Enemies and Lovers: A First Year Bookish Fantasy Event
- Courtney Leigh
- May 12
- 5 min read
With fantasy balls gaining popularity so fast over the past few years, it seems like everyone is trying to get in on this new trend.
Enemies and Lovers is a fantasy bookish event put on by Tea and Tropes Events and it was held at the Mesa Convention Center in Arizona on May 9th-10th, 2025. I was looking forward to this event for a year after getting to know the organizer through a mutual friend. As an indie author, how could I not be excited about another book fair in my area?
Leading up to the event, I got to watch all of the new developments unfold from guest speakers to big authors and performers etc. I got to see how passionate Bri was and provided input if I was asked. I know for a fact that she put a lot into this show.
Now, when it comes to these fantasy affairs, I have attended a few before, mainly those organized by Fantastique Collection. I have attended Leslie's events both as an author and as a cosplayer and have gotten a good look at it from both sides. I can only speak for the shows of hers that I've attended personally, but I think they are great and immersive and I sell out of books every time. Enemies and Lovers was created on a slightly different concept of combining a large book fair with a fantasy ball over a two day period, which was something I was so excited about because that means there's more focus on books.
Again, I had been looking forward to the event for over a year and constantly spread the word to other authors in the valley as well as cosplayers that I thought might enjoy it. When the event crept closer, I was asked to create a very large commission. More specifically, I was asked to paint two sides of an eight foot canvass for a game called Wall Ball and the boards were to feature fantasy locations, including locations from authors who were attending the event. I'd never heard of this game before, but of course I was open to the challenge.
Unfortunately, I only received the canvass about a month before E&L after another large
event that I was participating in and when I received it, I realized it was wood with a laminate coating, which basically added a lot more time and needed materials. But that was ok because I'm used to figuring things out.
This project took me a little over 3 weeks to complete and over 100 hours because it required many layers of paint considering the laminate coating and the size. I worked on it every day for 4-5 hours at a time. It took vastly more time than I'd anticipated, mostly because I did not know that it was double sided until I received the contraption so that essentially doubled the work I had planned for. BUT, I had agreed to do the project and so I did! The unfortunate part was that it gave me very little time to work on my own author material to prepare for the show so I do feel like I was lacking a lot in that area. As you can imagine, as an indie author who'd been looking forward to the event for many months, I was pretty devastated to have to rush through the contents of my booth in the end😭. So because of that, I do believe my personal experience differed from others. I was feeling pretty low and as much as I tried to engage and have fun, I don't think I was at my best.
That being said, putting my personal experience aside, the event from an attendee perspective was very well handled and organized. And as the event was following the viral catastrophe that was A Million Lives Book Festival, I think a lot of people were in desperate need of a well organized event that was what was advertised. But on the other side of things, people were worried that the pricey tickets would lead to another empty room. (Tickets to E&L ranged from $40-$400) I do remember multiple people messaging me before the event worrying that they would be let down and I tried to ease their minds by telling them all the ideas I knew the event organizers had.
It's hard to find any sort of fantasy ball that is under $200 to attend so of course some people might be hesitant when events are given a bad name. There seem to be so many organizers out there that are trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of fantasy events, but they don't seem to have the skill or know-how to make an event enjoyable for attendees or vendors. OR, they don't seem to care and are in it just to make some quick cash, which affects attendees, but more than that, it affects vendors who pay for space and product only to be let down, which is very much what happened at A Million Lives.
As an author at the event, I almost sold out of books. When asked how I did, I was honest. I've had better events and I've had worse events, but like I said, this was a first year show so I was pretty pleased by the turnout.
When it came to the fantasy ball that happened in the evening of May 10th, the vibes were great. Everyone dressed in their best glam, had some horderves, and danced the night away. It was extremely crowded, which of course made the room a little hot, but we are in Arizona and it's hard to come by a crowded room that isn't a little toasty. I did end up leaving about an hour before the end of the ball. Because of anxiety about the things mentioned above, I had not really slept for a couple days and due to an injury I incurred doing the paintings in very strange positions for many days with an already bad knee that never healed from past injuries, my knee and foot had been bothering me for weeks, so all the standing definitely got to me.
Phew! I know I'm a bit of a Debbie Downer in this post and I do apologize for that. The event itself was great, but I wanted to be completely transparent with my personal experiences as well. And I do believe that my looking forward to it for a year had a lot to do with my disappointment over how much I had to rush and cram so much into such a short time in the end.
And now, as many of you already know, I am in the process of moving so things are very hectic. I do hope that getting into a new place will help with the ideas I have for my youtube channel! Perhaps after a few days to get over my stint of depression over my experiences I will edit the video and vlog I made for full coverage😂I also documented the ENTIRE process of painting the wall ball canvass so I may release that soon as well.
Like dark romantasy and scifi romance? By reading, you're helping support a starving indie author😂
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