Australian Romance Readers Convention 2015

What a fabulous weekend at ARRC2015. It was so well organised. The hotel (QT) was very spiffy and the guests were awesome.

I’ve been dieting so the first glass of bubbly on Friday night at the Harlequin cocktail party went to my head.I managed another at the ARRC welcome cocktail party, well half. The food was quite delicious and the the event was well attended. I didn’t got to the trivia quiz but I heard it was a ball.

Saturday morning, Helene Young did her speech and then I went to some panel sessions.To my embarrassment I had a slight hangover and had to medicate. The event was catered so I was navigating the food around my diet at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. The food was very good btw but I had to limit my intake. My mate, Nicole Murphy, was on a panel and then it was time for the booksigning event. The only physical books I had were the other me’s Dragon Wine series, which aren’t romance. What a thrill to see people buy Shatterwing. The cover was a real hook for people, particularly dragon lovers.

I sat next to Jennifer Kloester. I sat next her to her last time too. That time I bought her biography of Georgette Heyer. This time I bought her Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, which I have devoured. I also bought two of her novels. She was a lovely companion for signing and an interesting and smart woman. She has really improved my knowledge of Georgette and given me an excellent resource. I’m currently drafting a Regency Romance.

Here is a shot of Jennifer and me.

Jennifer Kloester and Dani Kristoff

The awards dinner went off very well. The optional dress was 1920s style and some people go to so much trouble. The costumes (and the bling) were amazing. The food was pretty good. Would you believe Kylie Scott won 4 awards. The lovely Anne Gracie took out the award for best historical and Rachel Johns for contemporary I think. I just had to buy one of her books. She writes rural romance.

I had a glass of bubbly again at the Momentum drinks and then I had to not drink during dinner so I would be sober enough to drive home. Matthew would have rescued me but didn’t need to.

Sunday was another good day. I was on a panel talking about magic, or ro-magic, the term they are giving light romance with magic in them. I caught the end of Victoria Dahl’s guest of honour speech which was entirely appropriate to International Women’s Day.

Monday after the convention, there was a lake cruise. Now I’ve been in Canberra for nearly 20 years and I’ve not done the cruise before. It was a perfect day for it. The weather had been so lovely the whole weekend I was so pleased for the guests that the weather stayed so fine. The cruise was three hours long and so mellow and picturesque. The lunch was pretty reasonable and I had a lovely glass of sauvignon blanc.