A certain pub of the vowel variety was seen approaching one of their former authors, now a big double-diamond star in her own right for another publishing house. Despite proclamations that said author was persona non grata at their house since she departed, the pub rep present at RT was begging said author for a few books – e-rights only, no need to worry about that printy type business. Things must be rotten in Denmark for begging to supercede earlier vilification.
Meanwhile, a number of authors from one ePub had a marvelous time at the party of another ePub, even though in previous years, the first had drawn virtual barbed wire fences around their authors to prevent fraternizing (or sororitizing?) with the other group. And yet, when the grown ups got to socialize, a good time was had by all.
However, a good time was not had by every single attendee. From the RT Police blotter, a three-times-the-drama tale of a very pitiable cover model. Seems one of the Misters Romance had a history of instability, and his behavior caused a very big stir most of the weekend. First, he scored the room key card of an RT staffer, admitted himself to her room and waited for her return so he could serenade her. He was removed from the premesis soon after – but wait, there’s more. Said contestant returned, and was forcibly removed a second time, this time, according to witnesses, on a gurney.
And then it got interesting.
In the meantime, this contestant’s roommate was understandably horrified by the events so far, and related to other conference organizers how very scary the man’s behavior had been in the room, to the point where the roommate didn’t wish to sleep there. The organizers took pity on the fearful Mr. Romance and moved his room immediately. Meanwhile, the unfortunate model twice removed made his forced departure a hat trick of drama, as he returned to go after his former roomie, and was once again escorted from the premesis by Pittsburgh’s finest.
And there’s more from the police blotter? But of course. And the item, it is not so blind.
Multiple sources have relayed information about a showdown of Barnes/Ewing proportions – perhaps even Hatfield/McCoy levels.
Seems the daughter of one Carpathian author lost her digital camera. Luckily- or unluckily – the lady’s camera was found—by the daughter of another entourage-escorted author. The daughter took it upon herself in Reckless fashion to take pictures of her lovely lady lumps. And by ‘lumps’ I mean her most intimate of selves. No Other Woman would mistake the glory of that lion, or beaver, as the case may be.
When the Carpathian daughter discovered the images upon the return of her camera, she had words with the photographer’s mother, who apparently assured her that her daughter would be spoken to.
However, the caution and conciliatory words concerning the c-pics did not reach the entourage of the Princess of Fire. A few of them, heavily influenced by the Spirit of the Season, headed for a showdown on the dance floor the final night of RT, and had words with the Carpathian daughter, nearly, according to one source, coming to blows about the whole event, telling the owner of those now-very-interesting pictures to mind her own business.
Later, the rumble relocated to a different part of the hotel, and conflicting reports indicate that Pittsburgh’s finest were once again dispatched to placate the angry. The Carpathian mother was seen in tears over the debacle, and many a conference attendee was choosing sides. Perhaps one will wear blue, another will wear grey, and we’ll answer the burning question as to how well one’s bikini wax holds up during close photographic encounters. Regardless, I am hoping Orlando’s finest are not called to the hotel next year for any reason. Drama is one thing, but requiring the attendance of law enforcement is not necessary.
EDITED 4/22 – but wait, there’s still more!
More than one person has emailed me privately to say, “Not so fast, Bitch!” To which I say, “Say what now?” Never let it be said that Bitches don’t listen.
Seems many conflicting report has arisen regarding who took what photos and of what specifically. One source says that everyone involved needed anatomy lessons and not of the Grey’s variety, as the photo in question was a hairy underarm, and not at all one belonging to a woman (though if you don’t want to shave beneath your armpits, who am I to judge?) Another source says that the daughters of either party weren’t involved at all, and the entire showdown on the dance floor was an elaborate choreographed jam session of some sort… and you know, given the amount of production that went into the dinner and luncheon theatre spectacles, I would almost buy that and pay retail.
And a very friendly source who was so excited that a lush and handsome Mr. P. showed how to work her new digital camera told me that first hand, as her own eyes have witnessed, the daughter of the Princess of Fire did no such fanny-snapping, and that the pictures, according to Ms. Princess herself, were most definitely of an armpit, taken right in front of the friendly source, who emailed me immediately to say, “See how armpits can be larger than they appear?”
Indeed.
I would not have enjoyed any of this.
God, I’m boring.
I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, either.
I was there and never noticed. Now that’s truly boring.
And my verification word is lost32. How appropriate!
I feel you, Nora. I think I would have been one of the clueless in my room reading a good book.
You might not have enjoyed it, but I bet I would have enjoyed your reaction.
Maybe not. *shrug* I can’t help it… when a bandwagon rolls by I shriek “ooh sparklies! Can I sit with the clowns???”
my word is areas39
*crickets chirping*
Nope. Nope. *putting away 10 foot pole with solemn resolve*
I’m torn between fascination and prayer that the conference I’m going to this weekend will be much more sedate.
