Conference season begins!

I'm prepping for Rom Con in Denver, one of my favorite conferences. It's a favorite for 3 reasons: it's very well run for such a new conference, it's in Denver (so I can visit family), and it's the right size: small enough to touch base with readers, big enough to get lost in the crowd if you want.

When I first started in the publishing business 7 years ago (yikes. So long!), I went to the RWA conference. I went to 3 or 4 of those, and decided it wasn't for me. It's great to touch base with friends, but it's so pricy and crowded. I may go to the one in Denver in a few years (to see family again), but it's not on my calendar yet. A lot can happen between now and then.

I've been to a couple of RT conventions, the ones that were convenient for me to attend (i.e., near me so I could drive). That's chaos, with so much going on it's hard to keep track of things. It's a bit too much for me, so I doubt RT will be on my calendar in the future.

I've gone to smaller conferences (Love is Murder, Malice Domestic) and those are good, but LIM is tough to get to (Chicago in the winter?) and Malice is a bit of a trek (the D.C. area).

I think I'm getting burned out on conferences, so I may take next year off. It's tough to squeeze them in since I work full-time and have limited vacation hours, hours which I'd like to spend with my family. Of course, I think I say that every year, and every year I'm off to a conference.

So we'll see what happens -- I'm happy be at Rom Con this year to talk about my latest book, one of the most challenging ones I've written out of the 27 books so far. It should be a very good time!