I've already talked about this over on my personal blog, but I wanted to share some of the highlights (and some of the goodies!) from the fun, fabulous weekend I just had with Jeaniene Frost in Denver, CO, where we attended the first annual RomCon Conference, hosted by Borders Books. It was a whirlwind two days of non-stop talking, laughing, workshops, games and booksignings!
Spending time with Jeaniene was an absolute treat, as she is one of the most genuine, down-to-earth people you'll ever meet, and kept me in absolute stitches with her honesty and spontaneity (meaning you'll never know what's about to come out of her mouth)! Despite numerous panels, workshops, meals and fan gatherings, she never lost her patience or her smile, and I came home feeling as though we'd been best buds for years. (Miss you already, Jeaniene!)
The three of us had a fabulous time hanging out together, particularly when we stumbled upon some life-size cutouts of a few "classic" romance novel poses, and took some ridiculous pictures of ourselves. My favorite one is unfortunately on Jeaniene's camera (it was TOO funny!), but this one on the left also cracked me up. Do I look swept away by passion, or what?
Another fun event was the Masquerade Ball, during which people were invited to dress as they pleased. Debut paranormal author Meagan Hatfield proved to be a ghoul after my own heart when she showed up in 19th century mourning clothes with her adorable baby, Zombie Zack. (A puppet, incredibly lifelike and creepy!)
You can enter by leaving a comment about a good time or a favorite memory you have, preferably one you shared with friends. Doesn't matter when, where or what - what's the first "good time" thought that pops into your head?
Hope you enjoyed this peek into my weekend, and don't forget - you can join in the fun next year at RomCon2011, which is open to anyone who loves a good book!
56 comments:
Most of my fun times have involved one or more of my sisters, who are by far my best friends. Probably the most recent was when my youngest sister and I did a diamond dash together. It was a spur of the moment decision to sign up. We made matching shirts and got our bikes. Everyone said we were Amazing Race worthy. We had so much fun riding around downtown doing all the clues and challenges. Just another memory to add to our scrapbook of life. :)
ebdye1(at)gmail
RomCom sounds like so much fun! Actually, one of my favorite memories has to do with Jeaniene Frost's books. A bunch of online friends were reading them at the same time, and to make a long story short, two of my fellow readers and I began a friendship. This was almost a year ago now and we are still going strong, and we talk almost daily. So thanks Jeaniene for bringing us together through your wonderful stories and characters.
when we use to go to dog shows (agility and obedience) everyone would stay at the same hotel. At night we would go out to eat then back to someone's room to play Balderdash. We would end up laughing so hard we couldn't breath . Then hanging out at the show site in our tent and talk about all the crazies that come to dog shows.
thanks for the great contest!
My favorite fun time as of late is when me and 7 other friends took a vacation to orlando,fl. We stayed in a huge fancy suite and had lots of fun swimming and going to amusement parks. I've been wanting to go again so the memory is kinda stuck in my head these days. RomCon sounds like a blast!
Great pics. You can see you had a great time and Zombie Zack looks to real.:) I have to say one of my most fun and memorable times was when me and my husband took our two daughters to Disney World , courtesy of Make A Wish to celebrate my youngest daughter's remission from bone cancer. It was the first time in 2 years she was in no pain, no chemo and we all had the best time of our lives. Even us grownups felt like children again once we stepped through the gates. :)
Carol L.
Lucky4750@aol.com
the most fun I have had with friends was when we decided to go to Disneyland. Who doesnt have fun there! We had tons of fun acting like kids again
Cassandra C
I have a ton of good memories with friends. Some of my best ones are from following our favorite bands on tour.
In 2005, several friends and I followed Duran Duran in the Pacific Northwest. It was tiring but fun. I almost had everyone peeing their pants by singing versions of Duran Duran song based on cows.
In 2009, my friend Val and I followed the Welsh rock band, the Manic Street Preachers, from Minneapolis to Boston. There were so many good times and cool stories.
Thanks!
Katie
bigferret at email dot com
Glad to hear you had so much fun :-)
One of my "good times" was in the 2nd year of university: I won 2 concert tickets to Shakira's tour aboroad and not only did we get to see the fantastic concert with my best friend, but our travel expenses were also covered and we also won some great shoes and t-shirts :-) And most of all we had a blast at the concert and strolling through the little streets of Vienna, eating pastries and drinking coffee in a cute little coffeehouse :-)
To this day we remember that trip as one of our best "adventures" :-D
stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com
The diamond dash sounds like so much fun, as does Balderdash (I haven't played that yet!)
I've been to Disney so many times, and am going again the end of this month for the Romance Writers of America conference (where I will see Jeaniene and many other authors on this blog!), and it never gets old.
