Avon KissCon

Katharine Ashe speaking to the writers of NEORWA (Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America).

This week I had the great adventure of attending the fabulous event Avon KissCon in Cleveland, where eight amazing Avon authors spoke to the public in a panel and also took part in a smaller reception that many of my writer friends and I got to attend.

Avon publicist Pamela Jaffee with authors Katharine Ashe, Toni Blake, Linda Howard, Linda Jones, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Ryan, Jill Shelves, and Shelley Shepard Gray.

Historical romance author Katharine Ashe gave a talk beforehand to our local RWA chapter (NEORWA), where she shared her writing goals, helped us to think about why we write romance and what we wish to achieve from writing, and reminded us that you can’t be happy if you’re trying to achieve other people’s goals. In a very competitive industry, that rang very true! It was an awesome talk!

SEP with my friend and author Cate Grimm

Katharine Ashe, who graciously tolerated my “help,” lol.

The best part of the night for me, besides chatting with SEP and getting some amazing advice from Jill Shalvis, (whom I was probably staring at dumbstruck for the entire time) was being an “author assistant.” My job was to stand behind Katharine Ashe while she signed books and “help” her–by giving her her books, by moving people along who might not want to leave, taking fan pics, etc. Lol, she truly didn’t need my help but it was so awesome to ‘bodyguard’ and essentially be a fly on the wall while she chatted with fans and signed books.

My writer friends and I were in writer heaven. And very proud to be part of this wonderful, generous community.