Randomly Random: When your vacation starts out at a sex toy shop...

Yes, well that's a new one! Okay, so not the actual going into a, um, toy shop since I've been in one before. But venturing inside one with a paranormal romance and an erotic romance author in tow? Yeah. That was definitely a new experience for this girlie and left her ALL kinds of red. LOL

I'm not quite sure how it happened other than Tes Hilaire (knowing I've ended up in the wrong state...multiple times) listened to my directions and on one of our turn abouts a naughty shop was spotted resulting in a need for penis...straws.

On the way to said naughty shop the next morning we gave CJ Ellisson a ring and of course she came along for the penis straw, dirty card game, creme brule body dust tasting adventure. We might have maybe kinda tried out the clit stimulator gels on our lips too. Maybe. *looks around innocently and whispers* That stuff is freaky! No way it's going near delicate bits!

So that's how my vacation kicked off. Gotta say, it was an excellent and oh so randomly random start to a pretty damn entertaining weekend...

Alright so the rest of the weekend wasn't quite so adventurous but it was a blast. Throw 40 some authors and 100 some readers together and the chatter and stories are endless. This was my second book convention and it was on the smaller side and focused on Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy authors.

The convention was held at a kinda dinky hotel that had some freaky loud birds in the lobby so thankfully I was staying at my grams condo since my mom came down for the weekend as well so she could see me. It was quite the view each morning!

Tes Hilaire and my mom!

My momma is pretty awesome but she doesn't read romances. Like. At. All. But she spent her weekend having breakfast with erotica authors and male/male authors and handled it like a champ. She even left saying I wish I read the kind of books they write. They're such nice people. See? Awesome mama :) So while all of us went to readings and pool parties and author panels my mom hung out at the condo and read her cozy mysteries then came and met us for meals.

That's my mom and Tes at the condo over ----> there. My mom bought copies of both her books and Tes was a sweetie and post-it noted all the sexy
scenes together so my mom could skip over them. LOL I thought that was so sweet of her.

One of the panels

So what kinda things did we do all weekend? Well there were all kinds of panels on all sorts of subjects from romance to world building to shifters/vamps and other critters in romance and writing.

They had movies at night and ghost tours for those interested. And the rest of the time you just hung out and chatted with other readers and authors.

Amy Lane and Damon Suede

One of the panels I went to was my first male/male romance author reading! That was pretty interesting for a girl that's never read m/m before. It's not my particular kink but gotta say the authors, like Amy Lane and Damon Suede were some of the best authors there and really stole the show all weekend.

They were hysterical and such interesting people and I loved how engaged they were with readers and  and passionate they were about what they write. I bought their books and am going to venture into them when I have spare reading time. I'm hella curious to see if Damon's writing is like his personality. This man is all out there and such a trip to be around.

More at the signing! Elisabeth Staab, Tes Hilaire
and Elisabeth Naughton

There was also a charity book signing one afternoon that was a blast. 2 hours of non-stop book signings. Other local authors and non-pnr/uf authors came as well.

My mom came in for that and helped me carry around a TON of books and swag to get signed. Some for me and some for yall :) By the end of the 2 hours I had 4 huge totes of books signed, a whimpering wallet and a worn out mama. There were a ton of people there and it got warm right quick.

Hildie, CJ and Laura working hard!

Lea Nolan hard at work during the book signing.

Me and Cynthia Eden

If you ever get the chance to go to one of these events I hope you'll grab it. I love the smaller ones like this one or the Annual Reader/Author Get Together that Lori Foster hosts each year. Both were very affordable at under $50 to register. Not bad at all for the fun and entertainment. It's just such a great experience getting to actually meet the authors you know in person and to find out and chat with others you haven't gotten a chance to read or know online. And just being around other romance book lovers. Can't beat that.

Me, Lea Nolan and Sara Nicholas

CJ Ellisson, Wendy Higgins and me!

All kinds of author goodness. Laurie London, Elisabeth Staab,
Laura Kaye, Lea Nolan, Tes Hilaire, Alex Hughes, Hildie McQueen,
CJ Ellisson and more at dinner the last night in town!

Me and Hildie McQueen

I snagged the last four photos from the ladies in them. They tagged me in them on Facebook so I figure that's alright :)

Okay, so it was a little late posting it, but that was my vacation back in February. Lots of laughter, eating and drinking, gossiping about our favorite reads and characters and of course the occasional trip to a sex shop. All the things any good vacation includes.

And for those of yall still reading we're having a....

I really appreciate all of you that come by the blog and comment on non-giveaway posts. It means so much to a blogger and I just wanted to do a little something special for yall. Soooo...surprise giveaways. I came home with a handful of books and a bunch of awesome swag (some of it is signed too) and one commenter will get their pick of what they'd like. A book or a whole buncha swag.

Don't worry about including your email. I'll be able to track ya down with the new comment system :) And it's open international too :) If you don't want to enter that's fine too. You can still comment away and pass the giftie on to someone else if your name is picked :)

So, have you ever been in a sex shop? Find anything, um, odd like feet shaped masturbators? 

Yeah apparently that's a thing for some men. lol. 

Ever been to a book convention or author signing? How'd it go? 

Or leave me a randomly random comment! It is Randomly Random after all!

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