Have you ever gone on vacation and came home to a horrible case of the post vacation blues? Sucks doesn't it?
Well what I have is even more serious than vacation blues...I have post UtopYA deep-down-in-your-soul depression. You'll understand why in a minute...
And if you've been living under a huge boulder and haven't heard of UtopYA well you're in the right place...
UtopYA is a convention for writers and readers of supernatural YA and NA fiction. It's unlike any other convention I've been exposed to since entering the wonderful world of author-hood. The readers and the writers co-mingle 100% of the time. They are seated next to each other in the opening keynote (which was Jennifer L. -freaking- Armentrout by the way), they visit the exhibitor booths side-by-side, they listen to each of the panelist share their expertise together, they even sleep next to each other in the same hotel. It is as up close and personal as a reader/author convention can get. AMAZING right!?!
Each and every author that attends is there not only to spread the word of their works but also to spend time getting to know their readers. Just wait I have proof with many, many photos.
Day Uno
I have to admit walking into the building knowing I'd be surrounded by so many talented authors was scary...SCARY! But everyone was extremely nice. K Anne and I had a fabulous booth even if we weren't quite as prepared as our booth neighbor Kristen Day author of the Daughters of the Sea Triology...whom I forgot to get a picture with. DANG! Kristen had coconut milk and seaweed chips that I nicely declined to consume. :)
After getting our booth pimp on we met up with my soul sister Kate Mathias. If you've had the pleasure of meeting Kate then you know how absolutely sweet and genuine she is and how blessed I am to call her a friend.
Day 2
The rest of the day was filled with fangirling and stunned silence at the authors and readers that I was able to meet. The proof is below.
Day 3 - where exhaustion kicked in
But the day kicked off with a bang...
However, she was unaware that she was being stalked...umm, I mean followed by ME. ;) She was nice enough to allow me to sit next to her during the keynote...I was polite and didn't drool all over her...no really I promise I didn't!
The rest of the day was a tizzy of lovely people...
Home Sweet where-did-all-my-friends-go Home
Home without all my brand new friends...
No more tackle hugs, no more stalking unspecting authors/bloggers/readers, no more looking around for Indie authors everywhere I go, no more being surrounded by pure unadulterated talent.
And I'm sad...and I miss everyone... :(
I can't wait until next year when all my people converge on Nashville once again!
I want to thank Janet Wallace and her creative brain for dreaming up such an event and allowing folks like me to meander around it. Also Lindsay, April, Jamie and everyone else that I'm forgetting that works so hard all year long to put on UtopYA. I'll see you lovely people next year!
On to the announcement...
The afternoon after the reveal of the theme and banner I had the most amazing dream that I was very unhappy about waking up from. It was pretty much my dream book all rolled into one, it featured two characters...Sutton and Knox. So I just decided that after Before the Storm is published August 30th I will start work on Sutton and Knox's novel. Yes I hear you Adley and Derek fans screaming at me...I will also be working on Sanctuary from the Darkness at the same time. But right now I make no promises as to which will be published first but will do my best to keep everyone up to date.
That's all the details you're getting right now...you can infer that the theme of next years UtopYA has influence over the premise of JJ and Knox (and you'd probably be correct if you did). :)
Giveaway...FINALLY!
Win 1 of 13 prizes