Recap of the 2014 Southern Magic Readers Luncheon with Sylvia Day

with Sherrilyn Kenyon (2012)

Every year I attend the Southern Magic Readers Luncheon, and I usually try to read some of the speaker's books beforehand. This is how I found and fell in love with Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter books and Jeaniene Frost's Cat and Bones series. This year's speaker was Sylvia Day, and friends recommended I start with Bared to You, the first book in her Crossfire series.

While I enjoyed the writing style of Bared to You, I just couldn't get into the book. I'm not sure if it was the storyline or just the fact that I was having a stressful month (that totally throws off my reading game). I checked out a couple of other titles by Sylvia Day (Wish List and Touch of Crimson) that were in subgenres that I typically liked, but never had a chance to read them. They just weren't on the top of my to-read list.

Fast forward to yesterday's luncheon. Naima Simone was the welcome speaker, and she was hysterical as she told the audience what was in her "Sylvia Day Survival Kit." If you've read any of Day's titles you can only imagine what that kit contained! Then Sylvia Day herself got up to speak. I'd heard her in a panel discussion before, but this was the first time I'd listened to her as a keynote speaker talking directly to her readers.

Day said that she knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 12, after her mother gave her a Harlequin romance novel. When she published her first book, she quickly received contracts with multiple publishers, only to realize that she would have to finish a book every 15 days for the next year and a half to fulfill them. She talked about having writer's block - for an entire year - and said picking up books for pleasure reading again got her out of it. "To be a writer you have to be a reader." It was a fantastic speech, and she was an engaging and animated speaker.

Sylvia Day & Dragon

Afterward I purchased a few books, including Sylvia Day's Spellbound, a paranormal title, and I Married a Stranger, one of her historical romance titles. I look forward to reading both (though if you've read the posts about my book stash you'll know it may be awhile before I get to them).


The Southern Magic Readers Luncheon is the first Saturday of November every year. It is a wonderful chance to meet authors and make new friends, and I highly recommend the experience.