Dreaming Dirty in a "haunted hotel"

 

So this past weekend was my first event with Anytime Author Promotions at the Dreaming Dirty in Maryland event in Baltimore, MD. The event took place at The Lord Baltimore Hotel which is supposedly one of the most haunted locations in Baltimore. I was planning on making a big long post about the trip and everything like the last blog post, but I don't feel like plugging in my phone for the pics right now. I might edit later to add them in, but for now, you get to deal with my ramblings :-)

 

Friday: The Drive Down

So, I had some unexpected bills come out and a less than stellar month of sales so my pockets were bone dry heading into this event. I spent all of Friday morning clicking in and out of my banking app for my monthly deposit to hit. If it wouldn't hit, I would be losing the deposit on the hotel room and have to drive down at like 4am to get to the event.

Lucky for me, the funds hit my account at roughly 12:30-ish. I hurried to pack a bag to start my five hour drive and was on the road by about 1:15pm. 

Then, I turned around at 1:30 after realizing I forgot to grab my glasses...

The roughly five hour drive was rather uneventful with the exception of me jamming out to a LOT of K-pop music while riding along the Pennsylvania Turnpike until I hit the last five miles of the trip.

I don't know what the dealio is with Google Maps, but for some reason, it seems to think that it would be a good idea to direct me through the projects and a park that looks like I'm being transported to a fae realm in order to get to the city center where the hotel is located. 

 

Check-In, Hunt for Food, and Set-Up

After a harrowing fifteen minutes of flip flopping between being an unintended extra on the real life recreation of The Wire and possibly discovering a portal to another realm where a dragon would likely fry me to a crisp or I'd end up in a dungeon for using the wrong fork or something,  I finally made it to the hotel. 

The Lord Baltimore Hotel is right smack in the middle of downtown Baltimore and is rumored to be haunted. To me, they just play up all the tricks to make up for it being outdated. I got my keycard and headed up to my room on the 17th floor. There is no 13th floor, per superstition, so that was fun watching the numbers skip in the elevator. Then the creepy lady voice announcing the floor numbers reminded me of the Tower of Terror at Disney. The hallway to my room absolutely reeked of old lady perfume with a hint of mustiness which honestly could have been either asbestos or mildew. My door was playing games with me, not wanting to open...

Basically, by the time I was inside, all I wanted to do was go get something to eat. The bistro in the hotel was closed and the bar was packed, so I decided to take a walk to find something. I could have ordered in, but according to Google, there were a ton of places within a quarter mile. Unfortunately for me, all of the places I found on my walk were cuisines that I refuse to eat when I'm staying in a hotel with the sandpaper toilet tissue. After forty-five minutes of wandering around, I ended up stopping at McDonald's a block away from the hotel.

After scarfing down some Mcnuggets and fries, I dragged my stuff down to the ballroom to set up for the event. Only after setting up, I realized I forgot half of the stuff I wanted to bring. It wasn't looking like my day was going to get any better, so I headed back up to the room and proceeded to pass out with the TV on. 

 

SATURDAY

Wake-Up and Wandering

Thanks to falling asleep about three hours ahead of my usual bedtime, plus dealing with down pillows which wreak havoc on my sinuses, I woke up at like 5am. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, I immersed myself in one of the shows on a short reel app. Around nine or so, I finally rolled out of bed and decided to hike my behind up the road to Starbucks. On the way, I witnessed some cannibalistic sparrows attacking a discarded chicken wing as well as about six different piles of dog shit... People really need to learn to pick up after their dogs.

While I waited for my breakfast, a guy came into Starbucks with his absolutely adorable pure white English bulldog who was an incurable attention hog. His roly poly butt made me miss my boys a little bit less. Shortly after they left, my order was up and I headed back towards the hotel. 

It wouldn't be a walk in the city if I didn't have at least one homeless person try to get money off me. A woman asked me if I could give her some money because she's so hungry and only wants to get some food. I offered her my croissant. She said she doesn't eat croissants... I laughed and walked away. If you're asking for money for food and someone offers you food and you refuse for a reason other than safety or allergies, you are basically saying you aren't going to use the money for food.

I got back to the hotel and scarfed down the potatoe chive egg bake things and washed up for the event. 

 

THE EVENT ITSELF

I'm pretty sure I was the only LGBTQIA+ author at the event. I half expected it with the Read the Rainbow event happening less than an hour away. Despite that, I had a steady stream of people stopping to talk and learn more about my books. Did I see some people give dirty looks to my flags as they walked past? Yes. But they were the extreme minority. On the flip side, I saw a lot more smiles and even had a few people genuinely excited to see that there was someone there who had not only the inclusivity pride flag, but the asexual pride flag displayed. 

Did I make a killing? Absolutely not. Did I have a great time? Absolutely yes.

I might have won a raffle basket but ended up forfeiting it due to not hearing my name, making it hold true that I have the shittiest luck except when I'm trying to prove I have terrible luck.

 

DRIVING  HOME

After another peaceful sleep, I hit the road for the drive back home.  I decided to take a bit of a scenic route instead of paying all of the tolls, but about halfway home, I was done and just wanted my dogs and my bed. When I finally made it home, I collapsed onto the couch and proceeded to nap for five hours. I hate long drives home.

 

OVERALL FEELINGS

Will I do this event again? Abso-fucking-lutely.

I've already signed up for the next 2 years of this event and applied for many others hosted by the same company. I love the way they arranged everything and really want to make more author friends that I will actually SEE more than once every five years.