Context!

This was the first year I went to Context and loved it!

The panels were interesting, the people were even better, and I'm looking forward to going next year.

We set up our table [to the right is Stella Price and Ash/Adra Steia] and went for a quick bite to eat [more on that another day - it was a burger experiment and you know how I feel about burgers :-)].  Later, I stepped in and joined Stella Price and Mark Evans on the Readers/Writers Relationship discussion.  It was a great mix between the two and we came out agreeing that the door is opened both ways.

The next day was Blogging - Creativity and Publicity with Jason Sanford, Joseph P Martino, Michelle Pendergrass, T Lee Harris and Maurice Broaddus.  Great chat that, at one point, touched on whether or not to be controversial was a good thing.  I think of this as a personality issue.  If you aren't one who likes stormy seas, you shouldn't try and create a storm simply for publicity.  Then again, who knows what will set someone off. 

Next came the "mass autograph" session and each author stood up to introduce themselves.  Yup, I stood up and said I was an erotic romance author with shifters, futuristics, and some Greek Gods.  Had a few queries about the "erotic" part and explained, at the most base level, the real words for body parts are used.  There's more, but that pretty much is the gist.  And, during the signing, a dad came up and asked if I had 13 year olds in them.  Of course I said no, but then he picked one up and asked he meant could his 13 year old daughter read them, and I said in as polite a voice as I could muster an emphatic NO!

The last panel of the day was Paranormal Romance with Stella Price, Linnea Sinclair, Rosemary Laurey and Denise Verrico.  This one was a hoot and a half!  While discussing a famous paranormal heroine in a long series Jhada Addams claimed the character had the "clown car of vagina's" - loved that!  Later, we went for dinner to a nice Italian restaurant, and then it was off to the Shroud Magazine [they do books as well] party.  They had readings going on and totally hooked me [I'll tell you tomorrow about the book I bought - a horror picture book that you'll want to get for your kids].

On Sunday morning, before making the 8 hour drive back home, I sat on the eBooks panel with Steven Saus, Doug Johnson, T Lee Harris, JD Williams and David Wyatt.  Because the audience had quite a few coming at it from the writing standpoint, we trended the topic more that way, although the reader's side wasn't ignored.

It was good fun, the cutie enjoyed himself, and at no point did I feel rushed to make it someplace.  Oh and it didn't break the bank!  All make Context a huge thumbs up for me and I'll be going next year.