#RT14: The mostly coherent recap of my time at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention

I am writing this the Monday after a whirlwind week. So I am going to break down my #RT14 experiences as random thoughts and some of the pictures that didn't make it to my Twitter feed.

If you want to walk the journey with me, check out my tweets at @RoxyMews. I tweet way too much. It's a problem. But it's one I have no desire to fix.

The airlines had me beginning the convention earlier than I intended. I was told that my flight had been rescheduled for 24 hours later than planned. Thank goodness my roomie let me know, because the airline sure didn't fill me in. I spent the entire night on the phone getting it fixed only to have the ticket "not exist" when I made it to the airport at 5AM.

I want to give a big thank you to the folks at Delta Airlines who took care of me and got me on the plane. Seriously, fly Delta because they did a great job fixing a problem that wasn't even their fault. Customer Service at its finest.

Now...after the insanity, that my poor roommate had to deal with for even longer than I did, let's get to the fun part. And by "fun part" I mean the entire rest of the trip.

After getting into the hotel and running to the meeting I was already late for, it was time to attend at least one panel. I picked the Erotic Emergency Preparedness panel.

I now know what to do if the dog can't eat the underwear.

This was put on by the International Heat, and I don't think I have laughed this hard in a long time. After the issues with the airlines it felt great to let loose and crack up with some of the funniest women in erotic romance. 

From there it was off to Mardi Gras World where I got to walk with authors from Samhain Publishing. We hung out and assaulted some of the statues in the gift shop while we waited for the readers to arrive. Had a great time chatting with the authors and following Cat Johnson around as she wove her way through the crowds. We got lots of great tapas-style eats because Cat can move through a crowd like a champ. Don't get in the way of her cowboy boots!

The lovely ladies who were designated float walkers with me.

He looked way too happy to have me touch his bowl.

I turned in early, because I pitched the next morning, and after that it was time to prep for the next big event.

Eliza Gayle was wonderful enough to let me jump in the huge line with her for the Pub Crawl down Bourbon street. If she hadn't I never would have made it to the Samhain party in time. She even bought me a jello shot. Those things were dangerous!

Jello shots after hurricanes and tequila. It was one hell of a night!

Jodi Redford and I went out shopping to pick up some last minute things to put in our goodie bags for readers who visited our table on the Sinner side of the aisle that morning. So glad I finally got to meet my online cohort in person!

Greed and Pride. We were ready to represent the sinners.

Our wonderful table of goodies.

The Samhain Publishing Saints and Sinners party was a huge success. They kept the food coming, and the music blasting. The DJs had a direct line to my musical favs so it was a great night of dancing and talking books with great people. A big thanks to S. L. Carpenter for helping us lug all our crap down to the ballroom! Sorry we had you knocking on some poor woman's door in a tutu. ;p

Tables and tables of light up glasses for the taking.

Scott and I near the photo booth. They did a great job!

I turned in after we got all the goodies back to the room. Taking off that corset felt amazing. Bless all of you who can rock those things as frequently as you do.

I spent the next day with my roommate Samara Blu taking in a few panels and checking out Club RT. Jodi and I even got to get our pictures taken with the men of Necrolectric. (Trailer of the hotness HERE.) The whole group was great. And I loved bumping into them at all the RT events.

Team Cas

Team Alaric

Then it was time to do what everyone really wants to do in NOLA and let loose! We hit Saints and Sinners for some of the most fabulous food EVER.

Scott and "The Girls"

Next we hit the town and probably did a few inappropriate things that I am not going to picture, but I am sure will end up somewhere on the internet. What is in those Hand Grenades? We ended the night at Rita's Tequila House where "Zombies" were consumed and the bathrooms were labeled "Tacos" and "Burritos". The manager was fantastic and took great care of us.

Me at Rita's the day after.

The last day of our trip was for sight-seeing and avoiding the crazy CRAZY lines by what was rumored to be a record-breaking book fair. We did run in for the last twenty minutes, and I posted lots of friend pics on my twitter feed. Check out those pics HERE. But I had a blast wondering around. I have no sense of direction, but even getting lost was fabulous, because we discovered something new everywhere we turned.

Beads hung from everywhere and made the streets glitter.

A huge tree in the Plaza D Armas

Lunch with Samara Blu and Lisa Maxwell 

Local Artist Ashton Jefferson who was selling his work by the park.

I could have spent an entire week in NOLA before the con and still had things left over to do. I loved the city, despite the smell that accompanied certain areas. So glad I brought lots of flats and comfy shoes to explore in.

Thank you to everyone at Samhain Publishing and the staff and volunteers from the RT Convention for an incredible experience and drawing lots of my favorite people to one spot where I can tackle hug them whenever I spot them.

And to end this epic post...here is a picture of me eating a beignet at Cafe Beignet.

Don't inhale while eating. Trust me.

I loved sleeping in my bed, but I adored getting to visit New Orleans, and I really want to go back. Who wants to take me?

Roxy