First, obligatory health update: my recovery surgical appointment is in one week. My hope is to be cleared for some mild workouts. I would love to be back to normal or at least try to get there.
As I get better, we are going to try to resume Fiction Fridays at some point soon, although right now secret project is eating all of the brain power.
So fingers crossed for a good follow up. If I get one, Gordon, who has been taking care of me for these last few weeks, can finally breathe easier. Meanwhile, he sent me this gem. Enjoy!
Now for something a little more serious. A few days ago, a romance convention, Readers Take Denver, took place, and apparently it was a disaster. Readers who should’ve gotten swag and who prepaid for the convention didn’t get their stuff and were not allowed in. Volunteer staff pushed people and was rude. Authors who signed up to sponsor the convention didn’t get their sponsor benefits. Event locations were not clearly marked. Someone got assaulted. Fire marshal had to get involved. The person behind the convention solicited donations to their charity, but the charity isn’t registered. The list goes on. Here is an article about it. Also if you search Threads for RTD, you will get all the tea.
For the record, this is not typical of romance conventions. Issues always creep up, as a consequence of placing a large number of excited people into a limited space, but this is not the norm. Typically the primary concern is always the safety of the attendees and the happiness of the attending authors.
Someone reached out to me and asked if we had been invited. We weren’t, nor would we have attended.
As much as we love BDH, going to conventions isn’t writing. Only writing is writing. We deliberately choose to keep our schedule light. We attended Coastal Magic Con this year, because someone we knew recommended it. We will attend Dragoncon, which is extremely well run, especially considering its enormous size. We will be there, available for events, from Friday till Monday, so you will have 3 full days to track us down. There will be a dedicated BDH Q&A event. You will be allowed to bring stuff from home for the signings. That’s it.
We might do either a virtual or in person signing for Roman, depending on if we can find a book store willing to partner. If that happens, we will announce it closer to the release date. As stated, we are keeping it light. Our primary focus is words on a page. And honestly, I would love a vacation. I want to go somewhere for a few days and not work, so limiting the amount of business travel sounds like a good idea.
Finally, if you are attending a convention and you are not having a good time, if you feel unsafe, and you brought it up to the convention staff and they did not resolve your problem, leave. Please do not stay in a venue that makes you feel unsafe. It’s not worth it.
You sound like you’re feeling much better! And thanks for the funny, it was definitely cute. As to Fri fiction, only if you’ve time and bandwidth. And vacation comes first in my book!
The RTD sounds very abnormal, too. I’ve never heard of one that poorly run before. Frankly, I attended an annual monster size professional convention for years and I don’t miss it. Attending is tiring for everyone and I despised using my vacation time that way. So I completely understand your reluctance!
+1! 🤗
i have seen some of the correspondence between one of the authors and the event coordinators and all I can say is that woman shouldn’t be put in charge of a bake sale let alone a whole con.
Get better and remember to suck on ginger chews. They’ve worked for me in regard to abdominal discomfort.
Here’s to feeling better, and a good check up with your surgeon next week!!
Three conventions in a year is a lot! Yikes! And they are not vacations, despite staying in a nice hotel.
So, good thoughts across the ether for the secret project and a vacation!!
Really glad to hear you are having your follow up right away and that recovery seems to be going well.
Also, is it bad I am glad that you don’t go to many conventions and spend more time writing? Because, there is nothing to devour if there is no writing. ◉ ̫ ◉
Thinking the exact same thing 🤪🙈
So glad you’re continuing to feel better – fingers and toes are crossed for good news at your follow-up.
My shoulders scrunch just thinking about meeting and greeting lots of strangers. I can do it at conventions, but it’s exhausting. If vacations mean happier authors and more stories, that sounds like a win-win for HA and BDH!
Good to hear that you’re feeling better, and that Fiction Friday may resume this summer. Get well first; HA busy with other matters means, well…
That convention sounds like quite the clusterf***. That, or the organizers were just in it to make as much $$$ as they could by paring costs to the bone. I used to go to medical meetings or annual conventions, but they are set up quite differently. There, a lot of the emphasis is on continuing education credits (usually early AM and late afternoon) and the rest of the day is for playtime, so they kind of are vacation, too. Conventions for you guys are just work and not necessarily productive work.
well I missed the scoop on that Con drama, so interesting update!
thank you for writing writing writing.
we love reading reading reading.
