I am still recovering from RT. I had an absolute blast but the lack of sleep, food and general normalcy is enough to wipe you out upon returning home. It doesn’t help that the kids were in my face, I had a mountain of laundry to do and my daughter decided to smear a broken lipstick into the carpet. Yeah, welcome home Mom.

I have to share with you all, though, my surreal moment(s). You see years ago I started subscribing to the Romantic Times magazine. I was in my early 20s and really wanted to become a romance writer. So I thought I’d plunk down the cash and subscribe to the ultimate romance writer/reader magazine.

I eagerly awaited those issues. The reviews! The interviews! The constant Fabio covers (this was the early 90s after all)! But then life got in the way. I was married, working full time and going to college full time. Then I got pregnant. And I let my subscription drop.

Now here I was fifteen years later at the 25th RT convention. Seeing those posters of photos from past conventions made me remember pouring over them long ago in the pages of the magazine and thinking, “Wow, how cool. I’d love to go to one of those conventions.”

And I was there! As a published author! How surreal is that?

My other surreal moment? Housekeeping knocked on my door and I opened it to find not only the sweet lady who cleaned my room (the staff at the Pittsburgh Hilton were wonderful – it wasn’t their fault the place was a mid-renovated nightmare) talking with Bertrice Small! Yes there is Bertrice Small in her robe in my doorway!

She’s been around since I can remember. I haven’t read a recent book by her but I read plenty back in the day. And there she was! So strange. So awesome to see all of these writers you’ve admired, read, worshipped in the flesh. I think I’d flip my wig if I ever met Jude Deveraux. She’s one of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place.

Or Judith McNaught (ok I wanted to add a y to the end of her name so bad. I’m awful). Judith was at RWA last year and I MISSED HER. I probably would’ve squealed at her like she was a rock star. Another author who made me realize, “I really want to do this.”

And now I’m really doing it.

I’m going to sound like a sap but being at RT, meeting new people, seeing old friends, what an experience. It made me realize dreams can come true.