Going to Florida the first week of February is probably the best idea I’ve ever had. Seriously. Sunshine and the beach in the middle of winter? Stellar decision making. The lovely weather was made all the better by spending the weekend with other authors and readers at Coastal Magic Convention.

This was my first time at the annual event in Daytona Beach, Florida. Coastal Magic focuses on urban fantasy and paranormal romance, which makes it one hundred percent my jam. I had so much fun playing along with author MadLibs (and watching @mslizalou tear up from laughter didn’t hurt) and helping Team Fiction (Chudney Thomas, me, Jennifer Estep, and Sarah Nicholas) clench victory in Family Feud. Our knowledge of vampire home decorating styling really came in handy.

For this to be a good recap, it needs pictures, doesn’t it? Let’s run the highlights:

1. Aforementioned panel shenanigans. Based purely on photographic evidence provided by Jen (That’s What I’m Talking About) and the official Coastal Magic Convention photos, it’s clear that I bring both professionalism and a little Rafiki at Pride Rock (yes, in this analogy Borrowed Souls is Simba) to panels. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Other times I look like a normal person doing normal author things with Jennifer Estep, H.D. Smith and Graylin Fox. I told everyone about how much I love Swedish exports: mostly ASkars and heavy metal.

At the Magic & Mayhem Meet & Greet. Left to right: Jennifer Estep, Chelsea Mueller, H.D. Smith and Graylin Fox. (Photo: Graceful Art & Photography)

2. All the quality time with awesome bloggers, readers, and authors. Special shout-outs to Jen, Tori, Robin, Penny, Laura, Liza, Liz, Amie, and Sue.

Additionally, I dressed up as Sookie Stackhouse for the book-to-screen party and this is the closest you’re getting to seeing the costume, which is okay because Chelle dressed up as Mockingjay-era Katniss and it was goddamn amazing.

Sue from Grave Tells, author Shannon Bell, and Chelsea Mueller at Coastal Magic.

3. Chapter One! The nice folk over at USB Memory Direct gifted me a couple dozen cute USB cards to take to Coastal Magic (see below). They have the book cover on them, and 8GB of memory. Better yet? I loaded the first chapter of Borrowed Souls on to each, and brought them to the big book signing. (This is what you do when your book isn’t out yet.) Not only did they look stellar on my signing table, but they’re all gone now. Yay! Don’t worry, though, you can read the full excerpt of Chapter One right now.

4. I brought a handful of advanced reading copies (ARCs) of Borrowed Souls to the convention and gave one away at each panel. Signing them was a delight, and I can’t wait to do more of that. Speaking of which…

SIGNED ARC GIVEAWAY

So, I took ARCs to the beach, which is awesome, but not everyone can pop down to Daytona for a weekend just to get their hot little hands on a book. I get you. Budgets. Snow. I’ve been there. Luckily for you, I still have one ARC left. OHHHHHH. Yep. Enter below, and I’ll send one lucky winner a signed ARC of Borrowed Souls. Contest is open internationally, because I love you guys. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

…and if you don’t win, you can always score exclusive pre-order prizes. Just pre-order the book, and then fill out this form and I send you sweet, sweet swag.