  Thank you for your kind words, your enthusiasm, and your smiles.

People

If I try to list everyone I met, I am inevitably going to forget someone I meant to mention.  So I’m going to say this- meeting readers was amazing.  And since I don’t know a single author who isn’t also a reader, I think that’s going to cover everyone.  The people made this con for me, the open, friendly smiles, and the welcome extended to us, despite our slightly skewed contributions to the romance genre.  If I met you, I enjoyed the experience, and coming from someone with pretty intense social anxiety, that’s saying a lot. I was sick all weekend, and I still left with a smile on my face.

Thank you to everyone who made AAD 2011 such a great weekend.  It was an honor to meet you.