It's A Hardcover Life: Authors Are My Rockstars: Author Events 2013 Part 2

Without further ado, I will continue on with recapping all the wonderful authors I've met in the last year. If you missed it, here's Part One with Stephanie Meyer, Kami Garcia and Lauren Oliver.

May 18th 2013

Oh the Gaithersburg Book Festival! Why oh why did you have to be on the same day as my boyfriend's graduation?? And worse yet, why did you have to tantalize me with a signing by Maggie Stiefvater. You know how weak I am when it comes to the Raven Boys!

So I know what you're thinking. No way did she leave her boyfriend and his family to drive half an hour away to get some freakin' books signed on his graduation day. Well, honey, then you just don't know me.

I had had had to get these books signed. OMG so worth it even after 5 fights with my boyfriend that went like this:

Me: You wouldn't be mad if I went would you? It would only be for an hour or two.

Him: No, I don't care if you just leave me with my parents who drove 6 hours to see us.

Me: I'll be back! I'll just miss lunch and catch up with you later. Anyway, It will be nice for you guys to spend time alone.

Him: I said I wasn't mad that you are just going to leave us, on my graduation day, to go get a book signed.

And you can see how this would continue on and on. Can you say guilt trip? I definitely deserved it though.

On to the signing!

I have no idea what Maggie and I talked about. Probably my regular spiel with authors since I never have anything original to say. Usually that I love their book. I write too. I talk about how I #fail at it. They comfort me and give advice. I find it works for me.

Anyway, Maggie is known to make little doodles in her books. The one below is for the Scorpio Races. It's so adorable! The Raven Boys signature was not nearly as exciting.

September 18th 2013

Rainbow Rowell had to be the funniest authors I've ever seen. She was like a comedian, interacting with the audience and making fun of them. If you don't like her books (or do), still go see her if you have a chance.

This was at Politics and Prose in DC. The room was pretty packed. I didn't realize she was so popular. Anyway, she was promoting Fangirl which I wasn't so sure I wanted. I read Eleanor and Park for my book club and liked it a lot but was never all that much into fanfiction (except with I had an obsession with Inuyasha and HP Ginny/ Malfoy fic) so I wasn't sure how much I would like Fangirl.

I'm still kicking myself for not buying it there and getting it signed!

Rainbow talked a lot about her social anxiety which I really related to since I also experience it a lot. She talked about how she was very shy one-on-one but could really turn it on for a crowd. And boy did she ever!

I told Rainbow about the conversation I had with other bookclubers on what a child named Rainbow would be like and said she's exactly what a child named Rainbow would be like to me.

This scenario happens often to me where I walk away from authors and feel like I said something stupid. 1. Because that didn't sound like much of a compliment and 2. Because "Rainbow" might be a pen name. Oh well. Not the first or last dumb thing I've said.

Here's a video from the talk. No idea why I taped it sideways.

September 19 2013

The next night Politics and Prose had Elizabeth Wein, author of Code Name Verity, promoting Rose Under Fire. She turned out to be one of the most research oriented authors in terms of what she had to do for her books. She explained she tried to get as many details about things as she could and that she tried to remain as historically accurate as she could.

I'd read Code Name Verity, again for my book club, and really liked it even though I'm not into historical fiction. I ended up buying a copy to get signed at the event.