Tuesday, July 28, 2015

RWA15 Part Two: Electric Boogaloo

On Sunday, July 26, I wrote up a very measured and rather SRS BZNESS account of attending this year's RWA. Now, I'd like to rattle off some of the other experiences I had. It wasn't all microaggressions and diversity panels. There was a whole lotta fun and a whole lotta silly. (And, at one point, a whole lot of tequila.)

•I Kool-Aid Womanned my way onto The Li.st's romance panels on Tuesday night with Maya Rodale, Sarah MacLean, Alisha Rai, Carla Neggers, Feminista Jones, Rebekah Weatherspoon and Jordan Silver. (I said the word “orgasm.” A LOT. And on Periscope! Eep.)

Alisha, me, Rebekah's mojito, and Rebekah's photo skills
•Me: “Why is this bar so empty and unprepared on a Saturday?”
Alisha Rai: “Honey, it's Tuesday.”

•Protip: Never order a mojito at a Russian vodka bar.

•I found soon-to-be RITA winner Meredith Duran at the Literacy Signing and she autographed Lady Be Good for me.

•I did a vodka shot at Lorelie Brown's table at the Literacy Signing. (Zoe Archer saw the whole thing. #sorrynotsorry)

•I hugged Lauren Dane...and then basically never saw her again. Heh.

•I fangirled at Bec McMaster, because I LOVE her London Steampunk series.

•I got recognized from Twitter by Beverly “bow down to her freaking awesomeness” Jenkins.

•I caught the tail-end of the Thursday morning breakfast buffet with Katana Collins. (I hope all of that leftover bacon went to a good place.)

•Our Bollywood Basics panel proved that the power of Ranveer Singh's oiled-up chest cannot be denied.

•Tessa Dare and her muffin. #nocontextforyou

•The day emergency sugar run to Junior's. Cheesecake solves almost everything...including weirdo tourists who think a group of women is "shy" for not wanting their picture taken.

•The night emergency sugar run to Momofuku Milk Bar at Ma Peche. (Cookie War references abounded!)

•Cake balls. Heh. 

•I met Kelly Faircloth, Jezebel's resident romance lover.

•I finally broke down and gave money to the Yum Yum Thai restaurant empire with Regina Small and Shari Slade — who saved me from Death By 'Shroom.

•I ate raw fish with Courtney Milan. Mmmm, sashiiimiiii.

•I saw all of Nico Rosso's snake. #nocontextforyou (Zoe Archer witnessed this, too.)

What can brown do for you?
•Desi Romance Writer lunch with Falguni Kothari, Nalini Singh, Nidhi, Nisha Sharma, Sienna Snow, Sophia Sasson, and Soniwolf. 

•“Am I the only Bong in this group?”

•I almost fell asleep at the Dark Romance panel. Luckily, Sophie Jordan helped me catch up with note-taking.

•Alyssa Cole. Just because.

•Rebekah, Kelly and I got spontaneous cake from Laura Florand and company.

•I finally ran into Tiffany Reisz, Rhonda Helms and Jeffe Kennedy after much angsting and searching. (PSA: Only Jeffe and Vivian Arend are allowed to wear hats to conferences.)

•I tackle-hugged Cecilia Tan after the RITAs...and just barely resisted singing Simon & Garfunkel at her. (I'm sure she gets that A LOT.)  

•I immediately wanted to DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

4 comments:

  1. I sooooo hope you can come to San Diego so we can meet!

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    1. My sibling lives there, so we'll see! It all comes down to time and money!

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  2. Lunch was great and I learned the word bong.

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    Replies
    1. Never fails to crack me up. Who came up with it? Why didn't we get to vote? LOL.

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