RomCon 2011

I was thrilled to be invited to be a "special guest" by Tara Janzen and Cindy Gerard during their 3-hour "Special Ops" presentation at this year's RomCon.  RomCon is a romance readers convention; there are no writing workshops or agents to pitch to, just romance authors and their readers.

L to R: Cindy Gerard, Tara Janzen, Cullen, me

Cullen, our master gunsmith from Colorado Gun Works, did a presentation on the "toys" he and Tara brought, which included Kid's rifle and Skeeter's shotgun.

Kid's rifle: Remington 700P chambered in .308 with a Schmidt und Bender PMIIK scope.

Picture by Terry Odell

Skeeter's Shotgun: Remington 870 with too many toys/customizations to mention. (Though I could if you asked.)

Picture by Terry Odell

During the course of Cullen's presentation, he asked the crowd to guess how many weapons he had on him.  The guesses ranged from three to thirty-some.  They kept count as he pulled guns off of his ankle, out of a shoulder holster, out of a pocket and knives out of his tie, pockets and god-only-knows where else.  All guesses were wrong.  The right answer, and the one I hope everyone remembers is: ONE.  He had one weapon with him, his brain; the rest were merely tools.

If you never remember anything else from this blog, please remember that your brain *is* your weapon.  Use it.

During the course of the presentation, we were asked to demonstrate a Wingate maneuver, which both Tara's and Cindy's heroes have used in their books.  Unfortunately, since I was busy being "killed", I don't have any pictures of the demonstration, though I do still sport the bruises from the rubber knife.

Spending three hours with Tara's and Cindy's fans was a good time - it was wonderful to see so many women take an interest in the weaponry and feel like they had a safe place to ask questions without being ridiculed.

For a participant's take on RomCon, click over to Terry's Place and see what she had to think about it.  Terry's an author whose blog I've followed for a couple of years; I had the opportunity to hang out with her at Writers' Police Academy last year and was thrilled to see her at RomCon.