On Thursday, rumors started swirling around about how, in a panel somewhere at RT, someone had been talking about 50 Shades of Gray, and the author EL James had stood up in the back of the room and said something like, "Stop talking about my book that way." Most of us thought it was just a joke until we started hearing more details and then came the pictures. Yes, EL James had crashed RT under a different name, then switched to a badge with her real name. Evidently the panelist had been in on it with her and all was well, but it certainly caused a stir, lol. More on EL later.
Another thing that got people talking and actually even going outside was the fact that it started snowing. Now, the day before it had been up to about 80 degrees, so snow was pretty amazing. I spoke to one woman who had never seen snow before and was just giddy about it!
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| Yes, snow. Yes, it was 80 degrees yesterday. Yes, it's the Midwest. |
I spent most of that day in Club RT, so the first event I went to (other than the disco night and my spotlight) was Romance Pride. It was a cool event with lots of swag and books and costumes, since you were to come dressed as your favorite sub-genre. TA and I went out on a limb and chose Contemporary. *nods* Not sure why we didn't win, but some of the outfits were awesome!
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| Steampunk! Francesca, Marie and Leigh Anne rocking it! |
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| Kissy-face with "Mitch", aka Heidi Cullinan |
We didn't leave empty-handed though! Dreamspinner handed out T-shirts that said, "The only women who don't like gay romance are those who haven't read it!"
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| TA and I with our consolation prizes! |
Time for the E-book Expo!! We moved the display table down then took turns wandering through finding some of our favorite authors!
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| Damon holding court as usual |
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| Yay! Finally got to meet Mary Calmes in person! |
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| Marie still in her eye-popping steampunk outfit! |
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| Amber Kell giving away dragons. |
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| The beautiful Marie Harte! |
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| Stephani Hecht looking gorgeous as always! |
Then came the Samhain Safari. We actually got there a bit late since we'd stopped off on the Club level for some hot wings, lol, then found that they'd served food at the safari. Ah well, we still found room for the fruit tarts, which were so freaking good. Not sure I ever figured out why Damon was a demon on safari, but it was a cool outfit.
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| Wild Man Damon Suede |
After that it was time for bed. No, wait! It was time for an espresso then to get ready for the 30th Anniversary Formal Ball. They really pulled out all the stops, and served a plated dinner, though we were really full by then. They walked us through 30 years of romance through dinner topped off by a partial striptease by the top guy at Amazon. Once again, the outfits were a lot of fun, and dressed to the nines was the style of the night!
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| A sampling of the styles! |
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| Damon before changing... |
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| ...and after changing! |
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| TA, JP Barnaby and moi |
Figured this was as good a place as any to insert the requisite photo opps with the Mr Romance and cover guys. Photo thanks (and all the posing too, for that matter!) to Leigh Anne!
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| With 2009 Mr Romance Charles Paz (whose flashy suit matched his personality!) and the super nice Scott Nova |
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| 2011 Mr Romance Len Gunn looked like he wore a suit every day. |
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| Oh no! This guy turned into a big purple floral arrangement! |
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| Harvey Stables (Mr Romance 1999!) and Scott Nova..sharp dressed men! |
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| DeLonn Donovan, me, Scott and Harvey |
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| Okay, sheesh, one more and that's it, Leigh! Harvey is really tall, btw. |
Back tomorrow for Day Four...Speed-Pitching, Celeb-Spotting and Freaky Friday.
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