Authors After Dark Wrap-Up

Authors After Dark was an amazing time. I didn’t actually go as an author, which I think gave me a unique perspective that I wasn’t expecting. At first, I was a little peeved that other people managed to change information when I wasn’t able to, but you know, it turned out okay. It was not nearly as dire as I thought it was.

Breakfast of Champions.

Our first stop was in Canton, right around 8 in the morning for ice cream. I was somewhat conflicted on whether to choose the buttered pecan or the red velvet. I ended up with the red velvet.

I do not regret this choice. Yum.

So we continue on, and then we get to Alexandria. A little background at this point. Sid’s dad wanted us to stop at the Pawn Stars in Alexandria. It was mostly on our way so we did.

THe store is not in a great area, so we were planning on doing a drive by picture of it, and moving on.

Outside the Pawn Stars in LA

But then we saw the place, and noticed it was well-maintained and there was some security to the setup there, so we knew we had to go in.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. There was a sign on the door that said it wasn’t allowed. I’d guess it would have something to do with the TV show. So you’ll have to take my word for it, it was AMAZING.

Yeah, there was a lot of crap floating around, but there were some awesome things, like old dentist chairs, huge giant armchairs, and hand-painted Russian plates.  We had a blast just walking around and having a good time.

So we finally left there and made it to New Orleans. Our hotel was right on Bourbon Street.

We ran into Kelli Collins as we were getting on the elevator to go check in, who by the way, is the cutest thing ever.

We got up to our room, did some unpacking.

I only took 8 pairs…

Now, there’s something to be said when you’re traveling with us. We had areas of the room. We had the shoe area, the jewelry bar, the makeup counter, and of course, the dress closet.

The funny thing is I don’t think either of us actually meant to do it, but we’re both a little OCD, and it sort of happened that way.

So after we unpacked, we went out to dinner with Dakota Cassidy and Kelli Collins. Poor Dakota got a Dr. Pepper instead of Coke, and pouted. She flirted with our OBVIOUSLY gay waiter and made lifelong friends with him.He made obscene gestures when she went outside to smoke because he couldn’t go. It was a lot of fun.

What was super cool was our dinner got cooked in a hubcap.

Seriously. It was awesome.

Anyway, the food was super good, and the fries were probably the best I’d ever had. We ended up getting a second order of fries because of the awesome.

After parting with Kelli and Dakota, we decided to explore a little bit.

From there, Sidney and I wandered up and down Bourbon Street and just took in the sights. Some dude tried to sell us baseball caps for “charity”… because we apparently look like baseball cap wearing chicks… (no, no we really don’t…)

Did you know if you buy a Daiquiri from these bars, you get a free shot with it? Well, you do. We took advantage. Several times. But we indulged more on these free shots on Thursday night.

I did a lot of schmoozing around for most of Thursday, and then we got to the Bookie Awards. Dakota Cassidy won a Bookie Award for being the Most Accessible Author, a well-deserved win, in my opinion. I did some more schmoozing, and then got another Daiquiri.

So for dinner, a bunch of us decided to go to Pat O’Brien’s. I got to meet the awesome Tee Morris and his wonderful wife, Phillippa Ballantine. Such an adorable, sweet couple.

They were absolutely amazed by the warm reception and the intensity of the romance community. I want to say it might have been their first romance con. So, they seemed a little flabbergasted at the atmosphere, but they were so nice. We had a blast talking to them at dinner.

I think Saturday was the most fun of the weekend though.

We didn’t realize that it’s the annual Red Dress Run in NOLA.

This is where 30 different charities get together. The runners pay $100 to participate and they just run from bar to bar, where they get free drinks all day until about 9 that night. It makes for a super busy Bourbon St, and they give you weird looks if you’re NOT wearing red. I’m a little jealous that some of these guys looked better than I do in a dress…

We came back to the hotel for the book signing. Hung out with Dakota Cassidy and Kelli Collins in the little cafe in the hotel. The booksigning ended up being too big of a crowd for us, so we didn’t go, but we had a good time keeping Kelli company.

Saturday night was our last night in NOLA, so we did the Author Pub Crawl and hung out with Kristen Painter and Stacey Kennedy before we headed back to the hotel for the podcast party, which was an absolute blast. I got to be on a podcast, which totally amuses me. You’ll be able to see that episode over at the Shared Desk, when Tee and Pip recover from con mode.

For me, I had the most fun on Saturday and Sunday. I guess I’m not a partier anymore. That’s alright. Sit me at a bar and let me drink all night and I’m happy.

Anyway, we left around 11 on Sunday for home. We were both exhausted and I was falling asleep while talking. I had to repeat myself a couple of times. We’d planned on a nice, uneventful ride home.

But… our ride home was a blast instead. You see, there was this billboard… with a sign… about alligators and a park…..

Of COURSE, we had to go check it out. Sidney was like a child, running around and pointing all excitedly. So cute. I might have laughed at her a lot. We fed the gators with dog food, which was fun when they rolled over to get the food. I accidentally pinged one in the eye, so I felt bad about that.

Sidney got to hold a baby gator.

The park closed at 5pm, so we had to get back on the road too soon. We talked about all kinds of stuff and had a good time. This was easily one of my favorite trips. New Orleans was crazy. The hotel was awesome. The food was good. I’m already considering another trip just for fun in a couple of years.

I storified tweets so you can see more pictures and the crazy tweeting we did over at my Storify account.

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