Lori Foster hosts a Reader/Author Get Together each year. The 2008 event will be in Cincinnati at the Cincinnati Marriott North. Sand, CTGMom, and I are planning on attending! 2008 registration information should be available after the first of the year.

EDITED TO ADD DATE: Friday June 6 - Sunday June 8 (2008)

I want to come too!

I thought you might! :)

I WANNA GO I WANNA GO I WANNA GO...but I think its the same time as the Book Expo next year...i lied! the Expo is the weekend BEFORE so I can go to both (assuming I can afford the airfare right?)

sign me up for more info!!

I'm thinking about it...

You know you really want to...it looks like sooooooooooooooooo much fun!

You know you want to! I'll post more info as soon as it is available.

Those of you who are thinking about coming will probably want to look into alternative airports. Cincinnati is a very expense airport to fly out of...I don't know if it is the same to fly into. Dayton is about a 40 minute drive which isn't too bad given the Cinci airport is in KY and about the same distance. I live in Dayton and am willing to help with transportation. CTGMom and Sand will be coming from Louisville so that may be another alternative. You'll need to coordinate with them...I'm just volunteering their services. :)

I can also help with transportation from either Cinci or Dayton airports. Possibly even Lexington, though I'll state right now that I'm probably only willing to make one trip down there, so if multiple people choose to fly into Lexington, we'll have to coordinate.

Unfortunately, the Cincinnati Marriott North is not really situated in a convenient spot to stay at another hotel to save money... unless you rent a car, which would probably cost you all the money you'd save. There's a lot of stuff around that area... but that's the only hotel. Of course, that area is growing so fast that by mid-2008 there could be another! :lol:

(Seriously. 10 years ago, the high school I graduated from opened up near that exit from the highway - they built the exit because of the high school and there was literally ONLY the high school there. Now there's the Marriott, a movie theater, B&N, a shopping complex, an auto dealer, an area with 7 or 8 restaurants, a little strip mall with smaller restaurants, a few other strip mall type places... and that's what I can come up with off the top of my head...)

Well if you are going I'm sure it will be fun Ann!! I am probably going to go, we'll see how much I spend in London at the convention. Although it will be hard to resist, Delta flies non-stop from Boston.

Is this all romance authors? :unsure:

I believe it is!!! And I think those women know how to have a GOOD time!

London hotels are going to be expensive. And the exchange rate is horrific. I'm anxiously interested in finding out what the convention rate is at the hotel.

I know I haven't read a single book by the authors on this year's page, however, it's about books and reading and my friends are going, so I'm in!

Of course, the fact that it's less than 20 minutes from my apartment helps... no travel or hotel costs for me! :lol:

Some of them do cross over into other areas. Like JR Ward is kinda a darker paranormal romance

Ah well, I can't leave during that time of the accounting month assuming I still have a job. :rolleyes: Better not make any spending money plans just yet. Have fun ya'll!

I have a couple questions.. is there a special rate for the event? Are the authors pretty much the same, or is there a link for 2008? And how far is the hotel from the CVG airport?

This came on a yahoo group that I now belong (Rhonda :whip:)
Howdy, Everyone.
Lori Foster and I are once again planning our 2008 Reader and Author Get Together in June and just thought I’d give everyone a sneak preview of what’s happening so you can add this fun event to your schedule. So far we have 70 authors, two agents, a NY editor, three publishers and we have seven months to go!
The location is Cincinnati, Ohio and the cost for the weekend is $35. That’s it! What a deal.
We’ll open registration January 1 so check my website (www.DianneCastell.com) then.

CVG is 13 miles south of the river. The hotel is at exit 19, so they are 32 miles apart. I'd say it'll take about 40 minutes to get from one to the other, depending on traffic.

ETA: The hotel's web site says they're 30 miles apart and that the taxi fare is $75.

I live about 10 miles south of the hotel and can certianly pick people up from CVG... though combining trips would be great as airport traffic is :rant: :rant:

Woot! I can afford that! Where do I sign up! :giggle:

;.; I can afford too...if I can afford the airfare and hotel costs. I'm definately going to need to room with someone. Wait! do you think it would be cheaper to take Amtrak from Trenton, NJ?

Lexie

I think it would be ridiculous to take the Amtrak as if you want to arrive on the 5th, you'd have to arrive at 1:03 AM after leaving at 7:40 AM on the 4th.

Or you could leave at 10:30 AM, 11:28 AM, or 12:28 PM on the 4th and not arrive until 3:17 AM on the 6th.

I'd say you'd have to save a LOT of money to make Amtrak worthwhile.

2008 READERS AND AUTHORS GET TOGETHER

Planning is underway!

Official registration forms will be available at http://lorifoster.com/community/readergettogthr.htm after the new year.

For now, here are some quick details...

DATE: June 6th-8th

LOCATION: Marriott North in West Chester, Ohio. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/cvgn...marriott-north/

Rooms are $99 a night.

REGISTRATION FEE: $35
-- that covers Friday night pizza party, Saturday morning continental breakfast and Saturday buffet.

Restaurants are nearby for dinner.

