That's What I'm Talking About...: Authors After Dark 2011 Wrap up

Friday, August 19, 2011

Authors After Dark 2011 Wrap up

Wow! What an amazing experience! That’s What I’m Talking About!

I cannot even begin to tell you all how special this trip was for me. It was my very first CON and I loved it. First - I got to finally meet so many of the wonderful women I have been friends with for almost two years. The highlight was finally getting a hug from my “twinnie,” Bells. She gives the BEST hugs and is so full of love (even when you may be drunk and singing Katy Perry’s FIREWORK). But also on my list of MUST HUG (or give the “Issac the Bartender” pointer fingers) were Marq, Kat (Tigris), Penny, Dren, Larissa, Mandi, Pam, Felicia (Ferishia), Jules (Minxy), Sarah, Jojo, Robin, April and Insane Hussein. I have been friends with these women since almost the very beginning of my twitter life and the creation of Twimom227. It was so wonderful to see them in person.

I also LOVED hanging out with so many bloggers that I had only “met” in passing on Twitter or at their blogs. I have to give a special call out to three such women: Felicia (the geeky blogger), KatieBabs and Danielle (Lush26), who helped make the trip extra special! I love making new friends.

I met so many other great bloggers, I would love to put down every single one here, but it would take up this entire post. The bloggers truly made this an event to remember! I have included some of their blog links below. (and if you wrote one and it’s not listed, please let me know so I can add it.)

Next... the authors. WOW! I cannot stop squeeing. (Is that even a word?) I will admit, I went to this CON because of 3 women: Larissa Ione, Meljean Brook and Lara Adrian. If you go back to the beginning of my blog (see post HERE) you will find that these three women were on my author “list,” ones that I really wanted to meet. I couldn’t believe that 3 of my FAVORITE authors were all going to be in one location. It was a bit of heaven for me because these women are not only fantastic authors, but genuinely lovely people.

Then once I got over the glee of knowing I’d meet those three ladies (or in the case of Lara, re-meet), I saw that I would also get to hang out with some of my other favorite authors like Stephanie Julian, Judi Fennell, Nancy Holzner and Anya Bast.

And what was just as much fun was meeting so many new-to-me authors, several of which I now have books from waiting to be read! Some of my favorites to meet were Monica Burns, Dakota Cassidy, Jessa Slade, Carolyn Crane, Jennifer Estep, Theresa Meyers, and Nicole Peeler.

Okay, I am sorry about all of the gushing, but it truly was amazing. Here are just a few of my favorite parts of the weekend:

Rooming with Mandi from Smexy Books. She is an wonderful person and I can’t wait to hang with her again.
Meeting Meljean. Going to lunch with her (and a group of great ladies). Sitting with her at the “Steampunk Ball” watching her eat potato chips while she watched the side-show-freak-show. I couldn’t watch things like a guy pounding a nail into his nose, but she watched while eating. It was hilarious. I think she said “I can watch it go in, just not go out.” I recall thinking that was a pretty funny thing to say!
Seeing Lara Adrian again. She is one of the nicest women out there. But she wasn’t going to give up ANYTHING about my man, Chase!
Meeting Larissa Ione. She is so cool and so easy going. On the way home, we both were at the airport early. So she and I sat with @Toriaimeegirl (another awesome blogger that I got to meet) and just chilled for a couple hours.
Celebrating Larissa Ione’s birthday in Bells, Kat and Marq’s room with Larissa and Lara A. What a special treat and I cannot wait to read about the were-fly!
Having 1/2 of the writing team that makes up Lydia Dare introduce herself and tell me how much she appreciates my reviews. I love their books and didn’t realize she was going to be there. I wish we had time to chat before she had to leave.
Meeting JA (Jaime) Saare. I’ve been tweeting with her forever and she is one of the coolest people out there. I totally love and respect her (and am dying for her next book!)
Having cheese fries with Danielle and Mandi at the GREAT FOOD bar at 1:00 AM (yes, that was the name of the bar!)

By now you probably have heard about some of the negative things that did occur at the conference. I will agree that there were some very unfortunate events, and I am very sad that some of these things happened to my friends. I am thankful that I was not directly impacted by the events, but was disappointed that they occurred at all. I was also sad about the “Steampunk Ball,” which was our final night in Philly. I was expecting a fun night of dancing with friends, but instead it was an event not catered to the majority of the crowd that was present at the CON. But even with these things, I am still planning on attending NOLA 2012.

To see all the photos I took, click the “Photos” section of my blog or HERE.

Love these ladies!

