The time my friends got all the signatures for me

As I've said before, living in SoCal definitely has perks.  And more often than not, authors will get to the west coast eventually.  Not always San Diego, but at least LA. In the case of all of the below signed books, I wasn't able to get to the author, so my awesome friends got things signed for me.

Jennifer had told me that she was going to a huge YA author event at Powell's and asked if I wanted anything.  I skimmed over the authors who were going to be there and told her no.  I didn't immediately recognize any of the names and at the time, I was far too lazy to look into it.

A week or so later, I picked up Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky.  I loved the book, so I immediately went to her website to see if there were any upcoming tour dates and wouldn't you know it, she was going to be at the Powell's event!

I contacted Jennifer about it and sent her my book...

I had planned on seeing Josie Angelini for her release party of Dreamless.  Ava and I had made serious plans as to how the entire day was going to play out.  Unfortunately, it was being held on the same day that my work was reopening after relocating and everyone had to work.  Luckily, Ava assured me that she would still get a copy for me...

When Richelle Mead toured for Golden Lily, she was going to be at the Santa Monica B&N.  I had talked to the ever so awesome events manager, Shane, about it and he was willing to set aside a wristband for me so I didn't have to show up so early.  I've never read any of the Vampire Academy books, but I was interested in getting the signature for my collection.  However, it just didn't work out.  My friend, Colleen, saw me complaining talking about it on Twitter and offered to get me a copy of something when Richelle was in Seattle....

I feel that by now, everyone knows about the ongoing "fight" Kassiah and I have over Étienne St. Clair.  So.  After reading Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris, I quickly called dibs on Ben.  And then proceeded to fight Kassiah and Caitlin for him.  I won.

Elizabeth used to live in San Diego, like me.  Now she's on the east coast.  When Kassiah told me she was ditching me at ALA going to BEA, I found out that Elizabeth was going to be there and shipped my copy of Unraveling to her.  Along with a note telling Kassiah something along the lines of how she better not ask for Ben, unless it's on my behalf. 

And it's one of the best inscriptions.  Even if the "Ben" is a little messy....

[Now I've learned that Elizabeth is going to be in San Diego in November.  I'm so excited that I'll probably get another book to have Ben signed to me again.  You know, for back up.]

I bought tickets to see Deborah Harkness at at local book store when she tours for Shadow of Night.  Problem is, the tour stop is during Comic-Con.  I figured that if I could get an ARC of Shadow of Night before ALA, then I could have Deborah sign it there and not have to leave CC early to see her tour stop.  I asked everyone I knew if they could get their hands on an ARC for me, all to no avail.

The lovely Kassiah also got me the hardcover [!!!] copy while at BEA.  And after all of her hard work [not to mention, she rearranged her entire schedule for me to get it], I'm still going to go to the tour stop to hear Deborah talk about the series. 

Right before ALA, Stacey Jay had tweeted that while she wasn't doing an official signing, she would have copies of Romeo Redeemed and the first four librarians who came up to her and asked for a copy would get one.  I answered her and told her that I wasn't an librarian, but that I'd love to meet her and I'd be on the lookout.  She answered that if I saw her, I should definitely ask about the book because maybe she'd have one left and I could have it.

A day or so before the Friday of ALA, Stacey tweeted the dress that she was going to be wearing and we had a conversation about how between her dress and her "Dana Scully hair", I was going to hunt her down.  Unfortunately, I didn't see her. 

Fast forward to the YA coffee event/mixer that was held at ALA on Sunday morning.  I was not in attendance, Stacey Jay was.  So was Ava.  Somehow, Ava mentioned to Stacey how I had been looking for her.  Stacey's answer was something along the lines of, "the Stacee who says she's going to stalk me?"

When Ava confirmed that I was the same person, Stacey pulled out a copy of Romeo Redeemed, signed it and handed it to Ava...

Everyone in RL tells me that Twitter is the devil.  Without it, I would have never met these lovely people who have not only helped me get some great signed books, but have become excellent friends.



The time I had my first giveaway

So.  Yep.  Here it is.  My first giveaway.  Be gentle. 

As I said in my huge post about ALA, I have some extra books that I'm prepared to let go. Instead of there being one winner [and the shipping costing me a small fortune], I decided there would be three winners.

