Authors on a cruise ship!!

 

   I love vacations and books. What could be better than a bookish vacation? An author cruise!

    Cruising is one of my favorite ways to vacation. Several years ago I was looking for author retreats and came upon one on a cruise ship. Then Covid happened and travel came to a stop.

    Last years I was searching again and found the Love Lit Cruise. I was so excited but couldn't go. This year I booked it before I even knew if I could get the time off of work.

    This is the second year of Love Lit Cruise and it was amazing!! Erin Burgess of Betty Brown Travel had a dream of combining authors, readers, and vacation and in 2025 her plan came together. A little over 50 people attended and in 2026 it was 198 people. 

   Love Lit was held on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. I have sailed on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, but Virgin Voyages is far different. It is an adults-only cruise line and so full of great entertainment and food.

  We had group event and dinners with the authors and on a five day cruise, you really get to know the authors and fellow readers.

  

  There were author panels and games that were great. Bookish Feud was so much fun. It was like Family Feud but all categories involved books.

  Some attending authors were Amy Daws, Sara Cate, Brittianry Cherry, Willow Winters, M Robinson, Juliette Cross, Naimi Simone, Trilina Pucci, Sarah Bale, Nikki Sloane, Victoria K. Taylor, and several more. 

Talking with other authors and readers was great. We talked about our books and I confessed I was struggling with writers block and Krysta Dearson (an attending reader but who is also an author) held an impromptu Boot Camp to help me. Victoria K. Taylor (attending author) and Sally Schedlock (my cousin, writes non-fiction) all met and talked writing and strategy.

An afternoon was spent on a book signing and thankfully I had room in my suitcase for lots of books! When the cruise came to an end, I had many new friends and authors to follow. I hope to be able to go again next year.

Victoria K. Taylor

Willow Winters

  Happy to say that Boot Camp did indeed help with my writers block. I stayed on the ship for another sailing after Love Lit was over and went to the Loose Cannon Pub to write with an octopus we named Jethro. So every day for the next four days I made time to go there and write. Since I've been home, I've managed to get a new book almost finished!  I think I need to get an octopus statue for home.