A few concerned readers emailed to ask how I’m doing, and the answer is “just fine, thank you”. I had a little freakout Saturday, which I generously allowed the entire online community to share, but, realizing there isn’t much I can do at the moment except to look on the bright side, I have decided to take positive steps to restoring my good cheer.

The first was to turn on my Kindle wireless and watch Jill Shalvis’ Slow Heat and Wendy the Super Librarian’s Blogger Bundle of Jill St. John titles magically appear. (And also a third book I swear I don’t remember buying, called How To Write a Lot, for academics. Erm. Moving right along…).

And the second step to taking my mind off my worries is, naturally, surfing the web for inconsequential things to get annoyed about.

I blogged a while back about how best to immediately ratchet up my status from romance fan to irretrievably obsessed fangirl meet some fellow readers and authors in person this year, and that post and ensuing dicusssion included mention of the Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention, the Lori Forster Reader Get Together, the RWA Annual Conference, and a new one, RomCon™. (Every single mention of RomCon on the RomCon website has a “TM” after it. I’m too lazy to replicate that, but be aware someone has claimed rights.)

The gist I got at the time, was that RWA is really not for readers or bloggers, but we can have fun there anyway, that RT is pretty geared towards the cavemen/party/sexy games side of romance fandom, and that RomCon would be a new kind of conference, explicitly for readers (unlike RWA) yet a more comfortable place for those, like me, who want to meet their favorite authors and get together with other bloggers without having to play musical chairs on the laps of well oiled cover models.

Looking at RomCon program recently, I noticed the event seems … a lot like like RT after all. It offers a lot of games and scavenger hunts, such as  “Midnight Sexcapades: a naughty late night romp”.  Many other events promise to help attendees fulflll their “obsessions” with various kinds of heroes, such as “Be Still My Heart: Does your favorite hero’s heart beat?”, or “Anti-Heroes You Hate to Love: Do you love the Dark, Desirable and Deadly heroes?”, or “Build a Hero” where attendees work in teams to …. well, you get the idea. Probably the most bizarre event is the “Weapons Gallery”, so we can “see what the heroes we love to read about take into battle!”

Other events that seem a bit more serious nevertheless have sexy titles. For example “Strip the Heroine” is actually an event with Jo Beverley about how historical heroines dressed. Don’t worry that you will actually see nakedness, though. We are told this event will be “oh-so-delicately handled by leading historical authors who know exactly what women wore . . . or didn’t!”. “Speed Date an Author” is just a chance to meet new authors, not, alas, a way to hook up. And “Shock the Queen” focuses on etiquette in Victorian England.

Now, what kind of icon do you suppose fits this fun, sexcapadey event?

This one?

On the plus side, it’s great that the organizers did not defer to traditional norms of beauty, and kudos for choosing an image of a woman with political power. But I have to wonder who decided that a queen who is either very stoned, very confused, very nearsighted, very annoyed, or all of the above (perhaps because she’s having a very bad hair day — she seems to have overdone the gel on her left side) was an inviting choice?

There are a lot of events that sound really interesting, including some of those I’ve mentioned. And as a romance reader, I know all too well not to take marketing as a 100% accurate picture of content (covers and titles, anyone?). Finally, it’s the attendees that will set the tone, something no one can predict in advance.

But I confess, I was a little surprised at how much of the event focuses on the fantasy aspect of romance, the desire of readers to have a hero for themselves, to live as heroines did, and the sexy side of things (or rather the “naughty” side. For all the innuendo in the advertising, there is no panel on sexuality of any kind as far as I can see). I’m guessing this is no different than sci fi cons with their costumes and parades (although I doubt Dragon Con promo materials promise that its attendees will be “giddy teenagers” when they pose for pictures with authors). And I know many will really enjoy the games and scavenger hunts — after all, why spend the money and attend a conference if it isn’t going to be fun? But, after looking at the program, it honestly doesn’t sound like my kind of thing. It may only be in cyberspace that I feel like an average romance reader after all.

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