YES! THREE WINNERS!!

I've bundled the books into three groups and Betrayal by Gregg Olsen is no longer included.

How it's going to work is, there will be three winners chosen.  The first winner will be contacted and they will get to choose which bundle they want.  The second winner will get to choose from the two that are left and the third winner gets the last bundle. 

I will be waiting until I've heard from the first winner before contacting the next winner.  This is just in case I don't hear back from anyone within the time response required.

And before you ask, no the bundles are not going to be traded out.  What you see is exactly what you get.  Any questions before entering? Email me.

Bundle One

Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie [signed]
The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson [signed]
Rift by Andrea Cremer [unsigned]


Bundle Two:

Prodigy and Legend by Marie Lu [signed]
Wonder by R.J. Palacio [signed]
Daughter of Smoke & Bone [signed] & sample chapters of Days of Blood & Starlight [unsigned] by Laini Taylor


Bundle Three:

Beauty Queens [signed] and The Diviners [unsigned] by Libba Bray
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater [signed]
Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin [signed]

The Rules:

1. No fake names/email address/twitter accounts.

2. Don't be a dick.  If I have a bad experience with this, I'm never doing another giveaway.  Ever. And I buy extra books like it's going out of style, so there's a potential for many giveaways.

3. One entry per household.

The Fine Print:

1. US Only [sorry, but for now that's what it has to be].

2. Must be at least 13 to enter [Besides, if you're under 13, you shouldn't be reading this blog with the amount of swearing I do].

3. I'm not responsible for lost or damaged items. I don't have replacements. Rest assured, I am ridiculously anal about my books. They will be sent in safe packaging and will leave my hands as near to perfect as I can get them.

4. I reserve the right to suspend or end the giveaway at any time, for any reason and without a winner being chosen.

5. Winner will be notified by email and will have 72 hours to respond. If there is no response, a new winner will be chosen.

6. Winners are chosen at random by Rafflecopter.

This will be easy.  I'm not making you follow me here or on Twitter, if you want to, that would be awesome.  If you want to pimp me out a bit and spread the word, that's even better.

Thanks for entering and good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The time we went to ALA

I bought tickets for ALA12 in Anaheim before I even knew what it was. I figured for $25 it was worth a chance. Plus, I've spent way more on less.

Leading up to the start, I made a list of various authors who were going to be there and the ARCs I was going to try and get my hands on. The ever so lovely Michelle shared her awesome chart with me and when I finally looked all through it, she had scheduled everything for me!

Saturday was the day we were planning on going. Last minute, I decided that we should go up on Friday to get our badges and when I saw Jackson Pearce would be signing, it was a definite thing.

Friday
We went into the convention center with the plan to see Jackson and go around to a few of the big publishers booths to scope everything out. From the holding area outside, we were able to see the aisle Jackson was going to be at. And when we walked in? The LBB YA booth was right there.

Everyone swarmed the booth for ARCs and I was able to walk right up to Jackson. I had my copy for Purity for her to sign. She thanked me for coming because she was worried that no one would show up. When I told her that I was there just for her, she looked up at me and asked if I was the Stacee on Twitter. I can't stop laughing at this question.

After I confirmed that I was, she thanked me again for coming. I then walked over to the ARC table and got two more of her books to have signed. By then, Jackson had a good line and wasn't really able to talk to everyone. She had been writing tag lines in each of the books and had to stop...

When I got back up to her, I asked if we could quickly get a picture and she said yes.

From there, it was like being dropped down the rabbit hole. People were pushing and throwing elbows and just being rude. I've been making jokes about this for a while, how I'm prepared to go all ninja on people and yet, I didn't expect it to actually happen. We did see Kami Garcia in the middle of the smackdown at Penguin and yet, she still put her bags down and shook our hands.

Most booths had lines, but some were just a free for all. Some people were just standing in the aisles passing out candy or bags or books or children. Okay, not that last one...

We hit Harper Collins and I wanted to slap myself for not realizing the Rae Carson that Michelle had been so eager to see was in fact the author of Girl of Fire and Thorns. We got in line for her [after having a conversation with Rae about how gorgeous the new Shatter Me redesign is].

