I’ve received a few asks about how the Coastal Magic Convention went (it was February 20-23 in Daytona Beach). In a word: AWESOME! But for those interested in a more coherent account, I thought I’d write up a full report on my experience. 

It turns out that I have a lot more to say than I’d realized, so I’m going to break this up into a few daily chunks, or it’ll never get finished! Here’s what I’ve got for today:

As many of you know, I’m extremely introverted, and I also tend to have a lot of social anxiety, especially in unfamiliar situations. (Shocking qualities in an author, I know. LOL!) My social skills have vastly improved since childhood, and at this point in my life, I can usually “fake it ‘til I make it” in social situations without problems. But this was also my first convention ever, so I was very, very nervous going in.

Fortunately, during a Skype chat back in October, I’d had the opportunity to meet Jennifer and Dolorianne (the con’s organizers), as well as four readers planning to attend the con. One of those readers - the indescribably wonderful Tina - ended up being the first person I ran into when I stopped by the registration desk on Thursday. She immediately welcomed me with open arms and made me feel so much more at ease. I can’t thank her enough!

That night was a Roaring 20’s-themed welcome mingle. Now, one of the best things about Coastal Magic is that so many of the authors and readers enjoy it so much that they come back year after year. But when you’re the proverbial new kid in school, walking into a huge room full of people who all seem to know each other when you know almost nobody is a straight-up nightmare.

I was kind of hovering awkwardly on the side of the room, pretending I wasn’t totally uncomfortable (you know the move), when I met author Cynthia D’Alba. I don’t know if she realized how uncomfortable I felt or if she was just being naturally friendly, but she invited me to sit at her table and chat. As someone who vastly prefers to listen rather than talk myself, I always appreciate the company of a talkative person, and Cynthia is definitely that! She’s also an experienced convention-goer, so she shared some words of wisdom with me. But what I’m most grateful for is that she rescued me from having to wander the room like the new kid searching for a place to sit in the cafeteria.

The most fun part of the night was when Jennifer brought in a pair of professional dancers from a local dance school. They performed a 20’s-era dance, then invited people up to learn some moves themselves. IMO, doing something active is the best kind of icebreaker - and I also just love to dance, so I jumped right in.

It was super fun - lots of silliness and giggling! There was some shuffling of partners over time, as some people got tired, and I ended up dancing with a woman named Stephanie. It wasn’t until after the dancing exhibition was over that I realized this was the same Stephanie who’d pre-ordered all 6 of my books to pick up at the con’s signing! We hit it off, I chatted with her and her friend Amanda for the rest of the mingle, and we ended up hanging out quite a bit over the course of the weekend.

Panels started on Friday morning. My first one was about the roles of female characters in books with two male leads. This panel topic was actually inspired by that Skype chat in October - it came up during my conversation with the readers, and Jennifer and Dolorianne and I discussed it further afterward. You all know this is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I had a lot to say on the subject. LOL!

We had a great moderator, and my fellow panelists were awesome. They included author Bru Baker, with whom I discovered I had in much in common (including our authorial roots in the Harry Potter fandom). I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun all of the panels were throughout the weekend: a lot of humor and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments mixed in with some great insights. And the readers - again, during all of the con’s panels - were so engaged and asked awesome questions.

After the panel, several people made a point of coming up to tell me that they would never have known it was my first convention if I hadn’t said so. That meant a lot to me, because I was still SO FRICKING NERVOUS. The last time I was this nervous was when I officiated my sister’s wedding! This panel was also when I got to meet my reader Sue, who is an absolutely lovely person and had the kindest things to say. <3

Lunch was an authors-only pizza party, and after that, I got a sweet tooth craving. I headed down to the hotel’s coffee shop - and who should I run into outside, but a table full of all the people I knew best at the convention? I grabbed a Danish from the shop and joined them. Let me just say, it’s incredible (and unprecedented!) how quickly I felt comfortable and welcomed within this group of women. During this conversation, Dolorianne also gave me some great advice on how to decide on which writing project to focus on next.

My afternoon panel was, ironically, called “The Killing Game”. (Pure coincidence!) As you might guess, it was about all of the fun ways to kill off characters. I finally got to meet Jay from the Joyfully Jay blog in person, as she was the moderator, and afterward I met Jeff from the Big Gay Fiction Podcast as well. This may have been my favorite panel of the entire weekend, for the pure mischief of it all!

I had a nice long break for the rest of my afternoon/early evening. Now, one thing you probably don’t know about me is how much I love makeup. Playing and experimenting with makeup is one of my favorite things, and I own so much makeup paraphernalia that I have to pack my actual products in two different travel bags, and then all of my makeup brushes in their own separate third bag.

So you can imagine my reaction when I opened my suitcase upon arriving at the hotel on Thursday and discovered that I had forgotten my bag of makeup brushes at home. *headdesk*

Luckily, I’d brought several differently-sized makeup sponges with me in a different bag (I’m not exaggerating about how much I love makeup), which served in a pinch. But sponges aren’t ideal for eye makeup in particular, so I decided to use my long Friday afternoon break to walk the half-mile to the Walgreens down the street from the hotel and pick up some cheap brushes to tide me over.

No big deal, because I much prefer walking to driving - I constantly miss the days of living in Pittsburgh, when I could easily walk to the corner store, the supermarket, even work. Half a mile is just about the perfect distance for a short walk if you happen to be healthy and able-bodied, and it was also nice and cool outside, since February is one of Florida’s few bearable months.

What I wasn’t expecting was the 25-30 mph winds!

I’m not kidding. The Hilton in Daytona is right on the beach, so walking down the sidewalk outside the hotel meant there was only one layer of buildings between me and these enormous gusts of wind coming straight off the Atlantic Ocean. They were so intense that at times I had to stop walking, plant my feet, and brace myself against getting blown off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic! It was insane, although it did lend a sense of adventure to an otherwise mundane walk.

Anyway, I made it to Walgreens alive and bought a bunch of Wet & Wild makeup brushes for like $1.50 each (they’re barely any different from much more expensive brushes, tbh). Then it was back to the hotel for some downtime while getting ready for… the Jazz Age Murder Mystery Party!

TBC tomorrow!