I live in CO, so looked into going to Readers Take Denver this year, and decided it isn’t for me. First off, they want $300 to attend. Out of 200+ authors, the only one I recognized was Charlaine Harris. Granted, I don’t read romance, but they claimed to be making an effort to expand into Sci-fi/fantasy. They also have a huge list of publishers and agents attend, whom get bigger blurbs than the authors, which leans into the idea that it is more for networking among the “upcoming” authors they get, which have to pay to attend despite being featured. And every year they get horrible reviews.
Having been on a Concom (Convention Committee) and having run an art show at the con for several years.
It’s not easy, it’s incredibly stressful, there are a lot of moving parts and it takes many someone’s who are very talented and organized to put on a successful convention.
It sounds like many balls were dropped in Denver, which is too bad, because a well run convention is a blast, looks effortless and should leave most everyone happy, and talking about how much fun it all was.
Take a vacation, you deserve it. I recommend somewhere warm and coastal. Don’t forget to take bug spray, even if at home the bugs aren’t out yet, because the bugs are a perpetual plague on warm places…
I might have recently traveled to Texas without thinking through how much further ahead Texas is in terms of mosquito emergence. Lucky for me I had an injured dog so obviously the reason my hiking plans were truncated had everything to do with keeping her quiet and absolutely nothing to do with my lack of planning and the number of biting insects in the area… nope, nothing at all to do with that…
Well, if you judge by my Irish men cousins he really is pretty impressive, and I’m wondering if I should give the girl’s a heads up in case he’s near to Limerick 😉
As to the convention, it sounds worse than the Glasgow Wonka disaster. What’s happening with fan events these days? I guess without any governing bodies, there’s no proper oversight and you can’t get due diligence so these things will just keep happening. It’s a shame and ruins peoples enjoyment.
Hahaha, oh gosh, the Wonka disaster. Thank you for reminding me of that! The evil shadow man who lives in the walls!
I think part of it might be folks attending cons but never having experience working them, at least not at levels beyond volunteering (not that volunteering doesn’t teach you tons about cons!). I find them kind of fascinating just because I’ve seen failures snatched from the jaws of success, and this one actually sounds like one of those.
They had the funding. They had the interest. They had a really great list that covered a good variety of topics, from a retired homicide detective assisting with Thriller writing and q&a, to audiobooks, to contract law and IP rights, to well. Writing. 🙂
But looking just at the program I cringed at the timing. Panels ALWAYS run long, and 45min for one of your headliners is not NEARLY enough time to do some panel, some q&a, some signing.
15min is not enough time to clear a room, be there 30 or 300 people in it. Cons are a big place where Our People are, it’s really easy to make friends or even just get 5 seconds to say hello to your favourite author and then stumble away on a cloud of seratonin. I worked a lot of book signing events for celebs, we had a whole conveyor system to return to the person their bag, phone, possibly spouse and/or children, and anything else they were forgetting 😂
Security was OBVIOUSLY a concern, good gods. I hate, hate, hate that plenty of conventions still operate under the “When, not if” their guests who present as women are assaulted model, but Romance Writing on a whole is a lot more… well. It’s generally devalued because it’s mostly books written by women, mostly for women, mostly about things like emotions (as if thrillers don’t — and Ivsay women but I do mean people who identify as such, folks anywhere on the rainbow, Enbys and Fluids and outright Gendersplats). The community is usually quite tight-knit and supportive, and are very clear that there will be None Of That.
Because of this, and what our society teaches women, there is usually a greater level of security around these functions — not just volunteers, but hired security along with Con Security staff. It makes me very, very angry that people could just walk in an unattended back door.
I volunteer for a free-entry comics and art convention that we hold in our biggest library, and it’s an amazing experience every year. The city gives us a very small budget and we go to work on it, often starting the next year’s calls the day after the comvention ends. It’s not out to make money for the city via ticket sales (although it is amazing at supporting local artists!) and is geared towards kids as much towards adults so it’s a fun family thing.
I also had a con fall through last year as they had some serious issues and delays, but they were proactively up-front about what was going on at all times, why, what they were doing about it. They offered full refunds (without being asked) for everyone’s tickets, but they did include the option to just roll the payment over into this year’s ticket instead.
