Many of you know that I was one of the hosting authors of NOLA StoryCon, along with Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Ilona Andrews and Jennifer L. Armentrout. Much like when I first started writing books, I soon found out that there was a LOT more involved to planning and running a convention than I had originally believed. Big thanks to my co-hosts, and big thanks also to Molly Harper, Jeannette Battista, Alison Armstrong and others who helped us get things kicked off! It was a lot of work even when things went smoothly, but like any first endeavor, there were also some snags. For example, the image below sums up my feelings when we found out only a month before the convention that the hotel restaurant was under construction and thus, there would be no on-site restaurant or room service:

We also had wonderful surprises. We sold a little over five hundred event tickets and thought that a hundred or so more people would show up to the public group signing. Instead, we had over fourteen hundred people attend the signing. That made me feel like this:

Readers, bloggers, volunteers, guest authors - you hit it out of the park. You really did. For a first event, this sort of response is almost unheard of, and to say that we were shocked and humbled is to put it mildly. This leads me to the best part of NOLA StoryCon: getting to see old friends again, having former acquaintances turn into new friends, and meeting new people, either for the first time, or for the first time "in person" (online peeps, you know what I mean.) That makes all the work more than worth it. I can't wait until next year to do it all over again, and we already started selling tickets for NOLA StoryCon 2017, so go here to check out what we have in store next. Incredibly, we're almost sold out of our "early bird" all-event pass, so don't wait if you're interested, and the hotel booking link will go up on Wednesday. To accommodate our unexpected growth, we switched hotels so that we will have a larger venue (over three times the size of our last event!) and this new hotel also has something that I consider priceless: room service ;).

 

Before I talk any more about what I loved, I also have to give a shout out to guest of honor Charlaine Harris for being her usual, incredibly gracious self; to all our guest authors because they are fabulous, to our guest bloggers for their insight and for helping spread the word; to our industry guests for making the Aspiring Author panel so informative; to our volunteers because we couldn't have done it without you; to our sponsors for donating books, Goody bags and more; and to our attendees because you rocked this so hard, we are still in a happy daze! Finally, on a personal note, I have to thank God because this whole thing felt like a huge blessing.

 

There were too many great moments to list, but I wanted to highlight one that I thought you might find funny. In addition to our regular events, there were also walking tours where readers could hang out with their favorite authors while also learning more about New Orleans. In labeling the tours, we tried to be clever by naming them things like "Magic and Mayhem" which talked about voodoo and other things, or "Haunts and History" which went into some ghost stories while also delving into - you guessed it - history, and "Naughty Nola" which, among other things, talked about the famous  former red-light district Storyville. However, due to some last-minute changes, there was a little confusion about where guests were supposed to meet up for the tours (that and other glitches caused us to switch tour companies for 2017) but one morning, while I was hustling from one event to another, I got a phone call from fellow co-host Melissa Marr. I'll recap it here:

 

Melissa: I'm at the meeting place for the Naught Nola tour, but we're missing some people who bought tickets to the tour. I want to make sure they're not in the hotel lobby, so can you see if anyone is waiting for the tour there? And if they are, tell them where they should go?

 

Me: Sure. *puts down cell phone, looks around at crowded lobby, loses all capacity for critical thinking in my urgency to make sure that no one misses their tour, shouts* "Is anyone here for Naughty Nola?"

 

All I got in response were shocked, blank stares from the people in the lobby. Because I still didn't realize how this would sound to people who hadn't heard of the tour, I did what all idiots do: shout louder thinking that it will help others understand.

 

Me: "I said, is anyone here for Naughty Nola? WHO'S HERE FOR NAUGHTY NOLA? IF YOU'RE HERE FOR NAUGHTY NOLA, COME WITH ME!"

 

*facepalm* I'm only amazed that someone didn't say "You're in the wrong place, honey. The swingers' hotel is to the left" because actually, there was a swingers' building right next to ours, as we later found out.

 

Ah, New Orleans, home of countless embarrassing moments Until we do this again next year, here are some pictures from this year's NOLA StoryCon. You can see more on our Facebook page here.

Welcome panel at the Sweet Mardi Gras. Featuring: Kelley Armstrong, Charlaine Harris, Melissa Marr, me, Ilona and Gordon Andrews, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.   Part of the ballroom at the Sweet Mardi Gras. It was packed.   Me and Melissa Marr in our costumes for the Big Easy dinner   Two of the costume winners at the Big Easy dinner.   Me with Ilona and Gordon Andrews   Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr and I presenting Charlaine Harris with a vampire merman gift at the Crescent City Brunch.