Liddy, I guess I’m just as clueless because I was there and saw none of the drama either although Friday night during Vampire party my friend pointed out a guy who kept circling the area we were in. I didn’t think anything of it until I read this blog. Turns out that was the guy. *sheesh* even when the wierdness is in my face I don’t notice. But I did find a lot of fascinating reads this week. *grin*
Sara, I was in my room during the Vampire Ball, getting seriously OCD with the clutter of giveaways. Then I read a bit. It was a pretty good book, too, picked up in the Goody Room that morning. Not sure which one it was, though, because I browsed several during the convention.
Eve, I skipped the Vamp Ball, which I am now quite happy to have missed. Glad you didn’t have an up-close-and-personal encounter with the off-kilter cover model.
The crazies aren’t always wearing neon signs proclaiming their affiliation.
Security is more of a challenge in a hotel under construction, with workers coming and going.
A friend of ours had what IMHO was a narrow brush with disaster. On Friday night, at about 11:30, there was a knock on her door. She looked through the peephole and saw a man standing too close to the door. He answered her challenge with, “Bellman.” She told him no one there had called and he left.
No one checks out of a hotel at midnight! AND she was in the last room at the end of the hallway, closest to the stairs, most distant from the elevator. If that ever happens to anyone here, I hope you call the bell station and report it. They’ll know if anyone on that floor called, and if not, that security should be alerted to locate and neutralize the perp.
There were soft pretzels? Man. I miss ALL the good stuff…
Liddy: That is scary as hell, and I hope your friend told security, the manager, anyone who was not moving too fast for her to talk.
I think Michael Jackson has some experience with the CSI of personal junk.
“Soul-hole”—PERFECT!
This is all amazingly funny because I was not there.
If I had been, it wouldn’t be.
I’m going to go next year—to sell popcorn! With this kind of a show, you need snacks.
Figured out who the pub is…
As for the rest of it, I’m with Nora. I wouldn’t have liked any of that stuff. Though the goody room would be okay:)
Dang, Liddy. That’s nerve-wracking. Glad she knew what to do.
Jennifer, Maybe soft-pretzels could be the new term for vajayjay—although I think maybe it would work better for the manly bits.
I looked at the RT conference website, and they don’t have anything up about next year’s event yet. Which hotel in Orlando will be hosting the conference? Could it be one of the Walt Disney World hotels?
My mind boggles thinking of how the Mouse security squad will deal with this sort of action …
Susan/DC—I’ve never thought of Soft Pretzels in that light (manly bits). I will from now on. Snigger.
The last RT I went to (2001 or 2002) was very sedate. Now that I know these can be like Dragon*Con, I’ll be there next year. I love drama, as long as it doesn’t involve me.
I can just imagine the cops’ reaction. Priceless.
….RT…better than Reno 911. 😉
My friends and I unfortunately experienced a bit of that model’s crazy behavior Saturday night after the Dorchester party wound down. I’m glad his behavior was no secret, because I was debating whether or not I should contact RT and tell them about the bizarre way he acted. Guess I won’t need to bother, since they already won’t be inviting him back. I won’t get into how he acted, but lets just say it was odd enough that we soon abandoned our table and took our after party down to the lobby.
Photos of genitalia on someone else’s camera? In Orlando, the cops do that!
Well, technically Winter Park, which is right next to Orlando, but still: cops. cameras. junk. All the basic ingredients.
I can’t believe I get all this madness right in my backyard next year! It’s… it’s like Christmas!
Just put me in the boring corner too. I’ve been to RT. Three times, once as an unpubbed and twice as a pubbed and other than the people watching (at my first one I saw a seventy-something granny type pinch a cover model’s ass in plain view of God and everyone) it just doesn’t have that much to offer to me because I just don’t dig elaborate costume things night after night. That said, however, the people watching is prety incomparable.
I think with it next year in Orlando, which is only a couple of hours from me, I may go, stay at a nearby hotel, and do the visiting thing with friends when the spirit moves and the rest of the time, do some quality shopping at the outlet malls. *g*
(Ha, and verification word is “decided77”)
Not quite right about the cover model. I have the story straight from two eyewitnesses!
And the real one is even more extreme than this. As far as I know, no staff member was involved.
I love Rodney. Talk about a class act, and a genuine sweetheart. I fought Sahara Kelly over him at the Faery Ball. Should have seen the wing-pulling. But I won.
Heh, heh, heh.
I didn’t see any of the weird stuff happening. I keep hearing the oddest things, but damned if I saw anything myself. Maybe it was due to the butterscotch martinis.
There was already free popcorn. Second year in a row there was free popcorn at the Dorchester party, actually.
I was eating some whilst watching the kerfluffle.
And I thought moving was difficult. Nobody has stolen my camera yet to take pictures of their ladyparts, nor have any weirdos shown up (that I’m not related to).
