A RARE Event! Romance Author and Reader Event in Montreal

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!