It's A Hardcover Life: Authors Are My Rockstars: Author Events 2013 Part 1

Oh man, it's been a long time since I wrote one of these posts. March 10, 2013 as a matter of fact now that I look. Why can't I be better!

So I'm going to separate my author encounters into a few posts! Ha ha let's see if I come through with that... Last time I blast myself for being a bad blogger, promise.

Anyway if I haven't said so before, I live near DC and am so so lucky because a TON --no a SHIT TON of authors roll in here all the time. I try to go to almost everything that I can. Here is a recap of the last year of book signing/ author meetups I've been to:

February 21st 2013

When The Host came out, Stephanie Meyer came to the very popular Politics and Prose in Washington DC. I live like maybe a 15-20 minute drive from there. However, it was on a Thursday afternoon and I work M-F 8-4. Coincidentally, I had already taken that day and the next off because I was undergoing surgery for my wisdom teeth.

Let me tell you what a nut I am:

No joke, I asked not to be put under and only have the area numbed so I could be lucid enough to go to the signing. The whole surgery took about 40 minutes, I dropped my bf at home, dropped off my prescriptions and went down to DC to stand in line for an hour or two.

I still had the bandages in my mouth on line and had to spit them out before going in!

I thought it was a good idea then and even now I'm glad I did it but I'm pretty sure it's what led to me having dry socket since I didn't rest and was very mobile for about 5 hours right after surgery. Believe me when I say you do not want dry socket! Worst pain of my life. But alas, I hardly remember what it actually felt like and the experience was totally worth it.

Anyway, about the signing, it was interesting because, like most big authors, they didn't allow "posed" pictures. I made friends with people on line who took some for me which turned out alright. Stephanie would only personalize your copy of The Host and sign one other book. However, the line wasn't very long at all and the signing ended like an hour or two early. If you brought the other books in your car, you could get back online to get them signed again. I brought one extra and the girl in line with me only had one book so she got mine signed.

Telling Stephanie about my surgery.

Stephanie was very nice and was blown away when I told her what I did that morning. She hid in the back room when the line dwindled so I felt like she could have given a bit more time to everyone but what do I know about how this stuff works...

The two main guys in the movie (Max Irons and Jake Abel) were there too. If you bought something from the bookstore, they gave you a poster to get signed.

There was so much time at the end that the actors began to take individual pictures with people. I was about to get a picture with them but then they cut that short to shuffle the actors to wherever they were going.

Feeling dejected, I went through the back of the building and through the underground coffee shop. I never had gone to it and wanted to see what it was like.

I walk out into the parking lot and lo and behold, there the boys are next to their waiting SUV with girls asking them to take a picture. Like a HUGE geek, I asked if I could join in the picture with this group of strangers. They agreed, took the pic, pushed the boys back in SUV and the girl texted it to me. I have some big cajones sometimes.

Stranger, Jake Abel, Stranger, Max Irons, Stranger, ME!

The pain was totally worth it.

In the line, I met Andye from Reading Teen who was there with her kids. I had never heard of the blog (because I am living out in space.) She was so nice and I've seen her at a lot of things since!

February 23rd 2013

To continue my story of insanity, two days later (through Andye) I heard Kami Garcia was coming to a Barnes and Noble in Bethesda, Maryland. Also about 20 minutes away.

Some bloggers friends I made at Meagan Spooner's book launch for Skylark, Jess and Kat of Books and Sensibility, met me there for the event.

We got to pick out good seats since we were there at least an hour early. Honestly, I had never heard of Beautiful Creatures before the movie was announced but I hate to miss out on meeting an author. I bought the first two books to be signed but still haven't read them (bad Markella).

Kami did a talk and then a signing. She talked about how her and her writing partner just wrote it for fun and for their kids. She gave off a very New Yorker toughness that I didn't expect since the books are so southern. Don't ask me where she is actually from.

Kami also signed the movie poster that Barnes and Noble was giving away. I usually like to remember the bookstore's policy on signings but can't seem to recall. I know I bought the second book there but I don't remember if I had to. I think I did... anyway.

In the picture below you can see the progression of my face from normal after the surgery to a bloated mess. I was very subtle hiding it with the books. NOT.