Most people did so. It gave them the money they needed to really get things moving and in order, hire some experienced con runners in a couple of departments or just to learn from, and everything is looking fantastic for this year. They have numbered tickets, all kinds of venue and accessibility information, all of the “who do I go to for help”, local transit routes and volunteers to help shepherd people to the site… so, SO many things 🙂
They’re running the con this year hoping, mostly, to break even and learn from it so they can do it as a yearly thing, as that month is pretty dry in terms of local events. Eventually, they’d like to make a little money doing it, but it would likely be a few months of rent if anything.
I think probably that’s the best way to do it though, not for profits. It seems like people are realising that genre fans are good money makers and that’s where the issues can arise. Once it’s done by a company or individual who are more interested in profits than the community and the fans it collapses. I expect people would be more understanding of disorganised events if they didn’t feel and see that they were being ripped off.
as a reader, I’m definitely happy you choose writing over conventions!
Very happy to hear that your recovery is going well!
I love your work so much. I feel very confident saying that the vast majority of your readers will always love your work, and it wouldn’t matter if you never did a single public event. Hoping you can only do whatever is rewarding for you, always.
I do hope you are able to do a virtual signing. Due to health issues as well as financial considerations attending an in person event is just not possible for me. The one bright spot that came out of the pandemic for me was the rise of virtual signings. It is a dream come true to get to share time and insights from favorite authors and be able to get signed books (book plates). I thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to make time for us.
Hi Ilona, I’m so glad to hear you are getting back to normal. I work at the Air Force Academy and was excited to volunteer at RTD since it was only an hour drive North. I had a bad feeling things would go wrong but I could never anticipate how wrong. Thank you for your good advice. My husband and I decided to do as you so wisely suggested and just enjoyed our company for the remainder of our stay. I feel terrible for those that had to fly into Denver. I hope to visit one of your events soon. Warmest regards.
Today sucked in my corner of the universe. I just got home and dropped my stuff, got dinner started — best part— sitting down with a little tray of sushi, a big glass of wine and this blog. I’m so glad recovery is moving along! Love the Irish man.
Glad to hear that you’re feeling better and have high hopes for a good follow up appointment. Also glad you chose writing over conventions. 🙃. Please take the vacation you need. If going anywhere tropical, the no seeums are pretty bad this year. We just returned home from Roatan and we’re glad we remembered bug repellent! (Though our stay was awesome). Had a good time in Palm Springs as well. No bugs.
Your health is always more important than anything. Take care.
I’m glad you’re better and hope the follow up goes well. 🙂
I’m selfish and much rather you have less stress by going to less events and spend more time taking care of yourselves so you can spend more time writing! 😘
I am glad you are feeling better. Vacation is always part of life’s agenda. Since I retired, I realized how often I put vacation off because of work! As they say Just do it!
Hope you find a great vacation spot and get to relax and recharge!
Some of that Irish romance has filtered down into the Irish American culture, I’m here to tell you.
Agh, put up my email by mistake. This is why I should never post after supper.
I was just fixing it ☺️
Thank you ModR!
Thanks for sharing! Here’s to more healing and breathtaking views of something you love in your future. Enjoy!
Helsinki hosted one of the biggest Sci Fi conventions in the world a few years back, which I gleefully attended, being a resident of Helsinki. Despite being held in the big convention center it was a disaster–scheduling meetings and talks in rooms that would only seat 50-60 people. The fire marshalls had to come in shoo out standing people. If you really wanted to see or hear someone you had to go to the room an hour in advance and stake out a seat. Almost no one came in costume, something very Finnish. It was just an ok event, but dissapointing considering how other locations around the world hosted this very well and extremely entertaining.
Here’s hoping for a proper recovery, and a return to normal for both of you.
I’m really glad to hear you’re feeling a bit better and add my voice to the best wishes!
Re: RTD, this will be fascinating, not least for the fact that they had contract lawyers actually giving panels on… well, contracts. Oh. Oh dear.
In fact, a kind of interesting tidbit is that a LOT of Romance authors are also very successful lawyers, that career more than most popping up in my path over the years. So… don’t mess with Romance authors.
Their fans are also legion and extremely devoted — I saw some names on that list that would draw a convention of 3000 ALONE, nevermind with some very established heavyweights in there.
They would all want things signed.
I’ve both worked, attended and volunteered at Video Game and Board Game/Fantasy cons over the years, professionally as booth staff to talk to journos as having devs available, not just PR, was important. PR is its own department, so they have to answer a lot of things with “I don’t know” vs devs being able to nerd out hard over it.
