A conference to remember …

• Posted in General musings

I attended the Mountain Laurel Conference, hosted by the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers, in Knoxville last weekend. There were prize giveaways, free goodies, great books, great food, and several workshops (including one on media issues given by yours truly).

And I had a blast.

About 45 people attended the conference, which I thought was a great number. Unlike the mad crush of the annual RWA conference, you could actually talk to everyone you wanted to meet, including folks like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Sabrina Jeffries, Jade Lee, Elizabeth Hoyt, and Jenna Peterson. All of whom were absolutely funny and charming and witty.

Sabrina’s talk Friday night about rejections was laugh-out-loud funny. Vicki wore bunny ears for a large part of the day on Saturday. I talked to Sherrilyn about hair-care products and found out that Jenna uses kick-ass James Bond titles for her Avon books. Well, you get the idea …

It was also great meeting everyone from the SMRW loop in person and finally putting names with faces. You ladies did a terrific job with the conference. Kudos to you all! I know it was a ton of work, but I hope you’ll have one again next year. I’ll totally be there. 😎

Stupid me forgot to take my camera, so I don’t have any pictures to share. Bummer. It was also a bit of a bummer that I didn’t have any books yet since Karma Girl doesn’t officially come out until May 1, or three weeks from Tuesday. (Not that I’m counting down or anything …)

But a good time was definitely had by all. 🙂

What about you? What conferences have you gone to this year? Or are looking forward to? What’s the best/worst thing about conferences? Inquiring minds want to know …

4 Responses to “A conference to remember …”

  1. Edie says:

    That really was a small conference. And look at all the great writers the chapter has!

    I’m going to two conferences this year. WisRWA’s in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in June, and National in July. I know so many people in the WisRWA chapter, and it’s a casual and fun atmosphere, so that should be a blast. But I’m really looking forward to National. My CP, Michelle Diener, is flying in from South Africa. 😎

  2. Jennifer Estep says:

    It was small, but lots of fun.

    I’m going to Nationals too. I also might check out Moonlight and Magnolias in Atlanta this year. There’s lot of great authors going to that one too. I hear it’s really good and almost like going to Nationals.

    Next year, I think I’ll try Romantic Times. So many conferences, so little time … 😀

  3. Christy says:

    Jennifer,
    I’m so glad to have meet you this past weekend. I am looking forward to your book! If all goes as planned I will see you in October!

  4. Jennifer Estep says:

    Hi, Christy. It was great meeting you too. I hope you enjoy Karma Girl. 😀

    And I hope you can make it up to Kingsport for the Women’s Expo in October. It should be a lot of fun!

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