RT Booklovers Convention Roundup - Part Four

Yeah, okay, but now I really, really want to go home and sleep in my own bed and eat my own food.  For as nice as the hotel was, the food left a LOT to be desired.  I had basically not left the hotel since I arrived and I was starting to get a little stir-crazy.

However, one of the coolest things happened to me.  I was wandering around the hotel just sort of minding my own business.  There was a goody room - where you were only allowed to go through once and you could take three free books.  So I went through and got my free books.

Then there was a room called Promo Alley.  There were several rows of tables that had all kinds of author swag on it.  I wish I had known about that because I could have put some of my stuff there.  But I didn't.  Well, off that room was another room - this was where you could put your name in to win one of like a hundred gift baskets.  So I'm walking around in there and there's a table in the middle of the room where there are four authors signing books.  One of them was J.S. Scott.  I LOVE HER!  Seriously, I read her stuff and I love her.  She was giving out these awesome beach tote bags filled with all kinds of goodies.  So I waited in line and got one and asked her if she could sign it for me and she looked at me and my name tag and was like "Samantha Chase!  I'm signing something for Samantha Chase!  Do you have any of your stuff with you?"

I KID YOU NOT!!  Someone famous actually knew who I was!!!

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

So after basically wandering around most of the day - I didn't want to sit in any more workshops - one of my new friends - the lovely Christine from Book Partners in Crime - and I went out for dinner.  Now here's the funny thing about us - both of our wedding anniversary's were on the 16th!  So this was actually the 15th but we decided to go out and celebrate - without our husbands.

When she called the restaurant to make reservations, they asked, "Are you celebrating anything?" And she said, "Our anniversary" and then completely explained how it wasn't our anniversary to each other but that we were both at this convention - without our husbands - and we just wanted to get out, blah, blah, blah.  The guy laughed and we were good.  When we got to the restaurant (which was AMAZING), the waitress came over and wished us a Happy Anniversary.  We started cracking up and explained to her about how it wasn't OUR anniversary - the convention, husbands not with us, and so on.  We all laughed and we got a free dessert out of it.

Score!

I ate way too much and when I got back to the hotel, I spent the rest of the night getting ready for the giant book fair the next day.  This was the biggest author signing I was ever a part of - there were like 800 authors there!  I was so nervous about the setup and getting all of my stuff down to the ginormous banquet room.  I had brought about six different types of swag and the table space was so limited that I knew I wasn't going to be able to take it all.

I had to force myself to go to sleep!!

RT Booklovers Convention Roundup - Part One

Alright, it took a week for me to do it, but I'm finally back in the groove of life.  Hard to believe that a week away can mess with you so much!  Sheesh!

So, RT Booklovers Convention was AMAZING!  This was my first one and I'm pretty sure it won't be my last.  I met so many amazing people - fans, bloggers, authors - I was completely blown away.  I'd never been to Texas before so that was pretty exciting for me too. 

I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Dallas mid-afternoon.  That place is HUGE!  I checked in, went to my room, did a little happy dance and then went back down to the lobby level to explore a bit.  Everyone who registered for the convention got a free goody bag/tote.  Inside were books, post cards, swag...tons of stuff.  The entire lobby area was decorated with giant posters of some of the biggest names in romance - everywhere you looked, there were pictures of books!

I was fortunate enough to meet up with some great ladies at that point from the Fresh Fiction Blog and Book Partners in Crime.  Such an awesome group of ladies and throughout the week they were incredibly gracious to me and helped me because I was a bit overwhelmed. 

After hanging out with them for a little while, I went back to exploring the hotel - like I said, it was massive.  My room was on the 17th floor overlooking the atrium and bar/restaurant area.  At one point I met up with author Sara Humphreys (who is super cool!) and talked with her for a bit.  Then I was wandering around and was coming up the escalator from the lower level and who do I see hanging out in the little food/snack market? 

Jill Shalvis.

I gasped and the people behind me were like, "Oh my god!  Are you okay?"

Um...yes.  Just having a major fan-girl moment.  Don't mind me. 

Did I go over and say hello?  No.  Instead I was going for cool.  Calm.  Collected. 

I left the market with $22 in candy and soda. 

Go ahead, you can say it.  LOSER!!!

And to keep the loser vibe going, I ate dinner by myself and then locked myself in my room because I was completely overwhelmed.  It was nice having the whole room and king size bed all to myself.  The view outside the room wasn't all that great.  Who knew there was so much construction going on in Dallas or that all of the roads were torn up?  So I kept my curtains closed most of the time. 

But still...deluxe room to myself.  Room service.  No cooking for a week, meeting all of my writing idols and the TV remote all to myself.Not a bad way to travel...