Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

I went to the Romance Writers of America national conference last week and had a chance to meet some of my favorite authors. I thought I'd just share and then ask a question.

JR Ward was sooo nice. She sold out of her books right before me but took a long minute to chat. Also, she swore like a card-carrying member of the BDB during her workshop, which gave me the giggles.

I fan-girled on Jenna Black and she hardly laughed at me at all LOL. She even came back later to give me a "Don't Bother Me I'm Reading" pin.

I already have all of Melissa Marr's books, but when I went to her signing to say hi, she gave me a bracelet for my niece.

Jeri Smith-Ready gave me a hug after I stopped gushing about her books! I mean, I would've rather had a hug from her hero Shane, but...

There were a bunch more, of course: Jeaniene Frost who wished me a happy birthday; Jessica Andersen who signed a giveaway for my blog; C.L. Wilson, Angie Fox, Jade Lee (who wears awesome clothes!); many debut authors and new authors whose books aren't out yet who shared their excitement...

So I'm wondering: Who have you met, in person or online, who really made a good impression on you? Were they "like" their characters somehow, or were you surprised what they were like? For example, I always think Nora Roberts should be eight feet tall, but she's not... Although she does sort of glow :)

I got to meet Marjorie Liu a couple weeks ago at the American Library Association Annual Conference. She was really nice and extremely pretty. She signed two books for me.

The best ones I've had the pleasure of meeting were Sherrilyn Kenyon, Robin Owens, Angela Knight, Opal Carew... Honestly, I've only met one or two authors who weren't joys.

Brenna

Sherrilyn Kenyon was a speaker at a readers luncheon I attended a couple years ago. She was excited about each and every reader who had one of her tattoos!

I've been to a few of Kim Harrison's readings and she's always struck me as really nice and happy to chat with fans.

Jim Butcher is an absolute riot. I make a point to go to his "readings" (he doesn't so much read as ramble for an hour or two) whenever he's in town. I usually hurt from laughing so hard. He always strikes me as a big nerd (a positive thing) who's just amazed that people actually read what he writes and thinks that's just really cool

Christopher Moore is pretty fun, too, although I've enjoyed his visits less over the years.

Kat Richardson is a friend of a friend so I've seen her in social settings rather than readings. She and her husband are both really smart, fun people.

I'm really lucky to live in an area that's really into fantasy & sci-fi. The University of Washington bookstore is really good about getting awesome authors in, especially in the summer.

Ok--most of the writer's I've met don't really fall into our PNR catagories. But, here goes.

Anne MacCaffrey--a sweetie despite her fame and, even more to the point her extremely frail health.

L. Sprague DeCamp--the man was a riot. SSSOOOO much like reading some of his funnier books. Also met his wife (and writing partner) Catherine Cook DeCamp

Spider Robinson--Not as funny as Doc Webster--but who is??? (Doc was one of Spider's regular characters in the Callahan series)

Charlaine Harris--every inch a southern belle--Sweet, kind and tought as old leather. She was also very funny.

Lawrence Watt-Evans--he was not as big as he looked on the covers of his books--but he was just recovering from a long (3 year) illness which had caused him to lose a great deal of weight. We talked for about 30 minutes or so.

Maria V. Snyder--a very nice (despite her study of poisoning :oP) lady. Who has a husband with the perfect job (he works for a famous chocolate company which I won't name so that I don't plug it. )

Tee Morri--now this is a writer who has a truly whacked sense of humour. You guys definately need to read his Billy Budd Baddings series.

Ron Miller--artist, writer and friend. The picture that Oz uses for her icon was painted by Ron. :o)

There have been others, but I don't remember all the names right now. Some on panels that I attended at Balticon (which is a reader's convention) and didn't like, some that I didn't have any of their works, so didn't get autographs.



The one writer that I never got to meet that I would have given my right arm to meet was Andre Norton. I do have 1 of her books that is autographed--but I had to buy it with the autograph. I became a fan of hers when I was about 12--and have remained a life long one. I have like 6 shelves that are devoted to JUST her.

Charlaine Harris, LKH, I met J.R. Ward before and didn't even realize it :P

J.K. Rowling, I saw her in London actually very sweet woman, Patricia Briggs, Stephenie Meyer who was not as nice as you would expect her to be.

And a lot of others. We travel a lot so I can go to a lot of conferences and dinners and such :P

i met Orson Scott Card the author of Enders Game Series ! i loved that series and i really don't even know whyyy. haha but i had to read it for school and ended up loving it !

Jesika, My older two kids just read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow this summer. My son owns the whole series (besides the new book that just came out in it).

I've had two close misses (so far) at meeting Piers Anthony. I keep missing the few conventions he attends. I'd really love to meet the man. I've talked to him online for years, and he's fab.

Another fantastic one I've met? Kate Douglas. The woman is so nice, and I love her work.

B

I'll be attending a local event in October, Authors After Dark hosted by Jacquelyn Frank. I've never attended this kind of thing before and I am very curious how it will play out.

I never go to anything in which I intent to meet an author but I see Amanda Scott every year at the Scottish festival, she's nice and has a good sense of humor. I've gone to a Mikki Fowler book signing because my friend illistrated the book she was promoting.

The author I would love to meet is Konstantinos but I would be to shy to talk to him...

I'll be at the Authors After Dark event. Please, if you're there, come and say hi.

The WARDen is wonderful. At my first RT last year, I had written a blog post about how I was looking forward to meeting my favorite authors Lora Leigh and JR Ward and nervously anticipating my first signing. Somehow, The WARDen read this and actually came looking for me at the signing.

Unfortunately the signing I did was the electronic book fair and not the print book fair so she didn't find me. But when my friend and I approached her to gush at the print book signing, she told me that she'd been looking for me. I nearly fell over.

Can you tell I have a major girl crush?

I was lucky enough to meet Anne Rice several times as signings. She was always so friendly and warm. It's been years though, I think, since she did any book tours. But it was so fun going to those signings. Her books were my first loves in the vampire genre.