Cat Grant’s GayRomLit: Do You Know What It Means to Visit New Orleans…

By Cat Grant

For the first time? I just got home, and I’m still overwhelmed. The French Quarter is insane! Imagine a 24-hour party, with streets full of people walking around with drinks in hand, rainbow flags flying overhead and gay bars on every corner. The natives are friendly and hospitable - I even had a nice conversation with the guy who worked at Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo! (And brought home three voodoo dolls in my carry-on bag, but that’s another story…)

In short, the city’s pure Southern Gothic – hot, ripe, dripping with mystery and wisteria. Every street is lined with “for sale” signs, and for one wild, crazy moment, I actually thought about moving there, if not for the sticky heat. Even in October, temperatures hovered in the mid-eighties, with super-high humidity. Not something this born-and-raised California girl could ever stand!

And then there was the reason I’d come to NOLA in the first place – GayRomLit. From the moment I walked into the opening reception, I knew I was home. Everyone in that room either wrote or read what I write. Sure, I’ve been to other romance writers’ conferences before – where the m/m writers are usually shunted off to one side like red-headed stepchildren. Here I was amongst my people.

I gave my very first public reading of my work – and I don’t mind saying, I was pretty nervous. But everyone was very gracious and patient with me fumbling around with pages that wouldn’t turn and a jackhammer blasting away outside. (Naturally, the hotel was undergoing construction while we were there.)

Riptide authors: Rachel Haimowitz, Damon Suede, Brita Addams, Bryl Tyne and Cat Grant (picture stolen from Cat's blog)

Met so many wonderful readers, and a bunch of my colleagues. One reader actually SCREAMED when she saw me – which I found both flattering and unnerving. Now I know how movie stars feel most of the time! Sat next to Marie Sexton at dinner one night, and didn’t even realize it was her until halfway through the meal. Hung out with a bunch of awesome people poolside Saturday night. We ordered pizza, drank hurricanes and generally had a blast.

But there was one moment that simply made the entire convention for me, when a fellow author who also happened to be an ex-soldier told me I’d nailed my portrayal of my Marine hero Cole Hammond’s PTSD in the selection I’d read from Once a Marine. In fact, I came that close to crying!

It was an amazing experience – easily the best-organized and most fun writers’ convention I’ve ever attended. Can’t wait for next year in Albuquerque! :)

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Riptide Grand Opening Giveaway

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win your choice of Cat Grant’s Allegro Vivace, Sonata Appassionata, The First Real Thing (Icon Men #1), Appearing Nightly (Icon Men #2), A Fool for You (Icon Men #3), or Entangled Trio!

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Riptide is having a Grand Opening tour, of which this blog post is a part. At the end of the tour stop, Riptide also awards one lucky commenter a big Riptide swag bag, US resident only. If an international winner is chosen, they will substitute for a gift certificate to All Romance E-Books.

The best part is, that each comment in the blog tour earns you one entry in the grand prize drawing for an iPad. Other prizes are a Nook and a Kindle.

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Links:
Website Riptide Publishing | blog tour list | website Cat Grant | Weblog Cat Grant
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Reflections on GayRomLit: Leontine's Highlights

By Leontine

When Janna invited me over to her GayRomLit after party she told me to show you a picture and talk about my highlight of GayRomLit. Well, when I think about GayRomLit and the highlights my thoughts start bouncing around. I think about my meeting J.P. Barnaby who pens The Little Boy Lost series, which I love to read. Or how Tracy shot the most embarrassing picture of me wolfing down a Po-Boy and, oh yeah, posted it on her blog!! Okay, that wasn’t a highlight but such thoughts bounce around in my memory when I think about the GayRomLit. Witness the memory chaos first hand ladies and gents!

I think about how Tam, Janna, Tracy and I shared a cab and noticed Marie Sexton, whereupon we screamed in utter fangurl voice; “Oh.My.Gawd!!! It’s Marie Sexton!! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!” I still chuckle thinking about that moment. I remember our Juke Joint Junket party; how Kris introduced me to Margaritas. Yes, I’ve been telling this story around because it had a profound effect on me. It doesn’t happen often a chica like me falls in love with a cocktail!! Who knew cocktails could be that seductively good? Perhaps anyone but me, but hey, I’m in the know now *wink* The memory of Kassa shooting pictures of me and Kris smooching convinced me she has done durty pictures before. She did it with way too much ease!! Hence she caught me on camera in another compromising pose which made me think if anything could shock her. I’m actually wondering to when the blackmailing will begin *smirk* I also have a clear memory of Tam and her twink, and her morning after *oye*. I remember hilarious conversations with the group. Each of these gals has a humor I love, Tracy sometimes had such dry – out of the blue comments, that got me in a fit of laughter again. There was lots of laughter, lots of shared meals, shopping and sharing GRL events.

Do I have a GayRomLit highlight? Well, it wasn’t an particular event but what made my GayRomLit so fantastic, and turned out to be my highlight, was meeting and enjoying it with this awesome, diverse, fun loving, opinionated, quirky, outgoing group of women.

Leontine's website | Twitter | Goodreads
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Rachel Haimowitz' Love Letter to GayRomLit

By Rachel Haimowitz

There’ve been many blog posts by now about the first-ever GayRomLit, which was a fabulous experience in so many ways for so many people (myself included!). Janna’s asked me to do another, but rather than go over what so many have already said with much more eloquence (and ability to remember names; I’d forget my own if my mom hadn’t sewn it into my underwear when I was a kid :-p) than I ever could, I thought I’d write a little love letter to GayRomLit, instead.