I bought the hard cover of Girl and got the ARC of Crown of Embers. Rae was delightful, commenting on how horribly hot it was [seriously, this is an understatement. 10 minutes in and I was drenched in sweat. Attractive, I know]. I told Rae I was going to wear a bathing suit on Saturday and she said she was going naked. We both started laughing, I thanked her for signing and told her not to melt away.

We started walking around some of the smaller booths [Less people! More a/c!]. At one point, we rounded a corner and literally happened upon Mike Mullin. I had him on my schedule for Saturday, so it was cool to be able to see him early.

I bought Ashfall and got the ARC of Ashen Winter. Mike does a lot of events at libraries and part of his event is a Tae Kwan Do demonstration. When I told him that I was planning on going to his upcoming signing in Oceanside, Mike stated that he was going to call me up to break all of the boards.

He then told us how he carried a cement block through the airport in his luggage and he thought for sure TSA was going to stop him, but they let him through without any delay.

After asking if I was a librarian and then briefly talking about my blog, he signed my books, I thanked him for coming and we were on our way.

For the most part, everyone at the booths were super friendly and accommodating. I did have several people walk away from me once they found out I was a blogger. Or that I wasn't a librarian, or in the "industry". Other people were happy to grab me ARCs that I made general questions about.

Two upcoming books that I'm really excited about are Betrayal by Gregg Olsen and Middle Ground by Katie Kacvinsky. I was able to get both ARCs and in both instances, the people working the booths went out of their way to get copies for me.

After 2 hours, we had 7 bags FILLED with books. Books on top of books. And then more books after that. I felt like I had simultaneously run a marathon, given birth [even though I don't have kids] and participated in one of those clearance sales on designer wedding dresses but it was held on Black Friday.

Saturday

Saturday was all about the schedule.  I had authors that I wanted to see every hour starting at 10 am and ending at 3:30.  Usually there were more than one author signing at the same time and that's where team tactics came in. 

If you take away nothing from this blog, please take this: If you plan on going to any sort of book convention, take at least one person with you. I could not have seen as many people as I did or get as many books as I came home with if I didn't have the help of Ava, Kim, Michelle and my ever-so-amazing husband.  Our schedules were all pretty similar, so we were able to always send someone ahead [usually my husband] to get in line at the next signing.

Upon entering the convention, Hubs and I headed right to Penguin for Ally Condie and Marie Lu.  The signing was to start at 10 and they weren't starting a line until about 15-20 minutes before hand. They weren't sure if there was going to be one single line or a different line for each woman.  After a few minutes, one of the girls confirmed there would be two lines and came around giving sticker numbers to indicate your place in line.  Ava and I were first for Ally, Hubs and Michelle went for Marie.

The sign I made for the booth.

Ally and Marie got to the booth right at 10.  Both ladies settled in and then they told us that I could head over.  Now.  I found Ally and her books late in the game.  I was able to catch her at a signing in NorCal when she toured for Crossed and get a personalized copy, but I had never met her before. 

I thanked her for being at the event and flailed all over her. I'm sure she was super interested to know how I tracked down signed copies of her books.  *cough* Either way, she took it all in stride, smiling and just being so so so sweet.

After Ava got her stuff signed, we ran over to Marie's line where Hubs had stickers numbers for us.  To get an ARC of Prodigy, you needed to buy a copy of Legend.  The girl who was running the register wasn't sure if she was allowed to sell me two copies, but she did.  I sent a text to Kassiah to see if she needed either book.

When I got up to Marie, of course, I thanked her and we started chatting while she signed... And when she opened Kassiah's copy, Marie asked how to pronounce it.  Somehow, I started flailing about Kassiah and how adorable her accent is, especially when she says her own name.  So there's that...

While we were getting things signed for Marie, Hubs was in line for Libba Bray.  Ava and I went running over to her booth to get copies of The Diviners. He had gotten sticker numbers, but if you weren't in line by the time you got to the author, only one book was given out.

Thankfully, we got there just in time.

Libba is adorable.  Right when I got up to her, she commented on the frames to my glasses, saying that she really liked them.  I said that I really liked hers.  They were quick to push us through the line, so I thanked her for signing and we left.

