letter #3 from me (Gwenda Bond) to you: what happens in Vegas is...weird
Your first impression on walking into the Rio in Las Vegas is of smoke and sadness. This impression, like the smoke and sadness, will not dissipate. There is a slushy bar selling brightly-colored daiquiris from vats to the left, and to the front dingy lighting, loud music. Women lackadaisically sway from side to side on platforms, whether anyone is there to watch them or not. Jump down and run free, you want to tell them. The overwhelming feeling of Vegas is of the nights in college that you vaguely or entirely regretted, the shiny things that would have seemed exciting at 18 but now just seem seedy.
Conversation with my seat mate at the big signing Kate Brauning, where I'm stealing a few minutes to write this: "It's like Casablanca," she says. I respond, "It's like Casablanca, but without the glamour." I then tell her about being in line at the sundries shop (where I was buying a seven dollar toothbrush because I forgot mine) behind a man who balked at the price of his condoms.
So this is the venue for RT, the Romantic Times Convention, where I am this week (and why this week's letter is late) . The convention is overwhelming but lovely. It's filled with energetic readers of romance and lots of other things, including YA, and there is a lot of book squeeing, which is of course the best. There's just something excellent about being in a place where someone just says "Tessa Dare" and the response is happy coos, the communal memory of book joy. And I've gotten to see many friends here. Adventures have included a Shining-esque journey through the Gold Coast next door in search of coffee (where I saw a Gremlins slot machine; as someone said on twitter best not to feed it quarters after midnight), helping an author get to a drugstore to manage a personal emergency, going out with the fabulous Kody Keplinger to the best Thai place we could find online and ending up in a great strip mall in the middle of nowhere Vegas, having fabulous conversations with people, and et cetera et cetera. Also managed to get a sunburn, even though I've been inside except for the first day.
(the hallway of doom at the Gold Coast)
(obvi)
(Kody and me cracking up in a strip mall parking lot)
Everyone has a slight Kathleen Turner voice happening after a few days here. Digging it.
Oh, and I dyed my hair blue. And that's this week's letter! See you next week!
Newsy things:
- The Woken Gods is on sale, along with many other books this week for the Escape Your Taxes Sale
- I'm at RT, where later today I will read juvenilia in front of people!
- The first real copies of Double Down are here too! Yay! Officially out May 1, but copies are sneaking out. Go preorder so there'll be a book three!