Hello Baltimore! Here’s the view of Light Street from my room.
I took Amtrak down to Baltimore on Thursday afternoon and checked into a gorgeous suite at the Marriott Residence Inn at 17 Light Street.
It felt like I was back to living in an apartment. Most comfy place I’ve ever stayed.
My hotel.
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.
Loved this sign.
Dinner at 17 Light was crab cakes. When in Baltimore…
This was near the author tents. On Friday, I got to be a fan girl and go to panels and signings. It was awesome!
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.
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!
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.
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.
There was a music stage with dancing going on.
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.
Lauren is the queen of good selfies. Love this shot of us that she snapped!
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!
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.
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.
The fried provolone rocked.
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!
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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