After Libba, our schedule was wiiiiiiiiide open to make sure we got in line for Unravel Me at 12:30.  All of us were stalking the Harper Collins booth and finally, [after seeing Gretchen McNeil briefly to look at her "hugging shoes"] there was an "unofficial" line starting up.  I quickly got in it and assured Michelle that I would stay in line [Ava and Kim had gone somewhere else and Hubs was wandering].

After about 30 seconds of being in the "unofficial" line, a girl from HC moved us and made it the official line.  People started running and screaming and I went from being about 10th in line to being about 25th.  There was also a rumor floating around the line that there was only going to be 2 copies to be handed out.  That was quickly squashed when the HC rep assured us there were plenty books for everyone.

I sent out a mass text informing everyone where I was in the line and that we were now official. After a few moments, they had a HC rep come by with post-its to give us our number.  Hubs was gone, so I asked if I was able to get his number for him. The woman looked at me and deadpanned, "And he wants a copy for himself?" I assured her that yes, yes he did.

Finally, we got up to the table and we were given our copies in exchange for the number.  We heard that they had cut off the line and there was only 55 copies total.  I don't know if that's true or not.

When we got up to Tahereh, she saw us in line before we approached her.  And when it was our turn, after I thanked her for coming out, she thanked us saying that it was always nice to see familiar faces at her events. Hubs [acting as Kassiah] handed Tahereh his copy.  She looked at Hubs a bit oddly and then I started to explain how Kassiah had rearranged her entire BEA schedule to get me Shadow of Night and getting her Unravel Me was my return gift.

After Tahereh, Hubs ran to one booth for Maggie Stiefvater and I ran to another for Kendare Blake.  The line for Kendare was insane, but it hadn't been cut off and I was able to get an ARC of Girl of Nightmares.  Instead of numbers, they had someone walking through the line, passing them out. Basically, your ARC was your ticket.  Ava and Kim quickly joined me and we just hung out.

When we got up to Kendare, I said hi, but Ava jumped right in, telling Kendare my Twitter handle.  Kendare remembered me from stalking talking to her on Twitter and asked why I didn't introduce myself.  I said I just didn't do that and explained that Ava had somehow given herself the role of my pimp.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a better inscription out there...

Ava and I were able to run over to Maggie right after Kendare, since she was signing around the corner.  I was able to get a copy of The Scorpio Races and ARCs of The Raven Boys. 

When I got up to Maggie and she opened my book, she commented on how at first she thought my name said "Steak".  I said that it wasn't that bad, that I liked steak in general and that Apple was a pretty cool name.  Plus, I am a Stacee with two e's, so... Maggie said there was no way that Stacee was worse than Steak.  I sort of wish I would have asked her to sign one of the books as "Steak"...

After Maggie, Hubs and I had to pull over and assess what we had.  We combined a lot of things and while he went to bag check [a steal at $2 a bag], I went back to the Scholastic booth to get in line again for Libba Bray for Beauty Queens.

When I got up to her this time, the first thing she asked me was is if she could try on my glasses or would I consider that too creepy.  My answer was that I didn't care, but they might be sweaty and gross.  She took mine, I took hers and we got a picture of the two of us together, wearing each other's frames.  After we traded back, she signed my copy of Beauty Queens, I thanked her and we were off for about an hour with nothing to do.

We wandered around a bit with Michelle, eventually making it to the very small graphic novel section of the convention.  After killing about 30 minutes, Michelle headed in one direction and I headed to Sarah J Maas.

Now.  Between the review post I wrote and my general flailing on Twitter, I'm pretty sure everyone knows how I feel about Sarah and Throne of Glass. Her line was a pretty good size.  I got there just after 3 and it was already down the aisle, I was on the corner.

I had planned on playing it cool.  I wasn't going to say anything or introduce myself, just get my ARC signed and quietly walk away.  And then Sarah opened my book and saw the post-it with my name on it...We both squee'd a bit and we both gushed about how nice it was to meet.  She said that she wanted to write something really special, but couldn't think of anything.  I told her that I'd see her for the release party, so maybe then.  After thanking her, I stepped to the side for Ava to get things signed.

