Only a few months into Washington Romance Writers’ new online book club, Washington Loves Romance, the group held a party in the “real” world. Its inaugural Romance Lovers Get Together was held Sunday afternoon at Arlington Rooftop Bar & Grill as a way to raise money for the Washington Literacy Center.

A great ice-breaker and reason to chat with as many people as possible was the Bingo-style game the organizers set up. We had to wander around getting signatures of some of the WLR featured authors (including me!) as well as “a perfect stranger.” Excellent  idea: I for one didn’t feel as weird about stepping into people’s conversations as I usually do, and I met nearly everyone.

Of course, there was an official drink: the “Mr. Darcy.” The name was chosen via a contest on WLR’s Facebook page. Book-club readers enjoy two books a month, one every two weeks or so. [Photo thanks to Carlene Love Flores, author of Sidewalk Flower]

Look at all the people! Around four dozen or so, I think, all talking about romance and recommending books to one another. I talked audiobooks with a couple readers (my first one released this week) and each one told me of a friend or a relative who “reads” pretty much only via audio. Plus I got a strong recommendation for the audiobook of the Game of Thrones series, so will have to check that out, too.

This being a book club, of course there were books for prizes. A whole table of baskets with many autographed copies, as well as chocolate, carry-bags, and other swag. I forgot to take a photo of the table; this detail is thanks to edgy romance writer and photography-queen Denny S. Bryce.

This is my favorite photo from the day: me with my two fellow Evernight Publishing authors, Carlene Love Flores (left) and Avery Flynn (center). We chat all the time on FB, but there’s nothing like a good F2F hug, you know?

Event co-organizer Avery also made a slideshow of our covers and clips from romantic movies that played (no sound) on a loop on 3 screens during the event. Here’s mine! The book club is scheduled to talk about it in the second half of April.

You might wonder how I managed to get into all “my” photos. Yes, I dragged my husband there (he offered), and he found he wasn’t alone. Two other “significant others” hung out with us as well. They’re all readers, too, so we all had plenty to talk about.

Washington Loves Romance is planning on doing another event later this year; the date will be announced on its Facebook page. Be sure to put it on your calendars — it’s a great time!