Raw 2008

She’s baaaaaaack! Lol Hey everyone! I’m back from West Virginia and I had soooo much fun! I’m not even sure where to begin everything. So I’ll try to start at the top and work my way down.

Thursday: Extremely long flight – or it seemed like it going from the Pacific time zone to the Eastern time zone. My friend Jen and I left at 11:30 am from LAX and didn’t get into Huntington, WV until 10:00pm. Wow.

So we had called to make sure the shuttle from the hotel would be there to meet us and of it wasn’t – bummer. So we called and they said it was full and had to leave so they sent us a cab – on them. Ok then. I can do that. Unfortunately since we got in so late we couldn’t see shit of the countryside – another bummer. Got to the hotel and it was very nice and found out that not only did we get free breakfast in the mornings but 2 free drink tickets per person for the restaurant bar for each night we were there! Woohoo – let’s party! lol We hung at the bar for a little bit then went to bed at about 12am

Friday: 5:00am: Fuckin freight train goes through town!!!!! OMG!!! Have you seen the movie My Cousin Vinny where Vinny and Mona Lisa keep trying to get some sleep and trains and loud noises keep waking them up? I felt like I was living that movie! Lmao!!! I tried to sleep again but then another came through at 6:30am so I gave up!

At breakfast we sat down and eventually a woman by herself came to asked if she could join us. Of course we said yes and introduced ourselves…she was none other than author Delilah Devlin! She was very sweet.

We went for a walk all over town. It’s not a small town but it’s definitely seen better days. About every other store front is empty and there are huge buildings that aren’t in use at all. I’m sure there was more of the town that we didn’t get to but I’m not sure where it was! Lol We walked over to Marshall University which was very nice and walked through the campus and went to the stadium. Marshall University is best known, unfortunately, for the tragic plane crash in 1970 that killed most of the football team and the coaches. The movie We Are Marshall tells the tale of the rebuilding of both the football team and the lives of those left behind.

12:00pm – RAW Registration – got a great Samhain publishing bag and lots of cool goodies.
2:00pm – Book sale! Woohoo!!! Unfortunately all of the new releases that we were told were going to be there weren’t so no Chosen Sin by Anya Bast, no Mercury’s War by Lora Leigh, no Magical Christmas Cat by Nalini Singh. BIG bummer! But I found plenty others! And I got out for under $100.00! lol
7:00pm – Slumber party begins! So much fun. Most everyone in their PJ’s eating talking, meeting new people and bustin a move – just a good time.
About 11:00pm – party in Jacquelyn Frank’s suite! Jacki was making butterscotch martini’s for everyone and raffling off ARC’s her new book, Ecstasy, that comes out in January 2009. Bianca D’Arc and Nalini Singh were also there. Great time just talking and laughing.

Saturday: (no the train didn’t go through on Saturday!) Free morning so we had breakfast and walked around town some more. I think we probably walked about 5 miles! There was a chilifest going on right on the street by the hotel so there was lots of people, food and music. You’ll see the picture of the blue buss from Fifth Third Bank. Fifth Third? WTF is that? Can any of you who live near WV explain this to me? Lmao!

2:00-4:00pm Book Signing!!! This was one of the best times of the weekend for me. Just talking to all of the authors was fabulous. Everyone was so nice! A few thoughts:
Shelley Bradley/Shayla Black is hilarious! So down to earth. She grew up in the city that I currently live in so we gabbed a lot about that.
Nalini Singh – I love this woman! She is so incredibly sweet and down to earth and she’s got a great sense of humor!
Donna MacMeans – that woman just cracks me up. She’s always smiling and laughing!
Lucy Monroe – so sweet and nice and her hubby sat behind her the entire time and he was just as nice as she was.
J.R. Ward – so nice and talkative and took time with everyone there. I tried hard to babble but it was difficult!! Lol
(I’m such a friggin fan girl…some of my photos you can see I’m just a dork and grinning from ear to ear.)
Jacki Frank – Such a nice person and very down to earth!
7:00pm Masquerade Ball – this was great fun. Food and drinks and wonderful homemade desserts: the cheesecake was to die for! Everyone had such great costumes and/or masks and it was fabulous. Unfortunately by this time I was pretty much on my last leg and didn’t take any photos. 🙁Sunday: Wake up call at 4:00am and down in the lobby by 4:50am to catch the shuttle to the airport. Again the shuttle wasn’t available and they paid for a cab to get us to the airport. As we’re waiting in the lobby for the cab a pizza delivery guy shows up! At 5:00am! Is this normal back east? I know in my town they do NOT deliver after about 11:pm!!
So the taxi shows up and the guy pops the trunk and just sits there. Okaaaay. We put our stuff in the trunk and close it. Open the back doors and plumes of pot smoke come wafting out from the interior! I shit you not! He got us to the airport safely. It was a huge drag that we got to WV at night and couldn’t see any of the countryside and then left at the butt rack of dawn and didn’t see anything then either!

I’m so tired I think this post is a little dryer than I’ve intended. We only got a total of 16 hours of sleep because we were going and going. Overall it was such a fun weekend. Meeting new people, talking to the authors, relaxing and not having to worry about every day life made the weekend the best one I’ve had in a very long while.

Oh and I read this week too!

B.O.B.’s Fall by Veronica Chadwick and Lora Leigh – good
A Wish, A Kiss, A Dream Anthology by Shiloh Walker, Mary Wine & Lora Leigh
Tempt Me With Darkness by Shayla Black – I liked it a lot. Can’t wait for the rest of the series.
Seasons of Pleasure Series by Anya Bast: I read the first 3 – Winter, Spring and Summer. Pretty good – I liked them. Now I have to find book 4 since they’ve taken it off of Ellora’s Cave.
Death of A Pirate King by Josh Lanyon: omg, omg, omg OMG! This book freakin rocks!! This is by far my favorite book in the Adrien English Mysteries series. Josh knocked it out of the park on this one. So. Damn. Good. (In fact I’ll probably read it again this week)
You Don’t Know Jack by Erin McCarthy – a follow up book to the Pregnancy Test… pretty good.

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