[[Welcome to my writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Tuesday ~ 07/02/13 ~ and…

I missed posting last Thursday thanks to a flu I brought home from Colorado Springs with me from RomCon 2013. Clearly, I overdid preparing for the convention and didn’t move fast enough to stay out of the bug’s clutches. But I’m feeling much better now. 🙂

As a reminder, last week I began sharing some of the events that took place at this fabulous romance fan convention so that you might see some of the things that happen at these conventions. It was such a full weekend that there is still much to share.

   

One of the fun events I was able to organize on Friday was the Super Sleuth game, a Romantic Suspense Author Mixer, for the suspense readers.

   

Thirteen suspense authors participated…as suspects in our own variation of the Clue game! Each game table had 5 teams of two, with 2-3 participating authors. My talented daughter, JM Kline, created all of the cards we used, as well as emceed the game. The object of the game was to identify which of the authors was the murderer, with what weapon, and in what room.

An added twist was that the authors moved to another table every 3-5 minutes. We had so many cards, our emcee went from table to table to turn over the occasional card to help us eliminate suspects or weapons or rooms. When it was all over, there was one grand prize, a book bag that included a book from every suspense author. Everyone also received fun giveaways each of the authors brought. No one left empty-handed! Even the authors got to take home their personalized Clue games.  It was tremendous fun!

I don’t know why I don’t have pictures of the autographing that took place later in the day. I know someone took pictures on my camera! 🙂 Anyway, I had a wonderful time, made lots of new friends and signed my heart out. I autographed my romantic comedy, SATIN PLEASURES, and held a raffle for the candy dishes with the special code card in the bottom for my upcoming suspense release, KILLING SECRETS. Over 30 people signed up to win. It’s always exciting to give away goodies!

   

Friday evening we had a rip-roaring time after dinner at the Comedy Improv Dinner with the Stick Horses in Pants Comedy Improv Troupe. I don’t think this group of young men and women knew what they were getting into with a room full of romance writers! There was one memorable moment when a troupe member inadvertently uttered something that fed the laughter in the room with unintended consequences. You had to be there, and that’s all I’m saying! 🙂

   

My roomie, Lori, is always game to get involved in the fun stuff. She and another volunteer from the audience moved two of the players to fit the story that was being told…to much hilarity. You go, Lori!  She even provided the story of being bitten by a raccoon to prompt another of their wonderful skits. I can see this band of players coming back again next year. It was a favorite!

           

It wasn’t enough that we laughed until our sides hurt at the Comedy Dinner but the finale of the night was A Very Virginal Bachelorette Party with a room full of fun games we could play, oodles of delicious chocolate to nibble on, and prizes to win. This was a messy variation of bobbing for apples. The thought of whipped cream in my nose while I bobbed for a cherry kept me from doing more than taking pictures.  Maybe next year I’ll be more adventurous!

We’re finally through Friday, our first day of the convention, and I still have a lot more pictures and stories to share, so join me again on Thursday. In fact, the photos I have to share are a drop in the bucket. I couldn’t attend every event all weekend, so be sure to check out the photos at the RomCon site at http://www.romcon.com/.

See you on Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….