I just returned from the Romantic Times Convention. For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the largest gatherings of romance authors and romance readers. It’s an annual conference, and it takes place in a different city each year. This year, it was held in Columbus, Ohio.

I’m going to skip over my horrid travel experience and just say that the conference was wonderful!

I presented on three panels this year, and they all went very well. By far the workshop I gave alongside Mechele Armstrong, Samantha Kane, Trista Ann Michaels and Liddy Midnight was the best attended. The workshop was entitled THE MÉNAGE PLOT: THE GLUE THAT HOLDS THREE (OR MORE) PEOPLE TOGETHER. We nearly packed the room. There were tons of questions, and at the end people came up to talk to us. A number of them said this was the panel they got the most out of from the entire conference, so I was thrilled. Since the panel was Friday, I left on a high note.

I also attended a few workshops myself — two of which were unbelievably good for me. One was on goal setting and productivity, with Vicki Pettersson. Absolutely amazing workshop. She was engaging, fun, genuine, and she gave me a ton of things to think about. I think attending that one workshop will do more for my productivity in the next year than anything else I could have done. The second was on conflict, and it was given by two historical romance authors: Robyn DeHart and Tracy Garrett. They made me think about conflict in ways I never had before, and I’m not new at this writing thing. Just when I thought I couldn’t get much more out of craft workshops, along comes something like this that makes me dig deeper than ever. I’m very glad I attended both of those. (This just goes to show that you never know where your next critical tidbit will come from. Take every opportunity to learn!)

I also attended other events: the parties in the evenings, the agents’ panel, the editors’ panel, some publisher spotlights. If you have an opportunity to attend an RT conference, or any writers’ or readers’ conference, for that matter, take it. It’s a fabulous way to network with industry contacts and to learn, learn, learn!

What was the last writers’ or readers’ conference you attended? If you’ve never attended one, what’s holding you back?

Related articles to check out:

• Quick Romantic Times Recap (whatever.scalzi.com)
• Overheard at Romantic Times 2010 (smartbitchestrashybooks.com)