Romance Author & Reader Event aka RARE 2015

Hi everyone!!

Told ya that having to do that picture slideshow would be beneficial to my blogging! Yep, I am procrastinating... I still haven't started it ^_^; The last few days have exhausted me, so I took it easy today by watching all the sporting events I could - baseball, curling, showjumping and now tennis. It just sucks that all the persons/teams I was rooting for lost :( Well except for tennis... I don't really care for either Federer or Djokovic, so may the better player win - which at this point, seems to be Djokovic.

Amy & Teri, our lovely hosts 

So yesterday was the Romance Author & Reader Event, RARE :) I've really been excited for the event and to sum it up, had a blast! First, my kudos go to Amy Jennings, Adriane Leigh and Teri Maxwell... because I can't imagine that organizing such an event is easy. The amount of work, patience and stress must be tremendous and I hope they found it was worth it all!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't know many of the authors attending... and in the month that I had to rectify things, only added one author to my "authors read" list - Emma Chase ^_^;  The good news is that I loved Sustained (going to try to review it soon, I promise!) and the not-so good news is Ms Chase couldn't make it in the end due to family emergency :( All this meant that my list of authors I wanted to see what quite short: Sarina Bowen, Daisy Prescott, Laura Kaye and Jennifer Probst. As such and because I was a local, I decided to volunteer for the event and offered to help at the registration. The signing was split into two blocks: 10am-11.30am and 12.30pm-4.30pm. The first block was strictly reserved for people who had purchased VIP tickets and the second block was for both VIP and General Admission ticket holders. I initially only had a GA ticket because by the time I found out about the signing, the VIP tickets were sold-out... but since I volunteered, I was allowed in along with the VIPs :)

Elle Kennedy, me, Sarina Bowen

My first stop was of course Ms Bowen as she was the reason I attended RARE :) I think I was the first person at her table and since there was nobody else after me, was able to spend some time and chat with her. I of course gushed about how much I loved The Understatement of the Year and Him and we talked about covers and some of her upcoming projects. Already, that made my day... but while I was talking to her, Elle Kennedy showed up!! Ms Kennedy has social anxiety, so she wasn't officially participating to the signing, was only there to keep Ms Bowen company... but still, I got to meet Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy!! (I don't really know how many people at the signing realized that Ms Kennedy was present) And as a bonus, I got signed copies of The Deal and The Mistake!! That was definitively the highlight of the signing for me :)

Then, I went to see Daisy Prescott, Laura Kaye and Jennifer Probst - completing my list :) The big difference between RARE and the other signings I've been is that RARE had a lot more self-published authors. That's a good thing for everyone... However, getting their print books is a challenge. That's why most self-published authors had pre-order forms and brought books themselves. Attendees were warned that authors would have very little extra books... That made it easier for me to restrict myself :) Still, I did break down and visited a few extra authors: Alice Clayton, Leddy Harper and Tillie Cole.

Alice Clayton

All in all though, it was a good thing I was helping out at the registration, because otherwise I'd really be broke LOL. Seriously, I spent money every time I stepped into the room.

So yeah, RARE 2015 was fun :) You can get a feel of what the atmosphere was from this video interview with Adriane Leigh, A lot more relax and chill than RWA or RT LOL. I also enjoyed doing the registration because I got to see how excited everyone was. There aren't many signings in Canada and surely not this big and in Montreal, so it was awesome to be part of it :)

Now, here's my loot!

 

Gotta say, I love those badges!! They are great keepsakes! and the swag I got was from visiting seven authors... Can't imagine how much I would have brought back if I've been to all of them!