Katie, I would LOVE to follow a band on tour! How fun! Two of my favorite bands right now are Kings of Leon and Blue October - both are really good.
Playing charades at RomCon has to be in my top favorite moments. I thought I was going to have a heart attack! You think you know your paranormal trivia until you're on a time limit, LOL.
I love going to the pool with my friends! We'd swim, having jumping contest, play volleyball and just hang out!
The first thing that pops in my mind is the summer a few years ago when my friends and I would park miles from the boardwalk (because we didn't want to have to pay $5 to park lol) and we would walk on the beach FOREVER to get to the boardwalk. Afterwords we would always go to CiCi's to eat Mac and Cheese pizza (yum!) It was a lot of fun and there were always plenty of hilarious moments.
throuthehaze at gmail dot com
Sounds like you had a blast. One of the good times was when myself and 3 of my friends got to take a trip to Tahoe in the winter. We had so much fun and it was just after we turned 18 so it was our (or at least mine) first trip without adults. It was great.
Stephanie G
sgradel(at)gmail(dot)com
all of my fav memories were of sleepovers with friends. we would always bring a new board game and movie to the sleepover. when i "graduated" the 8th grade i had my first really big sleepover. all the girls were the typical bouncy type. my dad had a record player and we found the grease soundtrack and we all did the dances around my house. we were up on the couches and tables singing "Grease Lightning". after that we stayed up really late watching movies and talking about what highschool was going to be and all that coming of age stuff. that party was over 15 yrs ago and i still have most of the same friends. but even some that i dont see as often chat about it bc we found each other on facebook.
I think one of my favorite memories, though kind of sad, is of my friend Diane. She died over 17 years ago, but I remember going over to her apt. at Christmas with two co--workers and she sat down at her piano, called us over, and started playing and singing Christmas songs. My family was never musical, and though we loved the holiday we'd never done the Christmas Carol thing. It was awesome. She was such a unique person who had survived an abusive relationship and she never failed to encourage everyone she knew.
I've had many, so that's good =) but the one that jumps to mind is A concert I went to of Jimmy buffet while living in Fl. I had received front row tickets so me and my BF and some family went all out and got a limo for the event. Lots of Hawaiian shirts and drinks =) It was a lot of fun.
Thanks for sharing about your time and your photos. I would love to have had a chat w/Christine Feehan. She's great!
Tanyaw1224@yahoo.com
Terri,
I'm SO glad you shared your adventures at RomCon! And your photos. Wow. I feel like I was there. Honestly, this has always been one of my favorite things that authors do--tell me about their journeys and adventures. For years, I've visited blogs to find out what it would be like to attend certain conferences or award ceremonies.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time and I'm sure that all the people who attended your panels were thrilled to meet you!
One of my favorite memories is probably the Nickelback concert I went to with one of my best friends, Michelle. We looked forward to it for months, and it was alot of fun. Plus, it was on my birthday!
Res498(AT)aol.com
Jackie, Monster Charades was honestly one of my favorite things at the conference, too! I guess you could tell that I REALLY got into it, hm? :-)
Merrie, I wish you'd been there with us - we'd have had even MORE fun!
Thanks for sharing your good memories today, everyone! I'm smiling as I read them!
One of the best times I have with my best friend is when we have a girls' day out book shopping.
My #1 good time was this past February when my sisters and I and some girlfriends took my mother on a Caribbean cruise for her 75th birthday. There were 8 women all together and we had a blast! We're going to do it again for her 80th!
Love the shirt! I have a similar one that I made myself online!
Best trips ever, I have 3, the first was my senior spring break trip to Greece and Italy. I hung out with a small group of friends and 4 Canadian students. We had a great time and tons of memories.
My second BEST trip ever was my current RT trip. I was on my own, but still had a great time, because it was my first official RT. And I even got to have lunch with three of my fave authors! One of my best trips ever!
My third was when I flew up to Pittsburgh for the weekend for the RT book fair and I finally got to meet one of my all time fave authors, had lunch with her and everything! It was amazing! And I did get to see other of my fave authors.
I have to say that puppet baby is SOOOO creepy!!!!!!
One of the best times I can remember is traveling in France for a class trip with some of my friends. We stopped in an old, gated French town one night, wandering by ourselves...we ended up at an Italian restaurant with our hot bus driver, Jean Luc (how French is that!?!?!!?). We ended up having peach wine...and barely making curfew... :)
You absolutely wouldn't believe how REAL that zombie baby seemed! We thought it was a human baby wearing makeup at first!
