Author: kira a. gold

Home from RWA 2018
by

Home from RWA 2018

I hadn’t originally planned on going to the Romance Writers of America 2018 annual conference, but I’m so glad I did.

rwawindow

From the hotel window

Denver was beautiful and a western urban bohemian paradise, and HIGH. (No, I didn’t partake, as I wanted to actually remember my weekend, though I admit being curious about the “Pot Rocks” candy.)
By Friday I was getting the altitude wobbles and on Saturday I woke up dizzy–I’ve never been that far above sea-level outside an airplane.
The food was lovely everywhere. Yes, avocado toast is a thing, and it’s great. So is strawberry-rhubarb jelly/pastry/cheesecake sauce.

Like last year, the best part of the conference were the conversations with writers in all stages on a variety of career paths:

rwatiff

Tiffany Reisz signing The Night Mark

I had a blast hanging out with Original Sinners author Tiffany Reisz while she did RITA finalist (for The Night Mark) stuff, and got to eavesdrop on Andrew Shaffer’s phone interview as his new book (Hope Never Dies) hit the NYT bestseller list.

Had my assumptions gleefully spanked by an octogenarian author in the elevator.

Jenn LeBlanc talked about her photography and publishing process on her illustrated romances and introduced me to the Lovestruck interactive story app.

Had drinks with two other pink-haired erotica writers and laughed over phrases like “It’s like D&D but with sex,” and “I’m not afraid of fluids.”

Thien-Kim Lam (check out her subscription service Bawdy Bookworms) and I were often table mates and she is so. much. fun.

RWAme

Feeling the elevation: 1 mile above sea level

(Even briefly took the wrong train to the airport because I was gushing with a romantic suspense writer who’d been asked for a full manuscript for the first time, rather than paying attention to the station map.)

Brenda Jackson told us about how her fans have helped her choose cover models. (How fun would that be!?)

To the two women at our table who were offended by Suzanne Brockmann’s incredible speech, I’m okay with the door hitting your homophobic ass on the way out.
Love is love is love, and yes, I’m done with being nice.

rwasculpture

Dancing bronzes in the hotel courtyard

I went to a bunch of workshops:
The mystery whodunnit dessert party was both silly and cool–comedy and lots of explanations of forensic terms.
The session that really rocked my brain was “The Psychology of Fiction,” by YA author  Dr. Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
She talked about what elements of bestsellers are the universals that readers want. I can’t wait for her book on this to come out.

Self-pubbed covers are getting GOOD, y’all, but I only saw three women of color at the indie book signing. We have to do better.

If last summer was eyeglass porn, RWA 2018 was the year of beautiful business card cases and gorgeous plus-size fashion–sooo many bold prints and sassy skirts and all-body-love dresses.

And, I found out that Beverly Jenkins listens to Robert Plant, which makes me happy.

by

Bel Azur

bel azur edgy
Tory Burch display at the mall with gold and blue box.

This smells like the hot towels the flight attendants hand out with tongs somewhere over the Atlantic–gender neutral, inoffensive and gone in half an hour.

A bit of citrus, generic flowers and some Pine-Sol.
A pleasant and uneventful trip.

*

Somewhere in the Atlantic–

*

by

Moonlight

moonlight AG edgy
Store display of perfume box, featuring a pop star in low lighting.

Ariana Grande’s Moonlight opens with prunes and clean sheets–but then dries down to peach yogurt cups–the lactose free kind with the pro-biotics.
The bedroom pillow marketing vibe doesn’t quite jive, either. The stuff smells more like a desperate middle-of-the-night countermeasure to imminent digestive issues than mattress lingerie.

Ariana and Miley in pajamas covering Crowded House is marvelous, though.

by

Fleur de Corail

My well worn pale aqua sea-glass heart shaped bottle, with white coral charm in pink sand.

A beach wedding.
Opens with grapefruit, sugar and a silver spoon, then the frangipani* kicks in.
Waxy flower leis, festoons of them everywhere, sweet and heavy, lovely, but overdone.
The bride carries orchids, but you can’t smell them.

Hours later there’s breezy musk on dunes, and driftwood drying in the sun. The next day, an odd amber citrus still clings to the skin, like sand in unexpected places.

*(Does anyone else think “fancy-panties” when they read the word frangipani?)
(Only me?)
(This is awkward now.)

*

This is NOT a wedding song, even with the deceptively easy beach vibe–

by

Sauvage

Peelie from horribly tone-deaf ad campaign featuring Captain Jack Sparrow Johnny Depp miserably avoiding the camera while lounging in ethnic accoutrements.

So apparently Edward Scissorhands smells like sawdust and lemon meringue pie–or maybe it’s sugared furniture polish?
There’s some old spice cabinet and an amber musk that is apropos to the aging pirate mystique, and a wave of evil English wizard lavender wand.
I like it, even though I don’t want to.

Edit–2/19/2021
I eventually did test this from a bottle.
Ad peelies have improved greatly over the years, but usually only hold the top and middle notes well. You can get more of the bottom notes if you stick the test strip in your pocket, to warm it up to body temperature.
In person, Sauvage has more of a labdanum campfire-creosote base, which gives confusing burnt pizza gourmand vibes.

sauvage edge
Store tester at the mall. I get the same notes as the peelie, but with more smoke on the bottom.

This song from the same year has some pretty savage guitar.

by

Camel

Enamel camel pendant carrying decant vial, Zoologist bottle paper test cut-out, and dried rose petals.

Camel is that delicious import shop halfway down a dark alley that greets you with dried roses in enamel vases and sticky dates on brass trays when you walk in the door.

Cedar boxes of incense, the animal musk of raw silk tapestries…
The shopkeeper has smuggler’s eyes, and you laugh when he tells you there’s a djinn in the bottle but you buy it anyway because he’s so incredibly sexy.

*

This whole album is amazing.

by

Acqua e Zucchero

acqva zvcchero edgy
Decant vial on test card with photo of Profvmvm Roma’s clear rectangular bottle.

This is all the ingredients for an Italian cream cake stored safely in Tupperware bowls.
Vanilla for days, orange flower water, ground nuts, sugar, but with a note of plastic underneath.

It’s such an odd fragrance–too pretty, like the buttercream frosting no one will swipe with a finger for a taste so as not to mar the icing; the child with the best manners and cleanest white dress that no-one will play with, for fear of getting her dirty.

Undeniably sweet and somehow slightly sad.

I saw Tori do this one in concert. It was amazing.

by

Stardust Midnight

Star Dust edgy
Licorice log candy on print of bedazzled purple and silver Lolita Lempicka apple bottle.

This was my first lesson in flankers. I’d mistakenly bought it thinking it was a back-up bottle for my LL Midnight Sun.

LL Stardust Midnight is sharper and sweeter, closer to the original Lolita.
It opens with bright hot anise and settles down to licorice candy and sugared violets, then lingers on skin and clothes and sheets with an effervescent vanilla.

*

A darker Lolita:

by

Black Phantom

black phantom edgy
Decant vial on a printout of by Killian’s black back-labeled bottle.

Decadent yet disconcerting, like having dessert cocktails at a mortuary.
Chocolate vodka and a shot of caramel liqueur in the coffee afterward, but in the basement is sandalwood coffin sawdust, candle wax and dried flower petals.

Seductive, androgynous, macabre and delicious.

*

Here’s a song as decadent, and macabre.