Saturday, February 20, 2016

Come Sail Away

Well, The Book Splash Cruise has come and gone.  I had a fabulous time aboard the Emerald Princess and being part of Princess's continued 50th Anniversary Celebration.  Being a lifelong Love Boat fan it was exciting for me to finally be aboard princess.  For the 50th Anniversary the cruise line debuted a new drink (I had three), tested passengers Love Boat knowledge with a trivia game (I won a bottle of champange), and gave us a disco-themed Love Boat dance party.

We were even able to have our picture taken in the "iconic" life ring:


Okay, now that I have all the Love Boat stuff out of the way it's time for the Book Splash side of things.  As an admin of the Facebook group I had an insider's view to how hard Felicia Lynn and Harper Sloan worked to pull this off.  We were treated like royalty with barrels of swag and special events.  Author signings, "cocktail" parties, and more giveaways than I could ever imagine.  They've already starting planning the 2017 event and they're already close to being sold out.  So, if anyone is on the fence about going I defintely suggest giving Felicia a call.

A lot of the people in the group knew each other already before going but I went in alone and blind.  I only knew Felicia from our multitude of telephone and Facebook conversations.  I was welcomed by the group and came out not only with new contacts but also new friends.  I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Wildfire Lake by Victoria Wyngate (which I have already read and definitely recommend).  Victoria and Aimee LeMercie were my dining companions and we had many stimulating dinner conversations.   We also learned a lot from each other about this crazy business of ours.  And, I know that I have a friend for life in Rosie.  We're just two peas in a cracked pod.

I also had some great conversations with Carlos Savournin and Dave Demaske (usually at the bar or in Skywalker's Night Club).  I met so many great people that there isn't enough blog space to list them all.  Check out the Book Splash gang for yourself.

Sadly, into every life a little rain must fall.  And it's of the literal sense this time around.  The cruise was departing Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, February 6 and I had planned to fly down from New Jersey early on the 5th.  I had a 9:41am flight that didn't leave Newark until after 11am due to snow.  I had planned on going to the Flamingo Gardens but my flight landed too late.  This is actually the third time I've tried to go.  Someday.  However, we did have a great dinner at Cheesecake Factory before going on a ghost tour.

The next morning Fort Lauderdale was dreary and our first sea day was rocky and dreary (thank goodness for my QueasyBeads.  On Monday the waves were so high in Grand Cayman we had to go to a different part of the island to be able to tender over.  Ocho Rios was more of the same and it rained on our last sea day.  While the weather didn't want to cooperate it was still better than what New Jersey was dealing with at the same time.  I'll take an overcast day in the Caribbean over a snowy day in NJ.

Now, it's back to normal.  I had arrived at the airport in Fort Lauderdale just in time to take part in #pitmatch.  This newest pitch contest netted me two agent requests.  One has already turned into a rejection but that's just another part of the game.  Onward and upward.

Annnnd...my birthday is in less than two weeks and some of you may remember what that means.  GIVEAWAY!  I have a few awesome items ready for you guys on March 3 so don't forget to come back for that!