It's Party Time!!!

This past weekend I attended Lori Foster’s annual Reader/Author Get-Together in West Chester, Ohio. For the geographically challenged, West Chester is on the north side of Cincinnati. The event was attended by over 400 people who came from as far away as Winnipeg, New York, Florida, California and Hawaii. The majority were romance lovers who wanted to meet their favorite authors and discover some new ones. There were 150-plus authors, of which I was one of a handful of male writers. When I arrived Friday for registration I felt like I had crashed one giant bachelorette party, but I survived.

I had the pleasure of meeting our very own Desiree Holt and Renee Vincent. Both are very charming ladies, especially Desiree, who has so many interesting stories to tell.

There were numerous representatives from the publishing world who gave workshops on everything from plotting to marketing. I had a sit-down with an editor from Liquid Silver Books, who thought there had been a typo when she saw a man’s name on her appointment list, but we had a nice chat about a new book I was pitching.

I participated in a party sponsored by Author Island on Saturday night. This year’s theme was a Western Hoedown, which was well attended. Mind you, my appreciation of all things country/western pretty much stopped when they cancelled Hee Haw, but it was still fun.

I made some new friends, including several writers whose books I had reviewed since last year’s get together. I also ran into a blogger who had blasted me with a scathing review of one of my books. When she saw my name tag and realized who I was, she looked as though she was going to lose her lunch. I chose to take the high road by being polite and not mentioning what she had done. Who says I can’t be classy when it counts? 

In looking back, I think the most frequent question I got – even during the book signing – was “Which writer are you married to?” I finally got to where I answered by holding up my name tag where the word “author” was very visible.

I have to give a standing ovation to Ms. Foster and her planning committee, who put in several months of very hard work preparing for this event. It paid off because the whole weekend seemed to go off without a hitch. If any of you gets the opportunity to go next year, do so. It’s a great experience.    

Tim Smith is an award-winning bestselling author whose books range from romantic mystery to contemporary erptic romance. Visit his website at http://www.timsmithauthor.com/.