More like, I stepped to the side to really start flailing. Her husband, who I was standing next to, must think I'm a total spaz.  I sort of jumped back in while Ava was there and asked Sarah if I could get a picture with her.  Ava started giggling and said that it must be just like Stephanie Perkins again. I told Ava that it might be worse than with Stephanie.  Sarah jumped in and said, "Really? It's Stephanie Perkins, though." 

And even though Sarah wasn't supposed to take pictures because her line was so long, she did anyways. :D

And with Sarah being our last person on the schedule, Hubs and I said goodbye to Ava and Kim and we started to head out....

But wait, there's more.  We just happened to walk passed LBBYA where Laini Taylor was still signing.  We snuck over to the booth and picked up the last two copies of Daughter of Smoke and Bone they were selling, along with chapter samples of Days of Blood and Starlight and a super cool reusable bag with DoSaB on the side of it.  And being the last in line, we were able to chat with Laini for a minute while she signed.  She also took a picture with me.  [Her hair is even more amazing in person].

Hubs was prepared to do more walking around if I wanted, but by then, I was beyond ready to go.  Even though I have bruises all over my legs from people hitting me with bags, broken capilaries on my shoulders from carrying those same bags and welts on the inside of my arms from the plastic pieces on my backpack, ALA was a blast.  I was able to see a lot of authors I haven't before and the books were amazing.  If you're able to get to one, I highly recommend it.

Now.

If you've made it this far reading the post and you're still with me, congratulations.  There's just a bit more.  I'm planning on my very first giveaway.  I don't have all of the details worked out yet, but I will show you what I'll be giving away:

That stack has the following books:

Prodigy and Legend by Marie Lu [signed]
The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson [signed]
Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin [signed]
Betrayal by Gregg Olson [unsigned]
Rift by Andrea Cremer [unsigned]
Wonder by R.J. Palacio [signed]
Beauty Queens [signed] and The Diviners [unsigned] by Libba Bray
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater [signed]
Daughter of Smoke & Bone [signed] & sample chapters of Days of Blood & Starlight [unsigned] by Laini Taylor
Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie [signed]

As I said before, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this.  Yet.  I expect the giveaway will be up within the week.  Keep your eye out for it!!!

The time I reviewed a book -- 1

Okay. So we all know that this blog is about author events and the random shenanigans that seem to always happen to me. Well, I thought I'd shake it up a bit and every once in a while share a book that I loved so much that can't stop thinking about it.

It's certainly not going to be every book, I wouldn't do that to you. :D

So. With that being said, the first book I've been a flailing mess over is Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas.

As I mentioned in my GoodReads review, this book was given to me by a friend. The lovely LeAnna [yes, the sole reason for the start of this blog] gave me an ARC of it the last time I was up at MGRB. She told me that if I liked Daughter of Smoke and Bone that I would like it. I read the back, it sounded interesting, so I took it.

And it sat in my TBR stack for a while.

I don't know what compelled me to finally pick it up, but once I did, I didn't want to put it down.

Without getting into a serious synopsis summary, here are my reasons for why I think you should read this book:

1. Celaena

She could be my favorite heroine out there. She's been trained to be an assassin since she was orphaned at 8 years old. At the start of the book, she's been a prisoner at a salt mine for the past year. She's only 18 and is the most well known assassin, yet she hasn't lost her femininity. She wants to be clean [who doesn't?] and likes the look of herself before she wasted away, but she isn't all, "I'm so amazingly gorgeous, check me out, yo!". She'd rather lure you in to kill you than kiss you and if she can do both while in a pretty dress, that's an added bonus.

Celaena is fierce. Like Beyonce fierce. She's smart and witty and charming and unlike every other girl that I've read. You can't help but fall in love with her and be rooting for her from the very beginning.

2. Chaol and Dorian

Let's get down to serious business now. There are TWO swoony boys to choose from. Yes, you read that correctly.  Two. Usually, I can pick a boy to root for within the first couple of pages of the characters interacting. With Chaol and Dorian, I was going back and forth until the very end.

Chaol is the captain of the guard for the King and is srs bsns all the time. He's in charge of training Celaena. He is gruff and hard headed and he definitely has his reasons as to why he's that way.

