Weekly Update: July 29 to Aug 5

Another week off from writing but I was getting things ready for Romancing the Capital.

I had been looking forward to RTC all year and sometimes events like that don't live up to the anticipation.  This one did.  I've been three times as a reader but this was my first time as an author and I wasn't sure if people would be interested in what I had to say.  I did my Beyond the Furrowed Brow workshop to a full room and my Basics of Burlesque event to an even fuller room.  People had a great time getting in touch with their inner Goddess and dancing around to music.  I was worried that I'd have a hard time getting people to participate but everyone was eager to join in.  I also had an amazing time on the genre panel, talking about urban fantasy and why I write it.

Then came the signing.  I'm used to conferences where the vendor room is open all weekend, throughout the whole conference.  For RTC, it's open for two hours.  Two hours with hundreds of readers coming through.  It's overwhelming but amazing.  People came to see me, even though I'm still very much an unknown author.  They had a great time at my panels and then came to see me, which is exactly the way its supposed to work.

Eve told me that she wanted to set up RTC so that every attending author could get their "rock star" moment.  That moment when a reader is genuinely excited to meet them and excited about their books.  I got a few of those, plus ones that meant just as much to me as a writer: ones where readers' eyes lit up with excitement when I talked about what I write.

I'm debating about next year.  I won't have a new book out between now and then (though I will have the third Spirit Sight short story out and book 5 of the Lalassu should be out sometime in the fall of 2019).  It's so much fun that I selfishly want to do it anyway but I also want other authors to experience that as well.  Eve is an amazing and generous woman who just wants everyone to have a good time, and that is rare in a con organizer.

I'm also feeling recovered from my hectic blast of finishing Deadly Potential, going to Ad Astra, RWA and RTC.  Next week, I will be getting back into writing and starting the third Spirit Sight short story so that it can be out for Halloween.