One should never get caught looking for four leaf clovers in the backyard
when
opportunity knocks at the front door… or arrives in an email! So when Fresh
Fiction asked me if I wanted to go to the Romance Author and Reader Event (RARE) in
Montreal, I
immediately emailed back a “YES!!!!” before I even finished reading the
email!
Image: Audrey Lawrence and
(right) Gayle Sadler (left) at RARE in Montreal
After clearing my calendar, my friend Gayle and I hightailed it up the road
for the
two hour trip from Ottawa to Montreal! Despite the pouring rain, our
spirits were
high and the whole day at RARE whizzed by in an excited blur!
Honestly, if
you are a romance reader and you have never been to a RARE gathering
or any
other gathering of authors, just get it on your bucket list right now!! You
will
love it!
Image: Group photo of the authors at
RARE.
It is truly a whole other world with many authors sitting at tables in a
large
room; some with tables covered in frothy purple and pink lace to others with
banners filled with carnage, blood and ruthless people! Yet, everywhere was
filled
to the brim with the most interesting and friendly people you can imagine.
I had
the most interesting chats with authors and readers alike and fully relished
the
sight of people buying cartloads of books!
The folks back at Fresh Fiction asked me to send in lots of pictures and
tweets.
TWEETS! Not
usually a
favourite social media of mine, but with all the tech savvy and kindhearted
authors
at RARE, I quickly picked up some great tips on sending photos and
became
tech competent very quickly. Now I am going to tweet all my book review
announcements in future!
While I had an amazing day and great fun, I also picked up some wonderful
ideas
from the veteran readers who attended this event. Some of the very well
organized
fans had printed off the websites of their favourite authors (some had all
the
attending authors!) who were there and asked the authors to sign the pages
in their
personal booklet as well as getting their books autographed, which is great
remembrance of the day. Others took the white cloth swag bag that was
handed out
at registration and had a number of the authors sign them. When I noticed
that
happening, Gayle and I both started getting our bags signed as well! All
the
authors were wonderful about giving autographs and the fans really
appreciated
that!
Image: Author Laura Kaye and
Audrey
Lawrence at RARE.
While the RARE gathering was in Montreal, Canada, it is based out of
the
USA, so I expected that most of the authors would be Americans. That was
the case
and I was thrilled to meet bestselling authors Jennifer
Probst, Tia Louise, Laura Kaye, Tiffany
Snow
and Kimberly
Knight; yet, I was absolutely blown away by how international it was
with
authors coming in from Australia, such as Lesley
Jones
and T.
Gephart, Ireland (L.A. Casey), along with some from Canada. I even to
got to
meet Nashoda
Rose (Toronto) as well as J.J. McAvoy and the famous Opal
Carew
from my hometown in Ottawa, Ontario!
Image: Audrey with her hometown author Opal
Carew
Yet, wherever the authors were from, everyone gushed about the wonderful
Fresh
Fiction reviewers and what a great site it was for authors. Gayle and I were
so
happy and proud to represent Fresh Fiction at this wonderful gathering! I
was so
excited, I even promised to do some reviews and I had just gotten a fresh
package
of books!
Image: Author
J.J.
McAvoy taking off her killer heels at the end of the day.
Awesome is the only way to describe the day, but it was also tiring! Final
words of
advice! Wear comfortable shoes!! Going to RARE is definitely a
book
lover’s dream… lots of swag, the odd free book, wonderful chats and behind
the
scenes info and lots and lots of books to read when you get back home!
4 comments posted.
Thank you Audrey, I'm so happy you had a great time and what a beautiful write-up! And the photos were lovely.
You picked up on the Tweeting and were an absolute champ!
Peggy, you'll have to go, there is one soon in Michigan I think.
(Sara Reyes 10:02am September 22, 2015)