By this time tomorrow I should be winging my way to Dallas to the RWA conference.

A few years ago I went to a RT convention that was held not too far away. Despite a few odd moments I had a wonderful time.

You see – I had found the on-line romance community and was starting to dip my toe into posting on message boards and that kind of thing. But all the people I was beginning to recognize were still just names without faces to put with them. This was before blogs had gained the popularity they have recently and I got to ‘know’ other readers on-line more.

So my time at the RT convention was my first real foray into meeting others of my own kind. I love my friends and family dearly but none of them are romance readers – at least not to the extent that I am. There is a huge part of me they just don’t get. Just the other day my sister in all seriousness told me I was buying too many books and I had to stop. I politely refrained from snorting and uttering those famous words, “As if!”

So to be surrounded by people like me was a wonderful affirmation that I wasn’t alone in my insanity. I burbled incomprehensibly when I met a few authors; to me they were like rock stars. I gazed in disbelief when I entered the book signing and saw so many authors whose books had taken me away from the cares of the world for a while. I, a normally shy quiet type, could approach strangers and immediately there was a bond there – the love of a good romance – even if our definition of what makes a romance good differed.

And until recently that was my extent with meeting other like me in the real world.

Then through the world of blogging, I’ve had the opportunity to meet fellow romance readers; others who are of my kind. It was a wonderful experience and I realized that no matter how we may seem to differ, inside, we were a pack, a sisterhood.

Enter a room full of romance readers and start talking about the brotherhood and almost all of them will know exactly to whom you are referring – even if you haven’t read any of the books. Mention them and their odd names to non-romance people and you would get a blank stare.

Start talking about the Bridgertons and all their alphabet names is a romance group and again, most will automatically think Julia Quinn. Ask who’s your favourite Derek or Sebastian and last names are probably not needed.

Ask whatever did happen to Elizabeth Elliot and chances are almost everyone will chime in and say ‘yea, I wish I knew what happened to her.’

We have our own language too – TBR – everyone knows what that is and most have one. TSTL? Yep, we all groan at that. Just mention authors by their last names, Garwood, Kinsale, Ward, Chase, Ivory and that can start a fascinating discussion on medivals vs RS, what about those leather pants when will we see her next one, aren’t we glad she’s back writing and when is her next book coming out? What is your favourite genre, paranormal or western or historical?

So along with so many things I’m looking forward in the next few days, one of the big ones is again being surrounded by my own kind, my peeps. Yep – that’s one of the best things I can hardly wait for.

Tomorrow can’t come soon enough!

This entry was posted by Kristie(J) on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 6:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.