My AAD Philly 2011 Experience!

Last week I went to my 2nd book related con ever!  Authors After Dark was held in Philadelphia and I was so excited to go and meet all the awesome authors as well as meet some of my favorite Tweeps for the first time!!!!!  Squeeeeeeeee!!!

Welcome to Philly!

First let me introduce you to my road dog, Marquetta

I kept pronouncing her name wrong.
She still loves me though. (I think!)

Next up are my loves: my blogger and Twitter friends

Left side: Larissa, JoJo, Danielle, Mandi

Right side:  Pam, Marq, me, Mama Sally, Jen

This was taken the first night on Wednesday when we all got the chance to sit down and have dinner together. We had so many laughs that night!

My Twitter Twinnie Jen (@Twimom227)

I couldn't stop hugging her all weekend!

PAM (@SpazP) I LOVE HER SO!

Larissa (@larissa_sarah) JoJo (@JoJosBookCorner)and

Danielle (@lush26) She's a dork!

Me, Mandi (@smexybooks) that I absolutely adore!

My DM buddy Penny (@sweetiepiepen) who gives me so 

much joy just by saying hi to me.  Pam again and she is

 the most adorable person that I have every met.  

Her she is once again taking part on a panel
titled, I have a Blog, Now what?  She did a great
job and I'm glad that I could be there to show her support!

Larissa was a part of the same panel and she

did a great job as well. She passed out some

t-shirts for her blog.

It's Joy (@JoyfullyReviewd)

Yeah I'm not going to say a lot about her.

We both had the same business card for our blog.

It was the equivalent of wearing the same dress to the dance. She is awesome!

There are lots of other bloggers that I loved meeting that I didn't get a pic of!
Trust me when I say that you are not forgotten!

Now let's get to the awesome authors!

It was a dream come true meeting Larissa Ione!

She is one of my favorite authors and was so nice

and sweet to all that was at AAD! She truly is a

talented author and I her books are the best!

The same could be said for Lara Adrian. She

was so gracious to everyone. I'm not ashamed to

admit that I totally girl crushed on her the entire

weekend. When she speaks her voice has a way of

putting you into a trance. It's very soothing. I

should have recorded her.

Here she is again with Meljean Brook who is absolutely

a joy to talk to. They both won multiple awards at the

Bookie Awards and along with Danielle, Jenn, and

Marq, we got to sit at the table with them and take part

in the joy of them winning! It was awesome!

This pic was truly a dream come true! Larissa and Lara

stopped by our hotel room for some birthday cake and

we all had the greatest time! There was a fly flying

around so we started calling it The Werefly! LOL!

So now we are now known as:

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Werefly!

(in pic) Jen, Larissa, Katina, Marq, Penny

Me, Danielle, Lara, Larissa

Adrienne (@DrensBspot) was the one taking the pic!

Ladies and gentlemen.  Let me introduce you to the star
of AAD 2011.  DAKOTA CASSIDY!!!!

O.M.G SHE WAS AWESOME!

Here she is with Nicole Peeler and Nancy Holzner

for the Secret Sauce panel. Dakota welcomed us with

this message on the board:

I felt so honored! LOLOL!

Here are the authors on the Urban Fantasy panel.

Carolyn Crane who had the cutest pigtails.

Erin Kellison who I enjoyed listening to.

Jeniffer Estep who I was so happy to meet in person!

Jess Haines and Kristen Painter were awesome as well

and I cannot wait to read their books!

Here I am with Melissa Ecker who writes some of the

HOTTEST cowboys books. In fact the card I'm holding in

my hand is Luke, one of my Book Boyfriends. Yes Donyale

@kuuipo_228, I said MY boyfriend!  It was so great

finally meeting her! 

This is the Demons The Next Big Thing? Panel

Larissa Ione (love her demons!  DEMON JUICE!)

Alison Pang (she was awesome!)

Dakota again (yes I was stalking her at this point)

Meljean Brook and Alexandra Ivy. 

 I was at several panels that Alexandra talked at 

and I was so impressed with her! You really get into whatever she is talking about and there is this wisdom that seems to come out of her when she is discussing books. It was an honor to sit and listen to her.

I also had the chance to meet someone who impressed me from the first moment he opened his mouth to speak.  Kris Cook was wonderful and I can't wait to read his books.  In fact when we had a moment alone, I told him how much he impressed me and that he was going to be the 1st new author that I meet at AAD whose book I was going to read first.  He was honored and I'm so happy that he was touched by what I said to him.  I've only meet you once Kris, but I love ya!  

I had a WONDERFUL time at AAD!  I got the chance to sit and chat with people that have become my friends over the last couple of years.  Yes I say friends even though this was the first time I actually meet most of them face to face.  They are exactly how I thought they would be in person and I am grateful to have them as part of my life now.   Ladies, thank you so much for giving me so much laughter this past week!  I shed so many tears laughing with you and I can't wait to hang with you all again!

I know that some of you have heard by now that there were some issues at AAD.  Yes there were a number of them, some of which I was a witness to.  I can honestly say that seeing the ugly side while at this con has made me decide not to go to AAD2012.  Even though there were some negative moments, I left the con with a positive feeling due to all of the awesome people that I had the opportunity to meet.  AAD 2011 allowed me the chance to do this and for that I am grateful.

I want to end this post with something that I read on Twitter.  Felicia (@thegeekyblogger) said it best when she posted this: 

@thegeekyblogger: remember you choose to remember the positive or the negative! Positive much more fun! #aadphilly

Well said Felicia, well said.