Other AAD posts and photos:

Livre D’Amour (Grace)

Insane Hussein Reviews

Tigris Eden (Kat)

Hanging With Bells (Bells)

Geeky Blogger (Felicia)

Ramblings From This Chick (Danielle)

Ava Riley Romance (Ava/April)

KatieBabs

Part One

Part Two

Stephanie Julian

Photos from JoAnna (@beckerjo)

The Jeep Diva (Vanessa)

Intense Whisper (Robin)

Meljean Brook

Larissa Ione

Truedeadman (Scott)
Love To Read For Fun (Marq)

Elise Hepner

Spaz at WLP (Pam)
Kris Cook
Penny Pimpin'
Dren's B-Spot 1
Dren's Pen

Labels: AADPhilly, authors, Authors After Dark, blogging, Lara Adrian, Larissa Ione, Meljean Brook, Stephanie Julian

15 comments:

Robin K said...: Was so awesome to meet you as well love. Glad you enjoyed yourself and hope to see you again in 2012!; August 19, 2011 at 1:34 PM
KB/KT Grant said...: One of my favorite things at AAD was hanging out with so many people I know on line from bloggers to authors and people I tweet with.

Meeting you was one of my highlights and now I had a fan girl crush on you. :); August 19, 2011 at 1:34 PM
Bells said...: Awww great post Twinnie and you captured the whole event perfectly. It was a great joy to finally meet you. You were so much fun to be around and are so adorable. Seeing you in the lobby for the first time and we all started squeeing was one of the highlights for me. Love you!; August 19, 2011 at 1:36 PM
Danielle Gorman said...: I seriously loved meeting you and I will never forget you singing Fireworks at the top of your lungs or you begging everyone to dance with you to the Pointer Sisters. Thanks for helping make my AAD experience one I'll never forget. I hope I'm able to see you at NOLA next year. =); August 19, 2011 at 6:00 PM
Liza said...: Bells does give the best hugs! I hate that I wasn't there to meet everyone! Hopefully we will all be at one event together in the future. :); August 19, 2011 at 7:06 PM
Twimom227 said...: Robin: I am planning on NOLA! I look forward to seeing you!

KB: I am just so happy that we met! We will have to figure out a way to get together - we aren't that far apart!

Bells: I seriously just love you so very much! I can't wait to see you again!

Danielle: I can't believe no one would dance to Pointer Sisters with me! They are so awesome! It was fabulous to finally put a face with the name and hang with you!!

Liza: I hope we will all be together again! Next time!; August 19, 2011 at 9:30 PM
Patti (Caught in a FAB Romance) said...: I've been reading everyone's AAD adventures - it sounds like so much fun! I cannot wait for AAD to come to NOLA next year :); August 19, 2011 at 10:54 PM
jfort357 said...: WOW!!!! I so envy you!!! :-) Sounds like you had an amazing time!!! I would love to go to an AAD!!! To meet all these awesome authors, I'd be on cloud nine!!! Thanks for sharing your priceless experience!!!!; August 20, 2011 at 12:08 AM
Larissa {Larissa's Bookish Life} said...: YES NOLA!

it was so awesome to have met you! Loved your post! even though i didnt directly suffer anything like some friends, I feel bad =/

But I am planning on attending NOLA next year and it will be amazing to see you again!

xoxo; August 20, 2011 at 2:37 AM
Kris_Cook said...: Great post TWINMOM. Thanks for sharing.; August 20, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Felicia the Geeky Blogger said...: It was awesome hanging with all of you! I will see you at NOLA because I decided I love the city to much (and well Jeanine Frost) to pass it up! I am bringing wine!

(((((((((( hugs )))))))); August 20, 2011 at 10:42 AM
MichelleKCanada said...: I love reading all the posts from the conference. The Lori Foster event in June was my first one and I was totally fan girling it.

I love reading your excitement. It made me smile. People just dont understand that these authors are our celebrities. LOL

Last weekend I met another idol Diana Gabaldon so I am squeeing.

I loved all your pictures. Looks like it was a lot of fun.

MichelleKCanada
http://anotherlookbookreviews.blogspot.com/; August 20, 2011 at 12:32 PM
Mama Kitty said...: I *so* wish I could've gone and met you all! I'm trying to ensure that I'll be there next year... NOLA is only a 5 hour drive for me, so it should be no problem for me to get there! Looks like you had such a blast, and I can't miss out again! :); August 22, 2011 at 11:40 AM
Penny said...: Great post, Jen! Loved, loved, LOVED meeting and hanging out with you!! next time we do it...I PROMISE I'll dance with you!! *hugs*; August 23, 2011 at 8:55 AM
Pamela {Spaz} said...: Awesome post, Jen!!! I cannot wait to see you again next year!! <3; August 24, 2011 at 7:51 PM

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About our reviews: The reviews posted here are the writer's own honest opinion of the book, not a judgement on the subject matter or author. We read for pleasure and at the request of authors and publishers. We do not receive compensation for our reviews, other than the copy of the book to read for the review.

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