Industry professionals attending so far:

Cindy Hwang, Berkley
Crissy Brashear, Samhain
Margaret Riley, Changeling Press
Sue Grimshaw, Borders buyer
Roberta Brown, Brown Literary Agency
Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency
Jennifer Schober, Spencerhill Literary Agency
Meriam Gray, Co-Founder, Topaz Promotions, LLC
Marisa O'Neill, RomanceNovel TV

Authors planning to attend:

Liz Andrews
Camille Anthony
Michele Bardsley
Becky Barker
Anya Bast
Jacki Bentley
Laura Baumbach
Elizabeth Bevarly
Toni Blake
Monica Burns
Susanna Carr
Dianne Castell
Sam Cheever
Billie Warren Chai
Ann Christopher
Mary Ann Chulick
Edwina Columbia
Diane Craver
Paige Cuccaro
Sharon Cullen
Sierra Dafoe
Lauren Dane
Gia Dawn
Jamie Denton
Kate Douglas
Carol Ann Erhardt
Katrina Farabaugh
Gail Faulkner
Lori Foster
Shelley Galloway
Heather Grothaus
Megan Hart
Ann Jacobs
Marcia James
Marteeka Karland
Celia Kyle
Rosemary Laurey
Marilyn Lee
Lora Leigh
Toni Leland
Mary Lennox
Michelle Levigne
Kimberly Logan
Melissa Lopez
Donna MacMeans
Lena Matthews
Janice Maynard
Erin McCarthy
Sarah McCarty
LuAnn McLane
Sandy McWhorter
Lucy Monroe
Shelby Morgan
Tuesday Morrigan
Anne Rainey
Tracy L. Ranson
Patricia Sargeant-Matthews
Jan Scarbrough
Michele Stegman
Kay Stockham
Kira Stone
DeNita Tuttle
Eve Vaughn
Shiloh Walker
Ann Warner
J. C. Wilder
Gwen Williams
Beth Williamson
S.J. Willing

This is the 4th event, and in the past we’ve donated all raffle proceeds to the Battered Women’s Shelter, but this year we’ll be donating to the "CONDUCTIVE LEARNING CENTER of Greater Cincinnati," a local school specializing in education for children with spina bifida and cerebral palsy.

We haven’t forgotten the shelter, though. I organized an anthology with contributions from myself and 11 other authors, titled “THE POWER OF LOVE,” that will be published through Berkley in June 08, and proceeds from the sales of that book will go to the Battered Women’s Shelter.

I see Nou has been busily enabling everyone over here at the forum about the June event, but I just wanted to put in that I've already met several authors attending and they are a LOT of fun to hang out with! This is a very casual event where readers and authors get to hang out together and do various things... last year they even had line dance lessons for those interested. The fee is only $35 which includes 3 meals!!! The hotel rates are $99 a night (CTGMOM and I are rooming together and we could take on a couple more people I'm sure to help make the weekend even cheaper! :wink: ) The most expensive part of the weekend will be temptation to buy books as the authors will all have books for sale, which is a VERY, VERY dangerous thing!!!

At any rate... I hope some of you can make it!!!

P.S. Sorry I haven't been around... I've missed everyone. :grouphug:

Sand--i'll be happy to room with you guys XD since the most expensive part of this trip will be well the airfare for me. i'm looking forward to it (especially since I learned that my company won't foot the bill for me to go to Book Expo next year like they did this year--apparently the little matter of it being in LA instead of NYC made the difference ::sigh:: )

I haven't met any of the authors listed so it will be super-interesting for me!

So... are you definitely in Lexile or still in limbo? ;)

I'm definitely in unless I have a NERO event that I have to staff that weekend (which I won't know for a bit, but before I need to buy my ticket).

I won't be staying in the hotel, though. :lol:

definately in Sand!! sign me up! ::hands over her marching papers::

Anyone want to pay my way and watch my boys for me so I can go? :rofl:

Oh how we could corrupt those two precious boys at a romance reader/author get-together.

Well, I can offer you the couch in my apartment so you don't have to pay for the hotel room... but that's about all I can do. :(

wouldn't really be corrupting so much as educating young impressionable easily influenced minds to broaden their horizons!

Oh yeah!! Train 'em while they are young! That's my moto! I've been "educating" my nephew for years. At the same time I had the safe sex conversation I also included conversations about satisfying her first! :) His girlfriend is very grateful!

Hey! My boys are only 9 and 11! Puberty hasn't quite hit them yet. Don't corrupt them please. :cry:

Thanks for the kind offer Pepper. :hug:

It's not corruption...it's education! :D

Oooh. I'm late to this, but it sounds fun. I'm gonna see if I can rope my sister into going. She loves Lora Leigh's books. I think the deciding factor for us would be the cost of airfare. Sooo I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope it's cheap. :)

I hope you can make it Simply!!! The more the merrier!!! ;)

I'm definitely interested in going.

Has anyone registered for this yet? I haven't. My sister and I are gonna talk about it, see if we can swing it. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go. I love Lori Foster. Plus, I've never been to Ohio before :)