Monday, April 28, 2014

Barbara Vey 3rd Annual Reader's Appreciation Luncheon 2014

The Barbara Vey Luncheon was this past Saturday!  For those of you who missed it, look out for next year's.  Website is here:  http://www.barbaraveyreaders.com
60 authors attended, all shown in the photo above (which I got from Barbara's Vey's page).  60!  That's almost ten times the amount of authors that I'd ever been in a room with until Friday night's Q&A session.  From all over the country, authors I'd probably never have gotten the opportunity to meet came to this Milwaukee event.  For the price of my entrance fee, I received a tote of books, a bag of coverflats/bookmarks/various swag, a seat at Mari Mancusi's table for lunch, the opportunity to win any of the authors' doorprizes, gifts from Mari for being one of her table, and entry to the book-signing event which included opportunities for more free swag.
I met more than a dozen authors that I already read, and another several dozen that I've added to my TBR list.  My "Shirt of Authors" was a big hit with the 40 authors I managed to get to the tables to sign it.  Christie Craig a.k.a. C.C. Hunter spent an entire hour Friday night just talking to my friend Julia, her Mom, and I!  We totally fan-girled for that, not to mention Saturday afternoon when we got to know Mari Mancusi.  Everyone was so nice and friendly, and it was very much as Debbie Macomber said in her keynote: a big family reunion.
None of our table won Mari's doorprize, so she "raffled" off an ARC of Shattered, which comes out on September 1st, and I was the lucky winner, since my birthday is September 10th.  Will be reviewing both Scorched and Shattered here and on GoodReads in the next week or so, as I promised Mari on Saturday.
  Until then, Happy Readings!  Kate