Penned Con 2015 (the aftermath)

My dear friend, and author, Amy Miles, and her husband Rick Miles, put together a signing in St. Louis last year to help raise money for autism, a cause close to their heart as their son, Landon, (an awesome kid) also has autism. I went to their first signing last year, and when they decided to host another this year, of course I had to go.

Penned Con is the only signing that I will fly out to. As you can imagine, a trip like this is pricey. Air fair, hotel, food, then purchasing the swag and books …it’s not the sort of thing you plan to make money back on. It’s a trip to meet readers, network, hug authors you’ve only met on facebook, go to panels and have fun. Which is just what I did.

One of our speakers, Author Denise Grover Swank, urging us to take RISKS!

This was the ball that happened on Saturday night. This is just a few of the authors that were at Penned that were also represented by Gandolfo Helin Literary Management.My table neighbors and pals, Julie Cassar and JD Nelson! This is a few of the authors practicing for a secret flash mob of Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off. It was our way of surprising the readers and giving back some of the love that we feel for them! We all practiced for months in the comfort (and embarrassment-free) homes to a tape Amy Miles had put together for us. We had one block of about 30 min to practice it all together. It went off flawlessly! Everyone was surprised and had a great time!
One of the event coordinators, Rick Miles, even volunteered to dress up as Superman if we raised an additional $1,000 for Action for Autism. Well, we did that, in the first day of his challenge, so he had to up his game by adding first a Tutu, then a Tiara for $2,000. All in all, they raised just over $10,000 for the cause. This is me with pals, JD Nelson, Julie Cassar and my roommate for the event, Casey Peeler. Much fun (and booze) was had by all.So will I go to Penned Con again? You betcha. I already booked my table. 😀