Baaaaaack from the lovely Dallas, TX . . . lovely because it did NOT have any of the apocalyptic weather my weather app foretold. Each day we saw sunny/clear-ish skies, I could not help but feel both relieved and betrayed. Weather app, how dare you frighten me with your lies!

In the end, it was an RT miracle. And boy did I feel blessed by the writing gods because all week RT WAS SOOOOO AWESOME!!

Seriously, hands down one of the funnest weeks and best experience I could’ve ever hoped for in a first writers conference. For anyone who’s looking for a fabulous convention where you can learn, meet/network with people, and receive a crap-ton of bookish stuff for free—RT Booklovers Convention is where it’s at. I came home with a major RT hangover and am now experiencing some withdrawals because it was all so wonderful. Also, shout-out to my dear CPs Maddy and Akshaya who embarked on this crazy conference quest with me and made the trip 10 trillion times more amazing; I cannot wait until we reunite again and cause more elevator mayhem together 😉

Even without buddies by your side, RT is the perfect con to fly solo because you just meet SOO many people across the board from readers to bloggers to industry professionals to authors. Everyone is seriously so nice and there to have a good time that it’s physically impossible not to make friends.

But along with meeting a lot of people, you also come back with a lot of stuff. A LOT. Enough to give you pretty decent arm workouts from all the daily heavy lifting. But hey, I’m not complaining. When they tell you to go into a room and grab free books, or when they just throw free books at you from event to event, who dares say no to that?

Not only were all the constant free giveaways amazing and straight from a book hoarder’s dream, but they also opened my eyes to how authors spread awareness about themselves and their books through different means. Cons are the perfect place to spread all the swag and merchandise, and I was fortunate enough to receive an ungodly amount of it. Here is my swag/merch haul:

And of course, saving the best for last:

So overall, super successful trip and I wish I could time-travel to relive it again (not even kidding). But now that I’m home and coming down from that RT high, it’s time to get back to work and use all of that creative inspiration and motivation to get back to my story and characters *cracks knuckles over keyboard*