It's the clothes what make the man

There were plenty of opportunities for fun at RT Booklovers' Convention. It wasn't all panel-panel-panel-workshop-workshop-panel-panel-workshop-workshop-DEEP BREATH, though I think that about sums up my first 25 minutes at the convention.

One of the signature events is the Faery Ball, a masquerade dinner where everybody's encouraged to come in costume. Haven't been in costume at a con since 1996, I thought I'd give it a shot. My immediate mindset wasn't something cute and foofy, though. For my inspiration, I looked toward my favorite Disney villain, Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty. Not exactly as dark, sinister, or teh sexay, but it still got a great reaction from the crowd during the costume contest. The contestants were escorted across the stage by one of the entrants of the Mr. Romance contest (a.k.a. the "mangeant", the "meat contest", or "Mr. Cover Stud"), were given a little twirl, and had a chance to show off.

The MC saw me in line and howled with laughter. In fact, my escort and I even agreed that it'd be fun if he gave me the twirl at center stage and when I was about to leave, I'd whip open my fan, hold it up to block us, and kiss his cheek.

I don't think I've ever heard that many women scream like that when I'm involved.

This is a picture taken outside the ballroom, a green screen effect where you got to choose the backdrop. The wings I'm wearing are a heavy latex and they actually flapped when I walked.

The next evening was a zombie/vampire ball but I had to ditch that costume. Somewhere along the way, I'd accidentally thrown out the fangs I'd bought for the event, so I just wore what I had to the e-pub signing event earlier that afternoon. I decided to create a connection to my book But I Never Said I Didn't Love You and thought about something to wear related to it. Since there are lots of underwear jokes, I decided to look elsewhere for inspiration. Then it hit me: my character Callum wears a London Scottish Rugby League jersey in one scene so why not? Internet-bound I go and I found one on eBay.

There was another photo opportunity sponsored by Bobbi Smith, raising funds for a charity that supports families of people in the armed services. It was a picture of you with the cover studs, so I thought it'd be fun. I got into the group, a few of the guys hooting and hollering, waving "hang loose" hand signs at me and such.

The guy second from the left was my escort during the costume contest at the Faery Ball the night before. The guy to my right, next to my "thumbs up", won the Mr. Romance contest for a cool $125,000 cover deal. (There was also a drawing to be a judge for the contest, but alas and alack, it wasn't to be.) And the two guys standing to the far right of the picture weren't smiling in very many others, so it wasn't me.

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