It looked CRAZY. Like everyone is decked out in leather and lace, and there is a JZB-type model guy running around almost shirtless, and there are costume contests, and Karen M Moning herself is around all the time, and everyone looks drunk … and WHY HAVEN’T WE DONE THIS YET? Well, we have now. We did it.
And now you get to read about what a weekend it was.
New Orleans
We begin this journey in the perfect city for everything Fever Series related. No, not Dublin. No, not that place in Wales where Barrons takes Mac. No, not County Clare where the Burren is. No, not Ashford, Georgia where Mac is from and constantly talks about. GEEZ, guys. I’m talking about Nawlins. Why would you think of any place else??? NEW ORLEANS. You know, Fever stuff.
I mean I can see Barrons hanging out on this corner, can’t you?
Of course, when you think about Temple Bar in Dublin and the crazy descriptions of bar life pre the walls coming down, and Chester’s life post the walls coming down, New Orleans does make sense as one of the only American destinations to fit that bill. It’s Old World, there’s all kinds of hints of magic and craziness, and Bourbon Street is completely disgusting*. So … it’s perfect.
*(I love New Orleans. This was not the first or the last time I’ve visited, but yeah … Bourbon is a toilet.)
Hotel Monteleone
The convention was held at the gorgeous Hotel Monteleone on Royal … just one street down from Bourbon. When I got there my first thought was “Find Shalan … give hug” because I was meeting long time That’s Normal friend, Shalan, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year and half. But I was pretty impressed with the opulence of the place on my way to tackle her. (Mostly I was impressed with its proximity to Cafe Beignet).
Author Panel with Not Kresley Cole
So first up (before our room was ready because that took a small eternity) was the panel with the other paranormal romance authors who were in attendance for the weekend: Gena Showalter, Darynda Jones, and Dianna Love … and not Kresley Cole. Unfortunately, she was super sick and we were super sad to not get a chance to see her again.
But good news! We learned cool stuff about other authors that we hadn’t heard of, had heard of but hadn’t read, and had read but hadn’t been that interested in. Dianna Love had some really great insight into her writing process, working a series and even how she got into it (she’s an artist!). Gena Showalter is adorable and funny. Darynda Jones is the author of the Charley Davidson series (I’ve read the first one), and she impressed me so much at the panel that I decided to read through the whole series. She was smart and savvy and she made me want to read her novels. What else is an author at an author panel supposed to do???
Read These
But the best part of the panel was halfway through when Karen M Moning herself just moseyed on by us and took a seat. I’ve seen a lot of authors and been to a lot of signings, but something about KMM seemed a little larger than life in that moment. So I took this creeper selfie to mark the moment.
#ThatsNormal
She got up and welcomed everyone, introduced the other authors, and got the whole room excited about that night’s festivities …
Corset Crawl
You’ve been on a pub crawl right? Yeah, me neither. BUT we hear about this one and decide we cannot miss it. (I mean, why would we even try – we were THERE to immerse ourselves in this event). Hitch: you were supposed to be wearing a corset … I assume so that we could all identify ourselves like 2nd graders at a Museum of Natural History tour, but we a) don’t own PUBLIC corsets and #2 didn’t bring them and c) have a modicum of shame. So we walked down to the hotel ballroom to get our first pub crawl destination from the folks in charge dressed like perfectly normal 30-somethings and realized … WE LOOKED STUPID. Everyone’s corsets were super cool and hot, and we felt like a family of Quiverfull’s at a Passion Conference.
Nerds
We should’ve worn some effing corsets.
But we lined up with the cool kids and traipsed down to Bourbon St. even though we were dressed as the New Orleans FeverCon equivalent of sister wives … following our fellow Moning Maniacs with the directive of “tighten your corsets … loosen your inhibitions!” Ok. We will try.
A couple of bars in and things started to disintegrate. Bar #1 “Are we having fun? Do I have to drink one of those neon colored beaker shots in order to have fun?” Bar #2 … we lost everyone already so we went to really nice courtyard place with fried food and delicious margaritas and live sweet mellow jazz played by handsome men.
Thinking our foray into the world of scantily clad pub crawling was over, we thought we’d just casually return to the hotel for some sophisticated oysters and wine at the Carousel Bar, but our erstwhile friends were not hard to find once we left our courtyard cafe … they were chanting and moving happily into some sort of strip joint. We kept moving.
And then a few places later … we found them again at a nice little establishment called The Swamp. It was lovelier than you can imagine. I got a selfie with the Sinsar Dubh in corset form, I got some free shots, and I watched someone try to mount an inflatable bull called the Swamp Monster. She didn’t make it.
Back out on Bourbon on our way to whatever destination was next, we ran into this guy leading the pack.
more on him in a bit
And we saw a few nipples.
We were off to a FeverCon Good Start™.
What Could Possibly Be Next?
Official Event: Wake up with Eric Etebari Hotel Monteleone, Ballroom9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Dreaming of waking up with Eric Etebari? Here’s your chance. Join in the fun to act out some iconic Mac/Barrons scenes (with feeling, please!), Q & A with tall, dark and handsome himself and some secret sexy sinuous surprises strictly for your pleasure.
Don’t know who Eric Etebari is? Did that event description not clue you in? Well, he’s the JZB of the weekend. He’s an actor and he’s very nice and we shared an elevator and I would have been scared of his head scarf, but his alphabet bracelet told me he was “JZB” so I knew not to worry.
Did we want to sit around eating crepes and cringing while different women play-acted as Mac and Barrons LIVE IN FRONT OF US? Well, of course we did. However. We did not make it up in time for this event. We ate brunch in Jackson Square instead and I showed Jamie and Shalan the Mississippi River for their first time.
We do not regret sleeping in.
Fever Trivia Moochers
Next up that afternoon, was either the FeverQuest … a scavenger hunt around the city with a great grand prize of a private Q&A with KMM before her book singing … OR the FeverQuiz … trivia in the hotel ballroom, where you get to sit and be lazy and answer book trivia. COUNT US IN for that noise.
Only … we were late because we had been sight seeing, so we eventually just begged to help out a losing team and helped them none percent. But it was fun. Also, we know less about the books than we should for people who’ve read them as much as we have.
But mostly we had to get ready for the EPIC NIGHT AHEAD.
Costume Party at Chester’s
That’s right. The entire reason we are here: drinking and dancing and cosplaying with people who like the Fever Series more than Anything. Else. Bring it.
Again. We did not have costumes. BUT … that didn’t seem to be a prerequisite. We did look fab after all.
Walking around the bar that was doubling as Chester’s was not easy. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that “real” Chester’s has better flow. And that like, the wings and appendages and giant pieces of not human stuff on the “real” Unseelie in Chester’s probably can sense when a 5’7″ 105-pound tiny person is being squashed up against the bar. Fake costume foam cannot.
But the costumes for the most part were INCREDIBLE. We were expecting some slutty girls trying to get into Faery. Some dumb Rainbow Macs. We were not expecting shirtless JZBs. Here’s a few highlights:
These Golden Seelie Girls looked great in person. (Eye stab count with those twigs: 2)
These buddies group cosplayed as Shazam, who I think is in Burned??? I don’t remember. This is why we lost the trivia.
The Hag. She looked INCREDIBLE.
I forgot what happened here. I think I never knew. I never WANT to know.
This picture in NO WAY does justice to this girl’s cosplay at the Unseelie King. She looked FIERCE AF. Those wings were gigantic, self-moving and she had this look on her face that chilled.
But the winner was this super fan dressed as Jo the Waitress. She was hilarious and had a fantastic creative costume. So glad she won.
There were a lot more … including the Rainbow Mac skirt of our dreams, with whom I KNOW I took a selfie, but can’t find. Then there was this moment: when some guy had the nerve to say he was cosplaying as Barrons when JZB of the Alphabet Bracelet was RIGHT THERE judging the contest, and not to be outdone … took off his leather vest to make a point.
Then, we all danced.
The Signing the Next Day
Whew. The very next morning we had to be up early to get a spot in line to come BACK and sit in line to get our new Feversong (and other books) signed by KMM and the other authors there. I don’t know what to tell you other than that we thought about sneaking in some McGriddles and some beignets, but settled for the old peanut butter crackers I had in my bag. It was a long wait. But worth it to get to tell KMM what a great weekend it was and how much fun we’ve had over the years reading and discussing and being silly over her books. She was so sweet. Even if we did all have to take our pics from this terrible angle.
Not my best side
The Q&A
After the signing, we got to spend a ton more time enjoying the city and the food, taking cemetery tours, visiting the Garden District and eating King Cake.
But Sunday morning was what I was looking forward to the most – the Q&A session with KMM. Hey, I’ve been to a lot of these things over the years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an author engage her audience with the grace and humor and affability that Karen did. I mean that. She was very very happy to be there, to answer everyone’s questions, to look people in the eye, to THINK about her answers and to give honest ones, to engage with the people who were there to engage with her. She got up and spent the entire couple of hours walking around the ballroom so she could talk directly to everyone, even though she wasn’t feeling well. She looked FABULOUS in this plush crimson cape thing that I wanted to rip off of her and take home. She was THERE FOR IT. I was actually a little bit flabbergasted. Not because I’ve never seen authors do that, but because I’ve never seen authors of her caliber do that. Not at events like this one. Brava.
Now that the Fever Series is over, she felt she could answer all questions, cart blanche. Here’s the few highlights I wrote down:
- She’s leaving the origin story of The Nine to the reader, ie she’s not telling us where they came from
- Dani’s story was never meant to be a love story in Iced.
- The Highlander’s Touch got published without an editor and it won a RITA.
- Screen adaptations are not out of the question, by any means.
- I don’t take exhaustive notes.
This was truly a great weekend. I think I’m going to agree with other TN-ers that small cons can often be the best cons. We didn’t feel rushed, overwhelmed OR bored. Everyone we met was sweet – shout out to my elevator friends!
Oh … and buy Feversong, it’s the last book in Mac and Barron’s story, and for good reason. You’ll have to re-read the whole series again. Trust me.
