Some background info…I’m a member of the online urban fantasy and paranormal romance community Fangs, Fur and Fey and FFF decided to do a con within a con as part of the Conestoga conference, so 30 FFF authors descended on Tulsa, OK for the Conestoga conference this past weekend.

Conestoga was a great time! Well, once everyone got there. Apparently, Thursday travels were the worst for everyone. Jeaniene Frost and Ilona Andrews got stuck in horrendous traffic and Mark Del Franco, Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready and Caitlin Kittredge all had flight delay issues that had them arriving either very late Thursday night or Friday. So I twiddled my thumbs waiting for others to arrive. When they finally did, I silently screamed, Oh, thank God…peoples! Jeaniene and Ilona had dinner with me and I had a blast chatting with them. I’d met Jeaniene, but this was my first time meeting Ilona. She’s funny and down-to-earth honest and she instantly sets you at ease. I wish I had her gorgeous thick hair and lovely Russian accent!

After dinner it was back to the hotel where there was a flurry of activity while we divided up all the swag (promo items) authors sent in into ten different gift bags that were to be given out at the various Fangs, Fur and Fey sponsored panels. The bags were awesome black tote bags with Fangs, Fur and Fey in flashy silver lettering. I wanted one. *pout* And FINALLY late that night, after her own round of flight delays, my room mate, Jeri Smith Ready showed up. And then Jeri and I took off to the bar to hang with the ever hilarious and irreverent Mark Henry, who introduced me to Jaye Wells and her friend Leah Hodge as well as Tiffany Trent. Jeanne Stein joined the group along with Mark Del Franco.

For the first half of the day on Friday I helped with the filming of the first Fangs, Fur and Fey panel (yep, FFF videoed most of the panels to put up on the FFF blog later for those who didn’t get to attended Conestoga). Then I participated in a panel with Rachel Caine, Rachel Vincent, Jeaniene Frost and Gena Showalter where we talked about the differences between paranormal romances vs urban fantasy.

That evening the FFF group as well as several readers commandeered part of the bar and we hung out and chatted for several hours. That’s where I met Dean Lorey and talked to him not only about his current middle grade books (Nightmare Academy) but also about the fact he’s a screen writer who has written many popular tv shows and movies. It was fun hearing which ones! . I also got a chance to chat with Rachel Vincent that evening. I first met Rachel at RT in Houston two years ago, but this is the first year that I really got to know her better. A super nice lady, Rachel might have a soft-spoken way about her, but she comes up with some witty zingers that’ll keep you laughing. Late in the evening Sarah Rees Brennan showed up. We’d conversed via email several times and it was so wonderful to finally put a smiling face with her brilliantly written blog posts. She never ceases to make me chuckle.

Saturday I participated in the Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang panel with Jaci Burton, Rachel Vincent, Dakota Cassidy and Michele Bardsley. What a fun panel! We talked about how you craft action scenes and then how you segue into emotionally intense romantic scenes. Dakota and Michele always make me laugh, no matter the subject or venue! Jaci and I have known each other for years. I met her on-line during the early days of writing when we were both unpublished. Ironically, we hadn’t really had a chance to talk much until this conference and I’m so thrilled to see Jaci’s career taking off! Not only does this woman moderate a panel like no one’s business, but she and her hubby are two of the nicest, easy to talk to people!

Later on that day, I sat with Mark Del Franco during my assigned book signing time. Mark has such an engaging way of making you comfortable that you instantly feel as if you’ve known him for years. And now I know why he was our emcee for the speed dating and moderator of several panels throughout the con!

Next I participated in the Let’s Talk about Sex Panel with PC Cast, Jeaniene Frost and Jeri Smith-Ready. What a laugh-out-loud panel. We had a good time and PC kept me in stitches with her references to her father reading all her books, complete with side commentary in a deep, gruff voice.

The author speed dating event took place right after the Let’s Talk about Sex panel. Mark Del Franco emceed the event in which two FFF authors were assigned a table and there were three slots for readers who signed up to do the event. We start at table one introducing ourselves to the readers and then after four minutes the authors get up and move to table two for four minutes and then table three and so on. The purpose of this fun and very fast paced event was for forty-five readers to get a chance to meet thirty authors and chat face to face before the conference’s general reception started where the entire conference mingled. Jeaniene Frost was my partner-in-crime during the speed dating event. I met her at RT last year, but hectic schedules didn’t allow us much time to chat. Always smiling, Jeaniene comes across so polished and put together. Plus, she thinks walking through graveyards is relaxing. That’s so cool! She made speed dating a fun adventure and between the two of us we were able to find the “next” table we were supposed to move to fairly quickly, er…most of the time. LOL!