And perhaps someone could write a musical based on it since it took place on an dance floor.
I would suggest Bollywood but perhaps the source of the conflict is too risque for them.
Wow – I’d say I missed out, but this is the sort of thing I don’t mind missing up close and personal. *shudder*
Nora had a romance convention take place in her book Finding the Dream but it was more incidental to the plot than the actual story. This report does sound much more Jennifer Crusie-esque.
Nora sez:
Poor Nora – I guess you’ve pretty much had more than your share of the unstable.
Aberrant behaviour fascinates me,… from a safe distance. I’d’ve been there, popcorn and notebook at hand, and phasers set on ‘keep the hell away, ‘cause I don’t know where you’ve been’.
parts86 – nope, not touching that one, there’s just no challenge.
Anyone who leaves snappers on my camera deserves to be put up on the internet for all and sundry to enjoy. Would be a lesson not soon forgotten for Young Ms. Carpathian.
Psycho Mr. Romances? How amazing. Can one get to Orlando on an “As Guest”?? I’ll pay airfares. *LOL*
Noo…we all know it’s Plummish. I can see Lula and Grandma up there with the cover models, can’t you?
Y’know, I think I might just have to rob a bank and come next year. Silly costumes and catfights—delicious. I should have been a gay man, I swear.
(my spamfilter: feel27. 27 cover models? Really? Maybe I will…)
Thanks for sharing because you made me glad I missed it, especially on top of all the horror stories about the construction going on. An event to be missed for sure.
RE: the bellman… as far as I know, that actually *was* a bellman… somehow hotel staff got it in their heads that those little maroon gift bags absolutely *had* to be delivered that night, in person, and started knocking and waking people up around midnight. To deliver a book. And a cookie. Several people I spoke to called right down to the front desk and got them to stop the madness.
That being said, I would’ve been freaked right the shit out if he’d gotten to my room.
Not true at all! Sure, a couple bad apples make for good blogging and hotel construction is never pretty, but don’t think for one second that RT wasn’t an amazing conference. All those readers and booksellers, joyfully celebrating the romance genre—it was a beautiful thing. The booksigning was amazing – with tons of locals from Pittsburgh stopping by and people from all over the world wheeling suitcases full of books, excited to meet their favorite authors in person. The workshops were entertaining and informative. The parties were fun. The costumes were to die for. The band, The Impalers, rocked the house. Most of the cover models were complete gentlemen—sweet and gracious. Tons of money for charity was raised. Authors were honored with awards. Agents and editors requested new work (A friend of mine was over the moon when an editor at St. Martin’s liked her idea so much she took her to lunch!)
Not saying that RT will be everyone’s cup of tea, but I don’t want the wonderful things that happened to be overshadowed by a few scandals. I was there, video blogging the whole event, and I didn’t see or hear any of this until I got back to New York. All I saw was an amazing group of enthusiastic women (and a few men!) letting their hair down and celebrating the genre we all love.
One one Kasey Michaels’ Maggie books took place at a romance convention…Maggie By the Book. I remember cracking up at her description of the various dramas and the fact that Alex entered the cover model contest. Wow, I’m behind on those books.
*makes note never to take daughter to RT*
I guess we missed all the good stuff, although we tended to spend about 10 or 15 minutes dancing at the parties and hung out in the bar instead.
Oh we did see the paramedics arrive though – gave up our elevator for them.
It’s a shame that some of the cover models spoiled it for the rest. I can say that we were all impressed with Fred – second year in a row that he has been polite, fully clothed, and a delight to talk to.
Marianne, I think you said it well.
A caution should be placed on this particular entry: “Don’t EVEN attempt to read while uncaffiendated.” Until I got to the comments, I thought the “lovely lumps” referred to “boobs.” Yeah, really I did, because why-oh-why, unless you’re Paris Hilton, would you want anyone to see pictures of your va-jay-jay?
I’ll just go sit on the boring bleacher and drown myself in a big ol’ steaming mug of caffiend…
Am I the only one who read that as permanently neutralizing? And then I giggled at the idea of security guards doing wet work. I’m an awful person.
Only if they’re twisted up with thwarted lust.
I’m pretty sure Young Ms. Carpathian was the victim in the situation. Unless you mean a lesson in how to get revenge, in which case please carry on.
I missed a lot of the drama that happened at RT and while I had a few downers aside from the hotel’s mess, I don’t regret going at all.
Even though the frickin hotel exacerbated my asthma and I’m back on maintenance meds for it, I had a lot of fun.
It was great hanging out with readers and with writing friends I only get to see once an age. I can say I’m glad I didn’t miss it.
Sounds like some folks had an… err… interesting time.
What I’m really interested in though, is how the eBook signing (that was this years RT right?) went versus the main Sat signing. Anyone there have any comments?
Does anyone know the dates for RT in Orlando?