Special Edition-Between the Pages: Laissez les bons temps rouler

Are you looking for the ultimate reader experience? 

Here's one that will knock your socks off!

https://www.bookloverscon.com

MAY 15-19, 2019 

Hyatt Regency Hotel  New Orleans, La.

Director Jo Carol Jones and Peggy McMillan

I recently caught up with #BLC19 conference director, Jo Carol Jones (NOT an easy task, btw!)  and asked her to share a bit about this brand-new conference that is debuting in NOLA! 

Jo Carol Jones is no novice at reader/author conferences. For the last several years she was the convention director for the Romantic Times Conventions and has over 18+ years in conference and special occasion events. When, this past year, RT decided to close its doors, it ended one era and ushered in a new direction in reader/author conferences! I have to say on a personal level that working with Jo on events in her conferences is always an exciting journey! 

I asked Jo Carol to share a bit about the Booklover's Con--

Amanda: Why have your first conference in New Orleans?

Jo Carol: Mainly because readers asked for it! We've been working with the beautiful Hyatt Regency New Orleans and feel we have a beautiful venue, in a beautiful city, with some of the most wonderful authors slated to attend this conference.

Amanda: I noticed the authors were limited. Why is that and how many authors are attending?

Jo Carol: We wanted to make it a more intimate experience, for the authors as well as the readers. Keeping it on a smaller scale and having an agenda that is very open and interactive between readers and authors is a win-win for everyone! Author registration is now closed with approximately 240-250 authors registered to attend.

Amanda: What can readers expect at #BLC19?

Jo Carol: They can expect to have the chance to meet authors one-on-one and attend events the authors themselves have designed specifically for the readers enjoyment.

Amanda: Can you give us a sneak peek of who is attending? (Besides me, of course;) I heard Charlaine Harris, JR Ward, Sabrina Jeffries, Heather Graham just to name a scant few are attending!

Jo Carol: That's true and besides you, readers can check out the many great authors set to attend the conference #BLC19 AUTHOR PAGE We feel we have a group of incredibly talented authors this year and we're very excited to welcome them to BLC19!

Amanda: So you've been the special events/convention director biz for 18+ years, what is it you like most about what you do?

Jo Carol: I honestly love watching the readers faces when they see their favorite author for the first time, seeing their expressions when they walk into an event and their mouth drops open and they are drawn into the magic of the moment!

Amanda: That "wow" factor.  Sort of a visual transformation into the world of imagination and fantasy. (Good segue-way into the next question) What are some of the events on tap for BLC19?

Jo Carol: We have worked with authors, the hotel and special groups in NOLA to create a magical journey that celebrates our common love of books! From a traditional Jazz fest to open up with on Wednesday to two sit down dinners Thursday and Friday hosted by several authors-- Thursday is the Faery & Fantasy Gathering and Friday is the Voodoo Vampire Club. The bookfair of course on Saturday, with a wonderful Saturday night celebration of dance and food New Orleans style and a farewell brunch on Sunday. In-between the big events are a number of intimate author hosted events featuring games, prizes, fun, and more! Lots of swag and goodies bags can be expected! There is a full page of all the events on our AGENDA PAGE.

If you 'd like to learn more about the BOOKLOVERSCON19 coming to NOLA in May 2019, check out the official website.

Hope to see you there!!

https://www.bookloverscon.com  

E.E. Burke's Best of the West With Fairytales and USA Today Bestselling Author Caroline Lee

Purchase today from Amazon

This prince's Pea won't fit under the mattress...but the truth will!

Micah grew up in the Zapato orphanage, and is proud to take over Abuelo Zapato's role of providing for the family--the children that have become his siblings--in Everland's leather goods shop. Since being scarred in one of his brother-in-law's gunfights, he knows they're the only family he'll ever have. And he's at peace with that...until fate--or the Guild of Godmothers--drops two unexpected females in his path.

When his old childhood friend Penelope--Pea--shows up just in time to save him from a gruesome death, Micah is smitten. And when he sees her cuddling the new baby orphan, he's in love.

But Pea isn't in Everland on a whim; she's there on a mission regarding Micah's past, and refuses to tell him the truth. That secret is going to tear them apart, unless they get some help from a particularly dopey Godmother.