The first good time with friends that popped into my head is probably with my favorite cousin: We shall call her B. B and I have a habit of staying up into the wee hours of the night generally talking about the books we are currently reading or have read (B and I have the same taste book wise and generally everything else as well) Sometimes time just flies with us. we'll stay up until it's time to wake up! She lives in another state so i do not get to see her as often as I would like to . I miss her very much. She is going to be my Maid of Honor at my wedding I love her so! We always have the best memorable times, and we NEVER fight. at least not for many many years. Unless it's a small disagreement about Elvis V.S the Beeltes.
Thanks,
Sweet Rachel!
Also you said you were in Denver, CO! Alas! Why do I always miss these events that take place in my home town!
Thanks,
Sweet Rachel!
It was SO great getting to hang out with you at RomCon, Terri! Even though you say way too flattering things ;-). Just got home last night, but will be sending you that pic of "mama and baby" soon, lol.
A good time with my friends is every time we hang out because we usually get bored and go on some random adventure, such as driving to another city, trying different restaurants, or frolicking on the beach in the middle of night.
My favorite fun memories are road trips in college, where we would just decide to go somewhere and do it and stop at fun things along the way.
My Best Friend and I have been friends for over 20 years. We have been through ups and downs but have always thought of ourselves as sisters and just friends. Just 2 weekends ago she took her 2 step daughters and I took my son to watch the new Eclipse movie at a drive in by our houses. We had so much fun laughing and remembering when we were young and going to another drive in. No matter how far we are apart or how many days we go without speaking I know that we will start like we just spoke. I also know that I can call her for anything. She is my rock and is not afraid to speak her mind. But everytime we are together the kids gather around to listen to stories from our past and even though we are not that old they seem to soak it in.
The last good time I can think of when I recently spent the day with my adult son, just the two of us, at SeaWorld Orlando. We had a really lovely day having fun.
My best good memories are with my best friend, Tootles, who just happened to be a ferret. He crossed to the Rainbow Bridge about 6 months ago, but I still think about him everyday. He loved to play with me, and he had a toy Hedwig owl that he always took and put in his hidey hole.
As far as human friends go, usually anytime I spend with my family is lovely. My favorite trip was too Cancun, on the boat over to swim with dolphins. They were playing music, and we did a conga line. I never do stuff like that, so it is a great memory!
Some of these memories are making me teary!
Jeaniene, you know you DID keep me laughing the whole time, so there! The "mama and baby" pic may need an entire blog to explain! :-)
I agree with everyone who said that the best memories are often the ones where you do something completely out of character or out of the ordinary. Hard to forget those moments!
Looks like a blast! And you def. have the swept away look down. Monster Charades sound fun. And that baby is freaky! I thought it was real at first and was a bit disturbed. ;-P They had a baby puppet like that one year when I went to Howl-O-Scream and it was just as freaky!
Memories, memories, there's a lot. Most recently a whole group of my hubby's family got to together and we took everyone to the Magic Kingdom. My kids are totally spoiled with Disney but having the whole family there made it magical because we got to see it through there eyes basically and it was all new again. Plus I got to see The Main Street Electrical Light Parade after about 10 years of it being gone and that just made the night because that in itself brought back so many good memories of late nights having fun working it with great friends and then heading to Steak & Shake afterwards! If you have the chance to see it make sure you do because it's gone again next month.
So do you think anyone would mind if I camped out front of the Swan & Dolphin to see you guys in a few weeks? LoL
When I think of good times, I think of my sister. One of the best times I had with her was quite some time ago when she stood in line for hours to get us tickets to see ELVIS. Now you know how long ago it was. We had the best time at that concert. We've had other good times, but this one always comes to mind.
I LIVE in CO and I wanted to go so bad. Maybe next time. So glad everyone had fun. I do enjoy reading about the experiences. :)
The last good time would be the launch of Secret Ones two weeks ago, although unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time with my friends as I would have liked.
There's nothing quite like a con, is there. I've got two coming up - the NZ National Convention and then Worldcon in Melbourne. Can't wait!
Great pictures. Mine would be random last minute road trips with friends in college. We always had such fun.
I've been friends with one group of girls for going on 20 years now. Four of us met on one of our first jobs out of college, a couple more were added later and we all just keep going strong. Ten years ago we formed a bookclub mainly so that we'd have an excuse to get together every six weeks no matter what. Any time someone asks me to think of good times, these girls are the people I think of. It doesn't matter what we are doing as long as we are doing it together.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us! As for favorite memories, my friends and I still get together ever year to go to the beach. We always have so much fun!
I am really lucky that I have an amazing family. We have game nights where we watch bad comedy shows and play trivia games. It's really awesome that even as adults we still have something that we can do together.
The memory that pops into my mind is the most recent get together for 4th of July. We had friends over for a bbq, lounging in the pool, some beverages, and fireworks. It was just an amazing and fun day & night.
Terri - Is RomCom in the same city every year or does it rotate? Colorado is a bit far for me.
One of my favorite memories doesn't really make sense to many people, but because of it, every single time I hear the word "Poodle" I burst out laughing. Since it's a pretty long story, I'll give you the higly edited/shortened verison.
Once upon a time, my two sisters and I were sitting on the couch in the living room. My older sister made a joke about poodles and I laughed. From then on, both my sisters tease me about that and say "poodle" in different/weird voices and I laugh and laugh and laugh. I love it =)
My best friend, Jes and I go to this one resturant every Wednesday and just hang out. It's so much fun! She always makes me laugh.
I had a Good time when me and my Mother went on a trip to the lot of place for a week ended up at the end in santfa and then came back to northern Ca on rouget 66 We had a great time.Sorry the spell checker does not work on this spot.I can read all most enything but can't spell hardly at all.
sasluvbooks(at)yahoo.com
Caffey here using phone so couldn't sign in but its me .I am so going to go to one of these conferences some day! I loved reading about both of you there and all the laughter. I smiled reading this all and the replies. I have two friends named Kathy and I`m Cathie so you can imagine when one said 'Kathie' and we all said 'what?' One year we went to Niagara Falls and had a blast They had these barrels that some tried or went down to falls in We have pics of us in the and one of us got stuck in there It was hysterical the whole week We were just talking about it being almost 25 yrs when we were there so we want to go again!
cathiecaffey @ gmail.com
Terri, Glad you had such a fantastic time--it sounds like a 'blast'. I had a fun time last weekend going to a friend's book launch in a little town south of where I live. My man and I decided to make a holiday of it so he took the day off work and we caught up with both my friend and another author who was my creative writing mentor a few years back, as well as staying in a very nice historic "b&b", going for walks on the beach and just sitting in the sun having coffee and reading our respective books. Bliss.
Every year my friends and I have a girls weekend. No husbands / significant others and no kids. We go to a beach about an hour and a half away and sit there with drinks and munchies and have a great time. We take a picture every year of all of us. We have been doing this for almost 20 years and hope to do it at least another 20 years.
oops - forgot my email - melissagrantcpacfe at gmail
One of my favorite good times moments was taking my daughter to her first Jimmy Buffett concert when she was only around 6 years old. She was dressed in her little grass skirt and drinking her "margarita" -- just water with a strawberry in it -- but in the perfect "boat drinks" glass. The rest of the family was there and we all had a great time, and my little Parrothead was born. :)
only1kritta at gmail
OMG! I so wanted to go to this convention!
Anyway... I have a wonderful group of friends and we all have children. So, anytime we can have a night out it is a time to celebrate. One of the things we like to do is Kareoke. We go to this incredibly seedy biker bar and commit ourselves to only fun/cheesy, upbeat songs.
Well, my last name is Horney so as a tribute to my husband (yeah, it's my married name. No, I don't know what I was thinking!) I decided to rap the song "Me So Horney" by 2 Live Crew. I figured I had heard this song before and it would be funny and get the whole bar going.
Well, apprently I'd only ever heard the radio edit of this song because as soon as the words started coming accross the screen it was clear they were filthier than Jeaniene Frost's infamous chapter 32. It was either stop the song or commit to it full force. So I committed. It was awesome all of my friends were laughing their heads off, my husband was trying to pretend he didn't know me and several of the regular, biker-types had their jaws on the floor. When the song was over I got a standing ovation and lots of hugs and a couple free drinks.
We all still talk about it and it is one of the best/most fun memories I have.
Now, can I please win the prize?
Oh I forgot my email. My bad.
I'm the "Me So Horney" singer.
sghorney@gmail.com
I feel I deserve to win. Jeaniene and other wicked souls played an uber-meanie trick on me! While they were having the time of their lives at the convention, they taunted me with images of WM-(Mencheres). This surpassed even my expectations of Jeaniene's evil tendencies! Please alleviate my suffering!
OMG wont you are too funny.
My best times involve spending time with my newphew, lounging in the pool with my fam and talking/eating/laughing and recently, walking the beach and talking with my best friend since I was thirteen. We've hooked up again and it is great.
muneca8599 AT yahoo.com
A while back, a really close friend of mine was moving. We were upset and were outside our local college by the water fountains. We didn't have change to throw in to make wishes, so we used the flowers that grew around it. We made wishes of remaining friends even though she was living many miles away and that the other would find happiness. We were silly and goofing off, but we really did want the other happy, even if we weren't around. I haven't seen her in over a year, still think about her and miss her and that's why it's one of my favorite memories of us.
congrats to the winner!!!
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