Romancing the Capital 2018

This past weekend was the Romancing the Capital book conference here in Ottawa. This was the fourth year for the conference, and I’m very happy to say that the organizer, Eve Langlais, is planning on doing another in 2019! Yay! As you may have guessed, this conference focuses on romance novels in all forms from sweet to well, basically whatever you can think of. This was my third year attending, and the second year in which my friend, Dianne, attended with me…and we are planning on attending next year as well, and maybe dragging along another friend or two.

Before you read any further, I will let you know now that I read all kinds of romance, and if think you might be offended by anything then you should probably skip this post. I won’t be posting anything explicit, but some of the authors I read write in various sub-genres including erotic romance, BDSM, and LGBT. I try to keep an open mind, and reading those sub-genres allows me to see from someone else’s point of view. If that is not your cup of tea that’s fine…you’ve had your warning.

The conference started on Thursday, but that afternoon’s sessions were dedicated more to aspiring authors, so Dianne and I decided to arrive later on Thursday afternoon. We had a nice dinner (which I did not take photos of, but trust me, it was amazing), and then picked up our registration bags, and wandered into one of the rooms to have cupcakes brought by Viola Grace. She has an amazing 400 books published, and brought 400 mini cupcakes along to celebrate her accomplishment.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a sitter for Truffles again this year (it’s hard on a long weekend) and I don’t like putting him in a kennel because he doesn’t have teeth to defend himself if he were to get loose with another dog (or dogs), so I was driving back and forth to my apartment over the course of the conference, while Dianne slept in our room at the hotel. It may seem like a waste of money, but honestly, it was nice to have a place to drop our bags, and go to relax occasionally to get away from everything.

On Friday, I arrived back at the hotel bright and early to have breakfast with Dianne, then the busy day began. For whatever reason, I wasn’t feeling the games sessions this year, so we spent a lot of time in panel sessions where we got to hear the authors talk about the various subjects under discussion, and answer questions about their books.

Soldiers, Cowboys and Dukes, Oh My with Sandy Sullivan, Desiree Holt, Cathryn Fox, and Barbara Devlin

My Hero is a Shapeshifter with Mina Carter, Marianne Morea, and Milly Taiden

When One Hero isn’t Enough with Eve Vaughn, Susan Hayes, Anne Lange, and Carey Decevito

Cyborgs: Part Machine, All Man with Viola Grace, Mina Carter, Susan Hayes, and Eve Langlais

Love Amongst the Stars with Evangeline Anderson, Mina Carter, Michelle Howard, and Milly Taiden

Friday night was the dinner and masquerade ball, and here is me in my outfit, complete with my homemade mask.

The dinner was just fantastic and some of the other costumes were just amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of some of my favourites, but I believe a lot of pictures will be posted to the RTC site soon, so definitely check them out! (The link to the site is in the first paragraph.)

On Saturday, Dianne and I were lazy and didn’t attend all of the sessions available to us, but we did start the morning with Let’s Talk About Sex…Through the Ages with Sharon Page, and Barbara Devlin. As usual they were a lot of fun, and had lots of information to share, and the second half of their session was taken up by a game, in which I won my very own Mr. Darcy from Barbara Devlin! (Dianne won one, too…in fact, she won hers first, so that gave me the courage to volunteer for the game.)

Because there was no dinner on Saturday evening, Eve organized a luncheon for the readers this year, and the authors who sponsored the lunch had some amazing prizes to give away. Dianne won the most fantastic one, from Barbara Devlin. She was so shocked when her number was called that she just sat there with her mouth open…our whole table let out a huge cheer for her. And here she is with her fantastic gift basket!

I also took the opportunity on Saturday to get some photos with some (but definitely not all) of my favourite authors. Below are me with Anne Lange, Amy Ruttan, Barbara Devlin, and Reece Butler.

Anne Lange

Amy Ruttan

Reece Butler

Saturday afternoon, was the book signing, and after only pre-ordering from four authors this year I vowed I would not buy a bunch of books, but of course I couldn’t resist and I came away with 30 new books from the conference. (I can hardly wait to start reading!)

I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Lister and I was completely taken by surprise when she gifted me these amazing prints of her latest book covers when I went by her table. I can hardly wait to get them framed and hang them. If you read gay, erotic romance, and/or BDSM then give her books a try. I discovered her and her books at my first RTC conference and I’m so glad I did!

The last two years I was not very organized, or prepared to get autographs from authors, but this year I took a page from another attendee’s book. Last year, she painted a canvas and got all of the authors to sign it so that she could then hang it on her wall.

I decided to go a similar route, but I bought a 12×12 frame (well two of them, because I made an identical one for my friend, Dianne, to get autographs), and added scrapbooking cardstock for a background, and a pretty doily type cardstock for the autographs. I framed the paper with the glass in the back. I made photo corners which wrapped around the cardstock in front, and around the glass in back, so that the paper was held in the frame without using any kind of adhesive. Now I can take it apart and put the glass in front, and next year, I can move the autographs to a scrapbook album, and reuse the frame for RTC 2019!

The book signing marked the end of the conference for readers so Dianne and I headed back to our respective homes. Me here in Ottawa, and her in Kingston, but over the weekend, Eve announced that she will be doing another in 2019, and I’m really looking forward to it!