And that's when everything goes wrong...

Step into Everland, Wyoming, where the people on the street are more than what they appear, and there's just a hint of magic in the air. From evil villains to mysterious godmothers, handsome cowboys to hidden princesses... welcome to Everland, Ever After.

A word (or two) from Caroline:

I write #HistoryWithHeart. Sure, these days I’ve been writing plenty of contemporary (the River’s End Ranch series has new books every other week!), but historical romance is where my heart really lies. And my current series is just so much fun!

The Everland Ever After are reimagined fairy tales set in the Old West, and are really popular among both the historical western crowd and fantasy readers. For each story, I distill the original fairy tale down to its most basic elements, and then rebuild it in an old west setting.

There’s very little magic in my books, and what’s there is what I like to call “coincidental” magic, rather than “bibbity-boppety-boo” magic. In other words, everything could be explained away by coincidences, but there are some very important secondary characters—the Guild of Godmothers—who would be irritated if they heard me talking like that.

Each heroine is assigned a Godmother, and some are…well… Some are more efficient than others, we’ll just put it that way. The Guild chapter in Everland is made up of Godmothers who—again, coincidentally—share their names with some other fairy tale “helpers”. We have Happy, Grunhilda-who-we-call-Grumpy-for-obvious-reasons, Doc (don’t ask her what she’s actually a doctor of, though), Somnolena, and Sneez—excuse me, Suzy. Oh, and Bashful. No one makes the mistake of forgetting Bashful—not more than once, anyhow.

In the most recent book, The Prince’s Pea, I knew I needed a particularly dopey Godmother. But the word “dopey” wasn’t around in 1877, so I used the name “Dorcas”. No offense to the Dorcases out there, but I happen to think it’s a really funny name. And when you’re an author you can name people whatever you want. So the Godmother who accidentally-on-purpose burns down an orphanage is named Dorcas. I mean, who does that? Dorcas, obviously.

Anyhow, The Prince’s Pea is the ninth book in the series. And it’s special because it’s the follow up to the first book, Little Red (which is free for alle-readers!), featuring the brother of that heroine. There are a lot of parallels between the two books, and I think many readers will enjoy revisiting certain characters.

The reason I like this book so much is that I got to have some gender-bending fun. In the original Princess and the Pea tale, the prince is looking for a bride, and has rejected all of the choices. A wet, bedraggled, and very un-princessy-looking woman shows up at his door, and the Queen puts her on a bed with a gazillion mattresses, claiming that only a true princess could feel the pea buried underneath them (which by then was probably a candidate for mashed peas).

In my story, it’s the hero whose identity is uknown, who has to discover the truth under a mattress. Not only that, but I got to play with traditional romance gender roles too! My hero is gentle and loving, the primary caregiver for the children in the orphanage. My heroine is a gun-toting, independent businesswoman whose plan for the future gets all screwed up when she comes to Everland and meets Micah.

And then Dorcas happens.

Anyhow, all of the Everland books are fun to read, but this one is particularly special. I really think any fans of historical westerns or fantasy fairy tales would enjoy this story and the sometimes-whimsical world of Everland.

Happy reading!

Meet Caroline

Caroline Lee has been reading romance for so long that her fourth-grade teacher used to make her cover her books with paper jackets,. But it wasn't until she (mostly) grew up that she realized she could WRITE it too. So she did.

Caroline is living her own little Happily Ever After in NC with her husband, sons, and brand-new daughter, Princess Wiggles. And while she doesn't so much "suffer" from Pittakionophobia as think all you people who enjoy touching Band-Aids and stickers are the real weirdos, she does adore rodents, and never met a wine she didn't like. Caroline was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2006 and is really quite funny in person. Promise.

You can find Caroline at:

www.CarolineLeeRomance.com

Facebook: CarolineLeeAuthor

Twitter: @LoveCarolineLee  #HistoryWithHeart

Caroline@CarolineLeeRomance.com

As Caroline mentioned, her first book in the Everland Series, Little Red, is FREE! You can download it from Amazon right NOW!

Do you love fairytales? What are some of your favorites, and why?