Me and my sister, Jinger.

 

Then I was treated to a full makeup/hair curler session. Compare with yesterday's pic, which is how I look left to my own un-primped devices. Yes, my sister is the Makeover Police, and no one is safe around her. After that, it was off to the urban fantasy panel. I'll be honest here, folks - one of the panelists, an editor, scared the unholy hell out of me by talking about how open-ended series books in romance would not prosper. She even specifically said that if a first book in a series does well, angry readers will get their revenge on the author by boycotting the second book. Yes, as you can imagine, I was scooting lower in my chair with every word. When the panelists took questions, a bookseller in the audience spoke out and disagreed, saying that with romance readers in her store, she hadn't gotten complaints on series' novels that didn't have a HEA/HFN at the end of every book, as long as the series itself resolved happily.

 

After the panel, I went up to this bookseller, introduced myself as a series author, and hugged her. No, I'm not kidding. She was only saved from a big sloppy kiss because I feared assault charges.

 

Then there was the awards ceremony. The good news is, I didn't trip. That was a big concern of mine, and those who know me know that was a valid concern. What did I say when I accepted the award? I have no idea, seriously. I babbled something thankful, probably sounded as nervous as I was, and got the hell off the stage before I tripped. My sister took a video stream of it. If it's not awful, I'll post it, but I haven't seen it yet so I don't know how inarticulate I sounded.

 Me, Caitlin Kittredge, and Melissa Marr after the awards ceremony.

 

After the awards lunch, we went back to - where else? - the bar. Melissa had to leave shortly after that to go to ComicCon, so we just had time for a quick drink before she was off. Then I got a chance to sit down with the lovely Bethany Hansel from Lux Magazine for an on-camera interview (hi Bethany! I know you're reading this :). After that, I had a nice chat with Colleen Gleason, author of a cool ongoing vampire romance series as well.

 

And after that, I called Rachel V and said a version of, "I'm lonely, whatcha doin'?" We went to the vampire ball for a few minutes, and then ended up at - all together now, folks! - the bar, where we were seated next to the same sweet bookseller who liked series romances. It was funny, she called her friend at their store and said, "I'm touching Rachel Vincent right now." Then they stole our tab and refused to let us pay for our Diet Cokes (swear, I tried to get the tab back, but one of the girls stuck it down her cleavage, and no, I did not go in after it - though I did stick a ten in her cleavage that she fished out and threw back at me. Needless to say, they won the tab war). 

 

Then it was back to the hotel for sleep. I know I'm forgetting some things, but that's far more detail than I'm sure anyone wanted to begin with ;-)

 

And from the awards ceremony, a picture of me and the Duchess of Cuntington: