The Illustrated Romance

7 a.m. That’s where I left off right?

Yes.

OKAY.

So I was awake again at 7 a.m. and I have no idea what I did. I might have edited some of the images from the day before, we had some highlander, and some luau pics that I wanted to post for everyone. My first thing on Saturday was to go see Pamela Clare talk about her I-Team series which is a new love of mine, starting with Breaking Point. Pamela came to read at the Denver Lady Jane’s Salon when it was released and I had purchased and downloaded it before she was finished reading the snippet. It was FABOO. Then I found out we had another connection.

Anywhoo, that was great, Derek slept, then his friend Will showed up, he drove down from Greeley to hang out with D for awhile, we had just returned from a run to Chipotle for fuel, where my flip flop blew out and I then had to run in to Walmart to buy and emergency pair. We were sitting in the bar eating when I spotted Julie James.

This is where I kinda went nuts. I stared for awhile. I whispered to everyone a bit. Then I convinced myself to go say hello. I did. I spoke with Julie James and from my side we had a nice conversation, but I’m pretty sure from her side it seemed a bit sketchy. HOWEVER. I spoke rather lucidly (opinion again) and I did NOT throw up on her shoes. So I consider it a win. While speaking with her I helped her find Pamela Clare, who she had a lunch date with, and then was mistaken for Pamela Clare, who has a massive head of blonde hair like me. Then I walked away as calmly as possible. Freaked out with some of my Colorado author buddies, Lori Corsentino, Hillary Seidl, Mary Guida and I’m sure there were others there, but I don’t remember. I just remember that I DID NOT throw up on Julie James’ shoes and that made me ecstatically happy.

After lunch we were going to shoot, but Kim snatched D up to participate in the Strip-a-hero workshop with Brooks Johnson and the lot of the Hot Damn crew which was fun, because Will went with us to watch as D got undressed by Mary Wine while Jade Lee went after Brooks.

Photo by The Hot Damn Crew

After the strip-off we headed for the makeshift studio. We shot some leather pants and swords, some more kilt, some other stuff, then Guy arrived for his shoot with Kim and we put Derek in the great kilt and took him out to the giant waterfall in the lobby. This is where hotel management spoke with us about lawsuits. I am REALLY hoping the video and images (I saw you Delilah Marvelle) that readers and authors shot during this little shoot start surfacing. If you shot something let me know!! I would love to link to it!!

I love this smile. 🙂

Final images from this shoot later.

After the waterfall fiasco we…um…something, then we did something else. I think we passed out in the room for awhile and later on we went in search of food again.

While we were out following Will’s errant GPS to a non-existaant Sushi joint Levi showed up. Now you guys know who Levi is if you follow my blog. We finally found the Sushi joint and went with Kati and Jamie, after Levi gave Jamie a nice show in his car. The sushi was awful. Tasted like rubber. But I was so hungry at that point I didn’t care because after meeting Julie James (JULIE JAMES) I could not eat my Chipotle without actually casting up my accounts. On the way back to the hotel I asked Will if he was planning on staying with us for the night, he put his arm around my shoulders and said, in a saucy voice, “Well that’s the plan.” wink wink, schmooze. I glanced at D who looked away and shook my head. Third call to my husband. Sorry honey, I will be sleeping in a room with my 24 year old model and his cute friend from Greeley. No worries. Insert googlie eyes here.

That night we went downtown. D was feeing better and originally we had planned to dress Brooks and Derek in Kilts and regalia and take them down to the Tilted Kilt, but we lost Kim after awhile and decided to go down on our own. We had dinner at Wazee Supper Club which was awesome, love that place, they had live jazz for their 30th birthday party or something. Will finished everybody’s food. And I mean he yelled at people and snatched their leftovers. (He was headed steadily toward happy drunkness)

He was fun though. After dinner and music we headed for The Tilted Kilt and hung out on the balcony chatting for awhile. It was really nice. Will danced with a bride and won a boa.

But before that happened, someone said something about fisting, and Will decided he needed to know more about it. I think we were talking about Tiffany Reisz’ book Seven Day Loan, which is FABULOUS, and that happened. I believe I tweeted Tiffany. He wanted to know what you do once you get up there.

Yeah.

Drunk boys at romance conventions.

Wow.

He told Jamie she had too much cleavage (?) and was upset that Kati was married, and didn’t say anything until the end of the night (?) and really was just fun to watch. Ah I miss being a young college student.

We walked back the the car and he accosted yet another future bride, told her she better be sure because it’s forever, then gave her his boa.

All in all a pretty crazy night. Derek and I just hung back and drank water and watched.

We got to the hotel and I, well, just tried to edit images while two boys got into their skivvies and went to sleep. My high school self wanted to take pictures, but my adult self said that’s Edward-Cullen-in-the-corner-while-you-sleep-creepy cut it out. So there you go.

Will left early on Sunday, he had a date with the beerfest. Really, he is sounding like a lush and I don’t think he is, he was a really nice guy, he is in college, and came down for some fun, which he had. And we witnessed.

So Sunday. AI. The BIG BIG shoot…

That day did NOT require a call to my husband, but two more of Derek’s friends did show up.