RT Booklovers Convention Roundup - Part Two

After a good night's sleep, I was up early and enjoyed a chocolate croissant in my room.  It was part of my shopping spree in the market while quietly stalking Jill Shalvis.  Best breakfast ever.

Today was the first real day of the convention.  There was a workshop for RT virgins.  Yes, I was one.  It was a great way to see that I wasn't alone in my feeling alone and get some tips from authors who have been in my shoes and now are veterans to the whole thing.  After that we had a big welcome breakfast where they were making and serving fresh crepes.  I was still full and happy from my croissant so I skipped it.

The first workshop I did after that was Big Fun in a Small Town which has an incredible panel of authors - Nancy Naigle, Sylvia Dohl, Brenda Novak, Sheila Roberts and Molly O'Keefe.  Lots of fun and they each gave away copies of their books to everyone who attended!  Score!

The next panel I went to was...well, I almost had to be shot with a tranquilizer dart.  It was a contemporary romance panel with Sylvia Day, Jill Shalvis, Julie Ann Walker, and Jennifer Probst.  It was a total Q&A session and at the end, everyone got to just walk up to them and take pictures, get books signed and just talk to them.

I was like...WHAAAAT???  Seriously?  Like, I can just go up there and say hello and talk to them like it's completely normal and okay?  I was waiting for someone to smack my hand - or tazer me.  But amazingly enough...I got to go up there.  Met Jill Shalvis and got an autograph.  I wanted a picture but she had to get to another workshop and so I missed my chance.  But she shook my hand and all was right with the world.

And I didn't pee myself so...winning!

Then I got to meet the LOVELY Jennifer Probst who is quite possibly the friendliest human being alive.  If you haven't read anything of hers before, you should.  And if you ever have the chance to go anyplace where she is, you should go because she was so friendly and so gracious and just...she made my day.

By this point I was like "I can go home right now and be completely happy!"  But I stayed and decided to see what else was going on.

There was a rodeo that night.  So after dinner with a new blogger friend, I decided to check it out.  Originally I thought I would try the mechanical bull, but I chickened out once I got there.  The thought of falling on my butt with such a huge audience was not something I really wanted to include in my RT conference experience.

By the time I got back to my room, I was exhausted.  The amount of free books and swag was slowly overtaking every extra inch of space in the room and I was trying to figure out how to get it all packed up and home with me but decided to not think about it until it was actually time to pack.