An artist friend of mine sometimes does nearby conventions, but we’re in our 40s and they’re so much work. Especially when Dragoncon, Gen Con and FanExpo all wind up in the same month!
Of the many cons I’ve attended, Gen Con is by far the most organized, the friendliest (I mean, it’s board games, the point is to have other players!), they have an incredibly simple yet impossibly fast method for panel seats where tickets are often free or $2 purchased ahead of time, and you show up maybe 10min before your panel. No waiting 3 hours.
A lot of cons also have very clear Con Codes and despite all the LGBTQ+ genre authors and audiobook performers on that list, there is absolutely nothing on their site talking about the site being a safe place. That right there is also a huge red flag for me.
I still have to work some industry events closeted because of the countries they’re held in. I’m lucky (well and I mean, I moved about 12 times) to live where I do now with a huge Queer culture, these trips are steps back in time 10, 20, 30 years ago and are… not good
RTD is Russel T Davis and no one will ever convince me RTD could be something else.
It was in fact my first thought.
RTD was there as well??
Why isn’t he writing Who episodes? Or doing other important Whoniverse stuff?
Oh, no wait. The convention itself is RTD.
Excited to hear about Buns n Roses! Hope your recovery continues apace.
Sending all healing wishes. I hope you can schedule some extra rest days. Thank you for the update.
I don’t do conventions as the crush is one of my fears.
Loved the Irish Man! The comments were really entertaining, and I really needed the laughs. I’ve been following your healing journey with interest, as I’ve had both the gallbladder surgery, and the joy of diabetes type 2. I’d like to thank you and the BDH for the many recipe selections, as I’ve done a horrible job of controlling my diet and my diabetes. However, I’ve reached a sticking point and am doing better at it, with a lot of help. As for the writing schedule, I’m so glad you’re back at it. Might have to go to Dragon con this year 🙂
Glad to hear things are getting better.
I was also sent videos on that convention. I haven’t been able to attend any in years, the travel is too hard physically, and we don’t have the money for it anyway.
If it had been me? I would have gone home the minute I saw so many who’d reserved their spots be turned away. Huge red flag there. One lady likened it to the Fyre Festival. Yikes.
The convention sounds like a nightmare! A friend was going to take her 16 year old daughter as her author assistant. I’ll have to check in with her.
Just yesterday, I was wondering if there was an Innkeeper or House Andrews convention. I have ideas for cosplaying Caldenia.
Anything in the USA y will miss it. 😢 Come to Europe for a change. But since there are no Spanish translation I can’t get a horde working on it here.
Glad your healing journey continues.
Crowds are terrible! Much better to stay home – you write and I read.
I am glad your recovery seems to be going well. Has your doctor or anyone suggested that that now being minus your gall bladder you should take digestive enzymes (ox bile)? If no one has yet suggested it you might want to do a little research on the issue.
Two things-#1 that vid on Irish flirting was spot on. I was in the pub in Galway and was wearing my new Claddagh ring when this fellow picked up my hand to admire it and showed me his which was almost 100 yrs old. Apparently, this Canadian didn’t understand that was tantamount to a marriage proposal!
#2- I have come to the point in my profession that vacation is more important than taking education trips. Increasing my education and efficacy at work is just not the same(even though I”m not doing my daily grind) as a holiday. Take the holiday, go to the beach, if I ever see you, I won’t be bringing something to sign, I would just be grateful to say ‘Thank you’ in person.
First and foremost, congrats on your recovery so far (and good luck on the re-check)…you’re doing great! Keep doing what you’re doing!
Also…my hubby is Irish???!! Who knew!!!! 😂 (Just kidding!)
Know where I would love to see you travel this year? Not to a Con! I hope you go anywhere on a nice relaxing vacation, without any BDH members nearby (including me!)You both deserve (and need!) some peaceful ‘me’ time, so go for it! 😁
best wishes on a good check up
as much as I would love Fiction Fridays, I would rather you be able to recover and write and vacation without the pressure of a weekly deadline.
we are a horde but we can be a patient horde even if we don’t like to be.
when an airline pilot hits turbulence, it’s imperative to slow down to stabilize the plane.
you deserve a slow down this year.
