Baltimore Book Festival 2014

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Baltimore! Here’s the view of Light Street from my room.

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I took Amtrak down to Baltimore on Thursday afternoon and checked into a gorgeous suite at the Marriott Residence Inn at 17 Light Street.

 

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It felt like I was back to living in an apartment. Most comfy place I’ve ever stayed.

 

 

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My hotel.

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When I got settled in on Thursday, I went out for a walk in the Inner Harbor to get a lay of the land. To see how long it took to get from one end of the festival to the other.

 

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Loved this sign.

 

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Dinner at 17 Light was crab cakes. When in Baltimore…

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 This was near the author tents. On Friday, I got to be a fan girl and go to panels and signings. It was awesome!

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Marissa Meyer was a delight to hear interviewed. Her interviewer, Catherine Asaro, took the time to get to know her and made it a really intimate chat in the Literary Salon.

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I was so wowed over by the interview, I had to get a couple of her books signed.

Waiting in line for the signing, I got to chat with Samantha, Book Vlogger, all day. We forgot to take a pic together. But she’s gorgeous and awesome and a great book festival buddy!

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Maryland Romance Writers has a great panel on Writing Science Fiction as women authors. The panel included Catherine Asaro, Jennifer Armentrout, Em Garner, Cheryl Klam, Diana Peterfreund, and M.D. Waters.

 

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Jennifer writes across genres and many of the panelists echoed her thought that they write what they write and let the agents and editors categorize it.

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There was a music stage with dancing going on.

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At 5:30 pm, I headed back to my hotel and freshed up for a night out with Lauren Moscato, one of the coolest blog buddies I have. She and her boyfriend, Sean, took me out for potato nachos at James Joyce in the East Harbor. We laughed all night.

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Lauren is the queen of good selfies. Love this shot of us that she snapped!

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And then it was Saturday. The big day for the author tent. Dad and I got there at 10:30 am to set up. We had people stopping by from 10:45 am  until 8 pm.

My table was between three awesome authors and an illustrator! E.L. Jefferson is a monster promoter of his horror novels and picture books. His wife Janet and his illustrator Tony completed  a smooth operation. They were in complete sync the whole day.

On my other side was Damien Gibbs and Tiffany Gibbs who co-write books and also are individuals authors. Another fantastic husband and wife team. They were super prolific with a memoir, picture book, spirituality, and even fantasy novels to sell.

I’m looking forward to reading E.L. and Dameon’s books!

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I was on my feet all day. I think I pitched the book to at least 80 people. I lost count after a while. I gave out hundreds of book marks. And we sold 15 books.

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Then we met my friend Megan and her husband Greg and went to Chiaparelli’s in Little Italy for dinner. For about 8 minutes, I thought we might be ghosts because all the waiters and servers ignored us and there was no hostess to greet us. But then we were seated and I breathed a sigh of relief.

 The side salad was intense. Enough for 4 people to share 1 salad intense.

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The fried provolone rocked.

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And I loved my chicken vincenza.

Megan and Greg were great dinner companions and we laughed the night away.

So glad we all survived the cab ride back too!

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We left Baltimore the next morning. It was a 6 hour drive in constant traffic back to CT. That’s why today’s post is a bit late.

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