TIABC Recap and Recovery!!

Well, hello! It has been an exciting and exhausting week! Totally in a good way, though!

As many of you know, the Tampa Indie Author Book Convention was this past weekend! We started off with a meet ‘n’ greet at the legendary Skipper’s Smokehouse on Saturday where we had a chance to meet some other convention authors and just get hyped about the signing. It was a very chill, fun time (even though Florida showed her true form and made things a little bit warm! LOL) and it was fantastic to get to know those who were able to make it since things can be a little crazy on signing day. I was telling Kyle and Ginni at the signing that even though I had only met many of the authors the night before at Skipper’s, it was so nice to see familiar faces in the crowd! For socially awkward introverts like me (and I suspect, a few of my fellow book peeps), that kind of thing helps a lot! We all agreed that next year’s signing will have another m&g type deal in some form.

Sunday was signing day, and I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was my first event — EVER!

Kyle’s books before we fixed them. LOL

I’ve been an avid reader for years, but I’ve never attended a book event of any kind, so this was all new to me. The venue was beautiful, the authors all had marvelous tables with swag and giveaways and beautiful books! It was a wonderland of words!

Much better! 

 

 

 

Since I only have one book aside from my co-written works with Kyle, I shared a space! It worked out well and we had tons of cute swag and books at our table!

 

Big thanks to Ginni for giving me some adorable lip glosses to hand out! ❤

 

The thrones were fun for photo shoots… even if I was required to redact a certain someone from the photo. Those of you who follow him know exactly who this is. lol 😉

 

And, of course, I had to have a little fun posing my book with the glitzy scenery! 

The after party was fun, even though I couldn’t take advantage of the bar like I wanted to  (Probably for the best, if I’m being honest! LOL)

Though, I did have some bloody mary mix that was on point, and had a lot of fun living vicariously through Ginni and her impromptu drinking contest with a fellow author! Twas hilarious, and I look forward to next year’s rematch!!

We’ve already started plans for next year and have a bunch of authors who are interested in returning! As with any event, the goal for next year will be to have even more people and even more fun! I can say that we will be looking to make it a two-day event next year, and will be looking at venues that may be closer to hotels to make things a little easier for traveling authors and guests.

An event photog may be a good idea as well! I took a few photos, but not nearly enough!! I also snapchatted a little bit before/during/after the event, but it seems like those snaps have expired. Don’t worry, though! My fellow attending authors shared plenty of photos, so be sure to lurk on them… and the convention’s Facebook page has some photos and videos up for you to take a peek at!! Check it out!!

Alright, I’ll close this baby out before she gets too long! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I really hope to see you all next year in Tampa!!

~Lila