tha kikass convenshun, we haz it

What a blast.

Melbourne. Australian Romance Readers Convention. You know the drill.

 

First was the welcome reception on Friday night. Everyone capered around with free champagne and goggled at the famous people and talked in high giggly voices. Excitement was palpable.

 

Here's the registration queue, out the door of the Jasper hotel. Happy romance fans!

 

Me and my friend Tracey O'Hara (traceyo ) at the welcome reception.

Saturday morning, and Mary Janice Davidson's speech had everyone in stitches. What a charming lady.

Next an academic panel: Why Romance Gets Dissed By Everyone Who's Never Read It, and Why Do We Worry So Much About What Other People Think? Interesting points made. Glen Thomas is a crack-up. I have only one thing to say: we've still got 80% of the sales, dissers. Go starve in your garrets :) 

The next panel was on paranormal romance: Why Are Scary Dudes So Hot? Answer: because they're scary. Well, duh.

Lunch was good. I mean, surprisingly good. The food provided by the Jasper staff was universally agreed to be excellent. A big rap for them.

Afternoon panel: romantic suspense. Now we know why no one ever got devoured by rats on Neighbours. Luke, dude, I am so buying your book.

Stephanie Laurens gave a speech. I'm not sure I buy Romance Makes the Free World a Better Place by Increasing the Birth Rate, but an interesting talk by a wonderful author.

Book signings and goodies galore:




 The queue for the goodies room.

 

Sherrilyn Kenyon and Diana Love and fans.

Jordana Ryan, Lexxie Cooper and Jess Dee at the signing.

Assorted conference pics: 

Angie (gnomeangel ) and Kimberley

The Galah (?) Dinner. A big occasion. Much fun had by all.

 

Me and Tha Famis Peeps! Denise Rossetti, Keri Arthur, Tracey O'Hara and moi.

 

 


 Readers at the dinner. (Drop by with your names and I'll add them!)

Melanie Milburne and fans

Canberra Gurlz. Yay!

 

Tha fangurl pics, I haz them. MJD and me.

Sherrilyn Kenyon and me. Yay!

Second day, first speakers was Susan Grant -- how cool is this lady? a 747 pilot and a mum, and oh by the way writes kick-ass books in her spare time? 

Liz Maverick was very funny talking about the stages of romance reading. Ya know, kinda like the 12-step program but better.

First panel for me was urban fantasy, sci-fi and futuristic: Why Is It So Cool? Answer: if you don't understand, we can't explain it to you. Kinda like Harley-Davidsons.

Later, the cross-genre panel. Solution: pretty much everything these days is cross-genre. Just don't call it that when you're pitching it.

The final session with Sherrilyn Kenyon and Diana Love was the funniest thing I've sat through in many a day. What charming, honest, lovely people.

Okay, that's it. I promised you vampires and Brad Pitt. I haven't forgotten.

the place for a village

Melbourne, that is. That's what the founder, John Batman, is meant to have said when he got there in 1835.

Now, it's the place for shopping, cricket and the best Italian food ever.

It's also the place for my book, Shadowfae. There are fairies there, you know. Just gotta look properly, and hang out at the right clubs. But we'll talk about that later.

 

More importantly, it's the place for a convention. The Australian Romance Readers Convention, to be precise. I'll be there over the weekend, meeting authors and chatting with readers and indulging assorted romance-related mayhem. Mmm. I see chocolate in my future.

 

I'll be back next week with a con report and some pics.

 

And we'll talk about vampires and why they'll never go out of style no matter what People say, and how Brad Pitt changed the face of paranormal romance before we even really knew who he was, and what Vince Colosimo has to do with any of it.

 

See you soon!

fairies and weirdlings and all manner of good things

Hi. I'm Erica Hayes. I'm an Australian urban fantasy author, and my first book, Shadowfae, is coming out in late 2009 from St Martin's Press.

There. That's that over with. Glad you dropped by.

Here, we're gonna be talking about the weird stuff, and I don't mean Tasmanians.

I'm talking fairies. Vampires. Demons. Banshees. Succubi. More fairies. A spriggan or two. Anything that takes our fancy. Fantasy creatures, coming to a gritty city street near you.

We'll chat about urban fantasy books, and movies, and odd things that catch our eye. And, of course, romance. We adore romance. Especially if it's got fairies. And not the tiny flittering kind.

Friend me? Aww. You're making me blush. Go right ahead. Link to me. RSS your sweet little socks off. I'll answer comments. I'll link you back. I'm like that.

So pull up a screen. Squirm yourself comfy in that beanbag. Pass the chocolate. And let's get chatting.