Anna Campbell - historical romance author

Rocky Mountain High and Hot Times in Orlando: RomCon and RWA Nationals 2010

I spent all of July traveling in the United States, including two romance conferences which were fabulous fun!

My first stop was Denver, Colorado, where I was lucky enough to be one of the invited Spotlight Authors at the inaugural RomCon. This is an initiative from two avid romance readers, Elaine Levine and Michelle Chambers, who have set out to run an annual conference dedicated to celebrating romance fiction.

I’d only ever been to one reader convention before, the wonderfully euphoric ARRC in 2009 in Melbourne which as we know, was a huge success. I was curious to see what an American reader convention would be like.

And do you know what?

It was equally euphoric!

The conference ran from lunchtime on Friday, 9th July, through to lunchtime on Sunday, 11th July, and took place at the Denver Airport Crowne Plaza (which incidentally isn’t near either Denver or the airport, but that’s another story!). About 300 readers attended on the Friday and the weekend sessions got up to about 500 or 600. A fantastic turnout for a first time conference. Another great aspect of attendance is that people came from far and wide (although Nalini Singh from New Zealand and yours truly from Australia probably got the “I came the longest way” prize), including the east coast of the US and Hawaii. The event attracted a spectacular array of authors including Julia Quinn, Elizabeth Hoyt, Jo Beverley, Julie James, Lori Foster, Jeaniene Frost, Elizabeth Boyle, Pamela Clare, Cathy Maxwell, Susan Mallery, Brenda Novak and Cindy Gerard. Borders, who sponsored the conference, ran a very comprehensive bookshop and there were numerous giveaways (one girl I know went home with over 100 free books!).

RomCon was great fun. Elaine and Michelle worked tirelessly to put together an itinerary that appealed to readers – and I have to say the sillier the game, the more likely people were to love it! There were three tracks – historical, contemporary and paranormal and each track had a packed program. For the historical track, we had sessions on things like undressing the heroine, a game of mother, may I? about Victorian etiquette (that became quite uproarious when some naughty questions were asked!), build a hero workshop (the photo is of the winning team – watch for scarred, tortured Lord Rochester de Vale and his big…NOSE!), panels featuring the writers and teas. I particularly enjoyed the intimate chats that people had to enter a ballot to attend. 16 people got to sit in a room and quiz their favourite author.

RomCon will take place again next year and I’d love to go back. It was a friendly, happy gathering and it was wonderful being able to talk to so many readers crazy about the romance genre. An additional benefit is that Denver is in an extremely beautiful part of the world. Having the chance to see the Rockies was a dream come true for me.

The Romance Writers of America annual conference was held this year at The Swan and Dolphin Resort, Disney World, Orlando in Florida. Originally the conference was booked for Nashville (boot scootin’, anyone?) but Nashville suffered catastrophic floods earlier this year and the hotel was inundated and unfortunately rendered uninhabitable. The RWA Board had all 2000 plus of us booked into a new venue within two days of Nashville cancelling, which still leaves me gasping with awed admiration.

This is my fifth RWA Nationals and I’m getting used to the noise and the excitement and the pressure. As you can imagine, with all those romance writers in one spot and all of them excited to see one another, the decibel level is sky high!

The conference always opens on the Wednesday night (in this case, 28th July) with a big author signing to benefit literacy charities. This event is open to the public. About 500 authors line up alphabetically (unless you’re Nora or Sherrilyn Kenyon or of their ilk, in which case they have to put you at separate tables to cope with the crowds!) and about 4,000 people descend upon the room to have books signed.

From Thursday through to Saturday evening, there’s a packed schedule of workshops, although I have to admit I didn’t go to one this year! These days, I seem to spend most of the conference networking, aka having lunch with my friends. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration! Conference is always a wonderful opportunity to meet people on the business side of writing.

Highlights of the RWA conference for me this year? Being in the air conditioning, definitely. Florida was hotter than a sauna, and that’s coming from a Queenslander! Avon always host a lovely cocktail party on the Friday night and this year, it was held at the Living Seas at the Epcot Center. The room faced right onto a diving tank full of fish and…divers! I’m not sure who got the biggest kick out of watching each other, the dressed-up romance writers or the people in scuba gear on the other side of the glass. The RITA and Golden Heart Awards night – I was lucky enough to be sharing a table with Julia Quinn when she won her third RITA in four years and was as a result, inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame. Such a special moment and huge and well deserved congratulations to Julia! It was also wonderful to hear Aussie Kylie Short announced as the winner of the Golden Heart for best paranormal manuscript. Congratulations to Kylie too! And even more congratulations are due to Beth Andrews, one of my Romance Bandit Blog sisters, who won the RITA for best short contemporary series romance for her wonderful A NOT-SO-PERFECT PAST.

Next year, RWA Nationals are in New York. I can hardly wait!

This article first appeared in Romancing the Tome, the newsletter of the Australian Romance Readers Association, in September 2010.