Newsletter for June, 2014

Cait Miller in the Cafe du Monde

Where do I begin? I don’t want to overwhelm you, but I’ve had such a wonderful month!

I’m sitting in Kathryn Falk’s kitchen, in her wonderful ranch in Texas, and it’s a lovely, sunny day. I’m flying home in a few days’ time after a glorious month, and then it’s back to reality.

I started the month with my good friend Cait Miller, who is from Scotland. I flew out to New Orleans on the 6^th May, a gruelling 16 hour flight, but I got there fine, babbling like a budgie from my umpteen cups of coffee in an effort to stay awake so I could get there. I arrived with Megan Bamford and her hubby, having met up with them at the airport and shared their limo. A small car, burdened with 11 pieces of luggage!

One of the street bands of New Orleans

With Captain Lou on our paddle boat tour!

Cait and I explored New Orleans during the next week. It’s an amazing place, one I really want to get back to one day. Very beautiful and unlike any other place I’ve ever been to. The French-not-French atmosphere is intoxicating and the history fascinating. We ate beignets, jambalaya, gumbo and po boys, walked the streets with their masses of shops selling tempting knick knacks and listened to the most competent street bands I’ve ever heard in my life. Although now a tourist trap, New Orleans still retains the atmosphere of edgy fun it’s famous for.

The weekend after my arrival, we moved to the convention hotel, the Marriott on Canal Street. An older hotel, the public spaces were adequate and the rooms comfortable. We went on a memorable visit to the bayou with some other conventioneers, and if you’ve been checking my Facebook account, you’ll know all about that!

The convention was fantastic. Considering it was the largest yet, the organisation was excellent. There were so many people I didn’t have time to hook up with, though I did my best! My first event was the International Reception on the Tuesday, which was a lovely way to start the convention. We had it in the Riverside restaurant on the top floor of the Marriott, the 41^st, a beautiful space, with a magnificent view of the Mighty Mississipi. 200 people were attending the convention from overseas and this was a great way to meet them and share travel stories!

Then the convention itself. I did the virgin class with the awesome PJ Schneider and the equally awesome Janda Montenegro from Brazil. Then we went on to the Welcome Party, in which Megan Bamford and I had a spot. Megan had no idea she was going to win the tiara as Bookseller of the Year. What a hoot to see her delighted face!

The Kensington Signing with Desiree Holt

After that I had to go straight to one of my panels, the History Fan Fictionary, where we try to bamboozle the readers by using obscure words from history. My other panel was Vanilla Erotic, which we want to do again, about things that aren’t BDSM.

I’m trying so hard to keep this short! I did write up my experiences in a bit more detail over at The Good, the Bad and The Unread, so if you want more, hop over there! I’ll wait.

Welcome back. RT was a blast, from the Mardi Gras party, held among the real floats that are used during Mardi Gras, to the pub crawl, when I told fortunes in the pub hosted by my new publisher, Kensington, to the very last evening, when I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open.

At the Booksigning

After that, I spent a week with lovely Desiree Holt, mostly planning a project we’re doing together, but also just hanging out and recovering from RT. The weather was amazing, violent thunderstorms and torrential rain. In Texas!

Then I took a short journey to Kathryn Falk’s ranch, a place of beauty and relaxation. It’s a lovely end to a wonderful trip.

Phew! So I’ve had a wonderful month, but after this, don’t expect to hear much from me for a week, as I sleep off the jet lag.

I was thrilled to discover that my new release, Lightning Unbound, reached the Samhain best seller lists! It’s the first in a new series, and one that’s very close to my heart. I absolutely love writing it and I’m thrilled to report that the third in the series has just been accepted.

Where to find Lynne Connolly and her Books 

My website
The hub of everything I do. It's updated regularly, with excerpts, short stories and other goodies:
http://www.lynneconnolly.com

My newsletter and yahoo group.
Members get a monthly newsletter, where the news ALWAYS breaks first, and new excerpts are aired. There is also a free book, available in the Files.
To join, go here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LynneConnolly/
or send an email here:
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UK Historical romance blog:
http://historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com/

My personal blog:
http://lynneconnolly.blogspot.com/

I currently write for Samhain Publishing, Ellora's Cave , Loose-Id , Total E-Bound, Kensington Publishing and Carina Press. So you can find me on their loops and on their websites.

I write columns for Sybil at The Good, The Bad and The Unread:
http://tinyurl.com/6j42ut

And my email is lynneconnollyuk@yahoo.co.uk

Lynne Connolly

Powerful men and the women who love them

http://lynneconnolly.com