During the speed dating event I met so many wonderful readers, including FFF watchers Shay, Brian, Robert, Kelley, Erin and many others. One of the readers, Sherri (I hope I spelled it right) was from my Yahoo group. She said Conestoga was her first conference. I wished I’d been able to talk to her longer but I didn’t see her again after the speed dating. Sherri, I hope you had a blast the rest of the conference and that you’ll consider attending RT as well. I heard from several readers that four minutes just wasn’t enough, so maybe next time they’ll bump the time up by a minute or two. At the end of the speed dating I talked for a long time with PC and Kristin Cast about their YA series’ success and truly enjoyed myself with these ladies. Then I sat down with Sara and Gwen Reyes from Fresh Fiction (an author community site) and chatted about our love of reading. Gwen and I yammered on for a good while about our enjoyment of the Twilight series and she convinced me I needed to try LJ Smith. Can you hear my bookshelf groaning? LOL!

That evening I made my way up to Melissa Marr’s room where a group of us chilled for a couple hours and told funny stories. Jen Barnes entertained us with a scary yet hilarious story about a monkey island involving an alpha male monkey, an armload of lemons and a rock. And then there was Ilona, who stole the show with her re-enactments and tales from the past that involved a dead cat, maggots, a dead man, a broken sled, a gang thug, her favorite clothes, a pig and impossibly high heels. Of course, Ilona’s wit has made me bug my neighbor for my Ilona Andrews books she borrowed a couple months back. Melissa sat back and watched us yammer on, encouraging everyone to tell tales. Melissa’s so much fun and easy to talk to, but I didn’t get to spend as much time with her at Conestoga as I would’ve liked. If we don’t get together before RT, Melissa, I’m glad we’ll have five days and sunny weather in April!

On Sunday, I participated in the Pen and Sword (writing fight scenes) panel with Dean Lorey, Jeanne Stein, Steve Wedel and Marie Brennan. I understand Marie Brennan knows how to wield many types of swords quite well on her own, so she has some personal experience that can be brought into writing a scene for sure! LOL! She and Dean Lorey did a wonderful job co-moderating this panel. The first half of the panel we talked about the elements to use in writing action/fight scenes. Then the second half of the panel, each author read a fight scene from their book and the Twisted Blades (a performance group from the School of Stage Combat) used real weapons and fight moves to reenact our scenes out on a stage. I used the fight scene from Scions:Resurrection where Landon and Jachin fight each other in the woods. That was great fun getting to see the scenes we’ve written live and in person! Jeanne Stein sat beside me as we watched the scenes unfold. Jeanne just makes you love her with her easy going self. This awesome lady writes a kickass fight scene, which doesn’t surprise me considering she held her own very well during a male dominated panel.

Throughout the conference I spent time with my roomie, Jeri Smith-Ready. Jeri’s so funny and smart, and she’s written the first book to a fantastic vampire series with such a unique hook…I mean an ex con-artist heroine and vampire DJs? What’s not to love?

I met many other FFF authors including Carrie Jones and Devon Monk and also agent Miriam Kriss, who took her clients Rachel Vincent and Devon Monk to see Dark Knight on the IMAX….now THAT’S a great idea! I wish I had gone. Deliciously dark and twisted, Dark Knight was an all around fantastic movie! Christian Bale played a deep and conflicted Batman and Heath Ledger stole many scenes with his psychotic and psychological masterminding! Loved every minute of this two and a half hour movie. Uh, tangent, anyone? Sorry, just had to share my delight with how good that movie was!

Many thanks to Melissa Marr and Jeaniene Frost for managing all of the FFF authors as well as coordinating logistics with Elspeth Bloodgood - the always smiling and amazingly calm Conestoga coordinator!

I hope you enjoyed the write up, and now I must go get some rest!

Patrice *falling over with exhaustion*

Here are a couple of pictures I did manage to snag…

From L to R: Dakota Cassidy, Marie Brennan, Dean Lorey, Melissa Marr and Jeaniene Frost talk to readers at the signing table

Dean Lorey and Me

Me and Jeri Smith-Ready

Patrice, Jaci, Leah and Jaye

PS…I promise to share more pictures when I can steal get them from others who were smart enough to actually USE the camera they brought. Many thanks in advance to those who shared their pics!