Love first and foremost to the organizers, who pulled together an amazing con that was smooth sailing from start to finish. From the author readings to the beignets and café au lait each morning to the parties around the pool, the event was loose and social, and never once was I at a loss for things to do or people to do them with.

Love next to the amazing community of readers, writers, bloggers, industry professionals, and the many who fall into more than one of those categories. What a joyous experience to gather together in one place to share the thing we all have such passion for, and to share that passion with each other. As I mentioned on my own blog, the best thing by far about GayRomLit was the opportunity to put faces to names, to meet people we’ve all been chatting with for a long time, sometimes years. It’s just as exciting for the authors as it is for the readers, because we’re readers too; just ask Rowan Speedwell, who was subjected to a soft but uncontainable “Eeeeeee!” every time I found myself speaking to her :)

Love also to not having to explain why we read, write, and love gay romance—a discussion that comes up constantly at primarily het romance cons—because everyone at GRL already knew and understood. Of the many things that set GayRomLit apart as a must-attend conference among the many cons available to M/M romance readers, that shared understanding and pleasure is the #1 reason for me.

And lastly, love to New Orleans, the perfect city for the inaugural GayRomLit. I wish I’d had time to see more of it, but what little I did get to enjoy was an experience unlike any other city I’ve ever seen.

For these reasons and many others, I can’t wait to go back next year, when GRL will be in Albuquerque, NM, and I very much hope to see you all there as well!


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Riptide Grand Opening Giveaway

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win any backlist book of choice (excluding Crescendo) by Rachel Haimowitz!

&
Riptide is having a Grand Opening tour, of which this blog post is a part. At the end of the tour stop, Riptide also awards one lucky commenter a big Riptide swag bag, US resident only. If an international winner is chosen, they will substitute for a gift certificate to All Romance E-Books.

The best part is, that each comment in the blog tour earns you one entry in the grand prize drawing for an iPad. Other prizes are a Nook and a Kindle.

~~~~~

Links:
Website Riptide Publishing | blog tour list | website Rachel Haimowitz | Weblog Rachel Haimowitz

GayRomLit in pictures & getting ready for the After Party

There are already many GayRomLit posts out there. Yet, I like to add my little contribution, a bunch of pics of the wonderful time I had.

And on top of that, I invited a few friends and authors (all Riptide published) to write a guest post for me with their reflections on GayRomLit. Rachel Haimowitz will kick off the GayRomLit After Party & Riptide Party tomorrow. The other authors that will visit my place are: Cat Grant, Bryl Tyne, Brita Addams, Damon Suede and Aleksandr Voinov.

And the friends that have agreed on doing a blog post for me are the fab girls I shared a house with in New Orleans: Kris, Leontine, Tam, Kassa and Tracy. The seventh friend who was there, Chris, didn’t accept the invitation… Here we are:

Standing (from left to right): Tam, Kassa, Tracy, Chris

Sitting: me, Leontine, Kris

It’s impossible for me to describe everything that happened during the 4 days of GayRomLit. The schedule was packed, with parties, author readings, a book signing boat cruise, a vampire & ghost tour, a lunch with an author (mine was Simone Anderson), a cemetery tour and a pub crawl, among other things.

The most amazing thing for me was meeting the people behind all those names that I only knew from the internet or the books I read. I had so many fan girl moments, it's ridiculous, really. A good second place on the list of awesome things is reserved for the time we spent in gay bars, and not only because of the nekkid guys. ;) The girls and I had so much fun. I miss them and the rest very much!

Patti, me, Leontine

Ethan Day

me, Clare London, Marie Sexton, Kate McMurray

Chris, Tam, Clare London (unsuccessfully hiding behind the pole), Kassa

M.L. Rhodes, me, Stephani Hecht

me & Cole

Tracy, me, Heidi Cullinan, Leontine

Z.A. Maxfield (in blue, reading)

me, Damon Suede (in kilt *swoon*), Leontine

Kris, Tracy, Kassa, me, Tam, Leontine

me & Devon Rhodes

me & John

me, Leontine, Tracy

Rowan Speedwell, me, J.P. Barnaby

 me & Ellis Carrington

Disclaimer: If you want me to remove your picture shoot me an email and I'll remove it asap

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Quick photo update from New Orleans before GayRomLit begins

Today one week ago Leontine and I arrived in New Orleans and I can't believe how fast that week went by. We're here for GayRomLit (in case you didn't know yet) which will start tomorrow. We did a lot of fun stuff like meeting with Patti (@LovesFABromance) who lives here and took us to the largest Barnes & Noble in town. Isn't she wonderful? The romance section at B&N was heaven for us Dutch girls. I think Leontine actually drooled on more than one book *wink*. I admit I would've done the same if there had been a gay shelf. :)

But we actually discovered a small, stuffed and eclectic little bookstore just outside the French Quarter in Frenchmen street, that has a large collection of gay fiction, erotic drawings and gay porn magazines. Not that I looked at those of course...

Leontine and I also did some touristy things in this amazing city, like shopping at the River Walk, taking a carriage ride through French Quarter, going to the French Market, eating beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde, visiting some museums, eating Po Boys, riding the street car, visiting some lower Mississippi plantations or just sitting in the park and read.

Thanks to the lovely Chris from Stumbling over Chaos, who arrived last night and brought the right equipment to transfer my photo's to the ipad, here's a few photo's to give you an impression.











So, tomorrow GayRomLit finally starts and we'll be moving to the apartment with the rest of the girls, whom I all look very much forward to meeting. It's a pretty full schedule so I'm not sure if there'll be time to do another blogpost before I'm flying home, but we'll see.
I'm also hoping to post some reviews by Sharon and Lis soon.
Wish us a good time. :) See Ya Later Gator!
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