Conferencing

I spent the last month attending conferences. Three of them in four weeks, and they ended up being more different from each other than I had expected them to be.

The first was in Ohio for Ellora's Cave Romanticon. This was a conference fueled mainly by readers, which was an amazing thing to be a part of. Every attendee was there because they already liked Ellora's Cave and erotic romance, so there was no need to defend the genre. On top of that, while there were some workshops for the new writer, most of the events were for readers, and a lot of fun! The book sale was massive, and the entertainment was great! All in all, I felt like a bit of a rock star, and it was awesome :)

Then I attended the Emerald City Romance Writers Conference in the Seattle area. I have to admit, I signed up for this one primarily because my brother recently moved there and I could go see him while deducting the expenses from my taxes at the same time :)  This was an RWA conference, so it was typical of others that I had been to before. The majority (if not all) of attendees were other writers, of varying experience levels, and the workshops were for writers. I had drinks with my publisher and got to meet a lot of people I've known online for years but had never been able to talk to in person.

Finally, this weekend was the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto. Because I was working the day job, I missed the first two days and didn't arrive until Friday evening, just in time for the book signing. I found this convention to straddle the lines between writer conference and fan conference. I saw a few attendees in costume, but not to the extent that you would see at a Star Trek Convention or a FanExpo. There were many writers too, but also a LOT of readers. It was also a lot more casual than some of the other conferences I've been to. The workshops weren't necessarily reader focused or writer focused, but they were very academic. Taking a theme/topic and exploring the psychology of it. (Like what Twilight has done to the vampire genre and how we're supposed to recover from that.)

All in all, I've had a great time but I'm glad to be home for a little while.