Tag: travel

bull riding

My PBR Weekend Round-up & More

Sunday was the third and final day of my PBR weekend in Uncasville, CT. The day started earlier than Friday and Saturday, but it was no less eventful. I arrived at the Rider Relief Fund booth at noon to help sell raffle tickets and brought with me the items I’m donating to be auctioned off in Vegas to help raise money to aid injured bull riders. It was pretty much the same items I donated to the Brenda Novak Juvenile Diabetes Auction, and to the Authors After Dark auction to help the animal shelter–basically a custom printed “I Heart Cowboys” canvas tote bag, a “Let’s Buck” baseball hat, bumper sticker, fridge magnet, journal and pen, a cowboy boot charm bookmark, a Cowboy Corn Salad Recipe Card, and a signed print copy of Unridden (Studs in Spurs, Book 1). I told the women running the auction how romance readers usually take the canvas bag and get it signed by their favorite authors, and how it would probably go for a lot more if some of the riders signed it. She took the whole thing downstairs to some mysterious PBR room and the next thing I know, she’s back telling me that Flint, […]

bull riding

Bulls, Sh*t and More!

So I’m here at Mohegan Sun Casino, where you walk past the slot machines and Blackjack tables and into an arena filled with sand, bulls and cowboys. Quite the surreal sight for Connecticut but tons of fun. Last night was the opening night event. My seat was just 2 away from the pens where they hold the bulls for the competition. This morning, sunny but brisk, I got to tour the bull housing area, actually one of the covered parking structures. Though the railings holding these beasts in looked a little tentative to me, no one made a break for it and I even got to scratch one on his nose (through the rails, I’m not crazy or stupid!). My tour was given by stock manager Cody Lambert and stock contractor Chad Berger. I got to see some of the big name bulls. Above I believe is Big Tex, Slapdown and Little Yellow Jacket Jr., looking bored to see us. As opposed to some of their comrades who warily kept a very safe distance from the crowd tiptoeing through the manure-strewn aisle between the pens. Only one of the bulls pictured below (Myspace-the black one on the right) dared cross […]

Events

Is it time to buck yet? PBR Uncasville!

I’m back from the Authors After Dark Romance Convention and 2 days later, finally out from under the backlog of work that accumulated while I was off having fun. It was a hell of an event and I loved speaking on the panels, hanging with the readers and my fellow authors, making new friends, seeing old ones, and getting to know the book bloggers, booksellers, publishers–everyone!! Too much fun, too little sleep, but it was a great time. And now back to reality…as surreal as my personal reality is. I started this month with my live reading at Lady Jane’s Salon in New York City, I spent the middle of this month at AAD a stone’s throw from Newark, NJ, and I’ll end this month in bucolic Connecticut attending the PBR bull riding competition in the arena inside the Mohegan Sun Casino. Talk about surreal–try walking through the slot machines, past the 5-star restaurants, martini bars and high-priced stores, only to stumble through the doors of the indoor arena to find a dirt floor and pens packed full of live, very large bulls. Not to mention all those cowboys! So that’s where I’ll be October 1, 2 and 3 (Friday through […]