Sounds like you are feeling somewhat better. I hope you do get a clean check up. When I get abdominal discomfort honey help. And I don’t mean like honey in my tea. I try to avoid sugar but when I get that feeling I do 2 tablespoons of good honey and it helps. I know you have to worry about your AIC so it may not be helpful advice. But, I thought I’d share just in case it helps someone.
Wishing you all the best for your appointment and recovery, Ilona. I hope you can get back to regular activities and do those light workouts.
I also hope you and Gordon manage to get away somewhere fun and relaxing soon.
I like your priorities- writing over conventions sounds good to me!
I didn’t enjoy even the mini con I attended pre-Covid. If I could have a quiet coffee date with an author, I would sign up. But crowds? No thank you. Lines? I do road trips rather than suffer airports and planes.
I’m very happy that you two put writing first!
I’m so glad that Gordan found Gannon. I think he is darling. And “delicious”, haha. As for RTD, I think it’s so sad that in a space that is so supportive (Romancelandia) there was such discord and disarray. Hopefully, this particular event will spark good conversation about how important organization and thoughtful preparation is for large events. I attended a convention in MD, that was limited entry, and was beautifully staged. It was wonderful and intimate, as a reader, to spend quality time talking to beloved authors. Truly, the volunteers and organizers did an excellent job. I hope that RTD doesn’t turn off anyone from attending other events.
You should come to Planet Comicon in Kansas City. It is one of the biggest cons in the country and keeps growing. You would do very well there.
He looks like a young Orson Welles!
Is anyone else getting the same email post a day later as well as the first one?
just seems odd as Im getting every email as normal then an identical email the following day. for all posts… has been happening for a while now 🤷🏽♀️
Hi Kat,
Thank you for writing in and signalling this week’s issue duplication, we will look into it.
I’ve been getting multiple e-mails for each post too (though not every time, and the ‘view in browser’ links in some of the e-mails don’t work correctly. They just display another screen that shows a partial post and a ‘view in browser’ button.)
Hmm, maybe the new mailer just doesn’t like anyone named ‘Kat’? 😉
Glad to hear that you’re health is improving.
Why does every blogpost comes two times these days?
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for letting us know, we will investigate.
Thank you, ModR.
The same post also shows as ‘previous post’.
I’m getting the same email two days in a row as well
Yeah, I noticed that too Miriam. It’s weird though, because it only seems like that’s happening in the screen brought up by the e-mail. If you go in directly through the actual blog, everything looks fine (each blog entry only listed once) and everything seems to be working.
(And thank you for confirming it’s not just us Kats that are having a problem!) 😂
Sorry if I’m adding too much detail here Mod R: I used to work in IT as a liaison with business partners, so when I see issues with tech, it’s my second nature to butt my nose in and start providing details upon details! Not doing so is like not scratching an annoying itch! 😂
I hope you can recover quickly and smoothly and that your convention goes well!
your books and blog are always a joy to follow and read!
On a side note, is there any news on when we might get the 2nd book of the Ryder series? I’m dying to find out what will become of Julie and Derek’s love story!?!?!
Hopefully you are feeling better. On a side note I have been getting double emails a day apart? Not that I mind re-reading 😊but I thought you might want to know.
i love garron, he’s delicious
I’m really looking forward to seeing you both at Dragon Con! That is, if I get that chance. I volunteer at Dragon Con so piecing together a personal schedule can be tricky.
All Hail Roman! 🙂
Ack! I forgot to wish you a speedy recovery. Sending you virtual flowers, honey, lemon, and tea. U+1F49B
I follow that creator on TT. He is always funny
It’s deeply disappointing to hear about the troubles at Readers Take Denver. Conventions are meant to be safe, enjoyable spaces for readers, authors, and enthusiasts to come together and celebrate their shared love of romance literature. Incidents like these are certainly not reflective of the broader romance convention community, where the safety and happiness of attendees are paramount.
As authors, it’s understandable to prioritize writing over convention appearances, especially when faced with such disheartening reports. Choosing carefully curated events like Dragoncon or Coastal Magic Con, known for their excellent organization and attendee experience, seems like a wise decision.
And the reminder about prioritizing personal safety at conventions is crucial. No one should ever feel obligated to stay in a situation where they feel unsafe or unwelcome. It’s essential for convention staff to address issues promptly and effectively to ensure the well-being of everyone involved.