However, whenever Celaena is around, we see those defensive walls loosen up, just a bit. We get glittering eyes and shy smiles from him and it's all perfection [but he's not a hot mess about it, he comes across as unsure]. He seems to be the best pick for Celaena because he can relate to the warrior side of her and doesn't discount her ability because she's a girl.

Dorian is the crown prince. He's charming without being skeevy, always has a smile on his face, always looking for a fun time and always always always gets his way. Until Celaena. She makes him realize that he wants to be a better man. And it's fun to see him struggle with what that entails.

Chaol and Dorian are close, best friends if you will. Watching them both of them come apart individually is delightful, but each of their reactions to the other as they interact with Celaena could be some of the best scenes in the book.

3. The Plot

A wicked battle of champions? Check. Magic? Check. Insipid girls from court who want the Prince? Check. Macho boys who underestimate my girl? Check.  In other words, this book has it all, but not in an overwhelming way. Maas has a fluid way of writing and I found myself always wanting to go back to whatever scene I was just finished with.

Throne of Glass is the first book that I wanted to start over immediately after finishing it. It's the first book that I snuck away at work whenever I could to read a paragraph, a page, a chapter. It's the first book that is still on my mind one week and four books later.

I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy as soon as possible. When August 7th comes around, I'll be getting the hardcover and e-book version. Meanwhile, I'm going to pet the ARC that I have.

The time I was over caffeinated

The Fierce Reads tour was always a sure thing.  It was on my events list as soon as it was announced.  The day of the of event, Mysterious Galaxy tweeted out that it seemed there were a lot of people who were going to be attending.  It always makes me spastic because I want to be at the store early to make sure I get a good seat. Thankfully, Michelle also wanted to get there early, so we met up...

I got there around 4:30 and she was already at Starbucks. We had a drink and then went over to the store to pick up our books. She also brought me a pretty, pretty copy of Pride & Prejudice [my favorite book] from the Philippines.  And I also bought a copy of The Wolf Gift because it was signed by Anne Rice.

We then had so much time left before the signing started, soooooo we went back to Starbucks and had another drink.  This might not be such a big deal, however, I've been trying to give up caffeine.  Needless to say, that second chai might not have been the greatest idea I've ever had.

But.  Sitting around with Michelle, chatting all about books?  Sheer perfection.

We went back to the store around 6:30 and were able to grab seats right in front.  All of the authors got there around 6:45 and then left to go to the wig store.

The event started just after 7.  They had a disc with all of the book trailers, but there wasn't anywhere to actually play the trailers.  There was another person who attended the event who had a laptop, so they set that up.  Each trailer was shown and then each author spoke about their book.

Emmy Laybourne went first.  She gave a brief synopsis of the book and made the joke that she had no idea what was wrong with her because she kills so many people in Monument 14. During the Q&A, she talked about how she felt that writing was a lonely existence and she was okay with that.  Fierce Reads is her first tour and she loves how interactive the book tour actually is. She also said that when people come out for her next tour, she's going to hug everyone.  So, if you're "hug averse" don't show up.

Leigh Bardugo went next.  Now, first off, Leigh is so so so much fun on Twitter. She and I hounded Elizabeth Norris about touring on the west coast and somehow, in all of that, we became "Good cop/Bad cop".  Leigh being the good cop.  I made jokes about getting badges for us [which I didn't actually get around to buying]. 

During the Q&A, Leigh talked about being a copy writer and being told that since she was a lady, she had to write about "lady things". While doing that, it was hard for her to focus on her own writing because she would get home and only want to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" before going to sleep.  Once she switched careers to makeup/special effects, it was much easier for her to work on her writing. 

Marissa Meyer was next.  She talked about how Cinder was a take on Cinderella had cyborgs and moon people and a plague. During the Q&A, Marissa talked about writing Sailor Moon fanfiction and then submitting a short story in a contest.  There were a list of 10 things and each story had to have 2 of the items.  She chose "fairy tale" and "set in the future" and ended up writing a futuristic play on Puss in Boots.  She found out there were only 2 entries to the contest and she didn't win.

Anna Banks was next and she is hilarious. After her book trailer, she pointed out how hot the feet were on the guy who played one of her main characters since that was all you saw of him.  She also said that she wrote about mermaids because everything else had been done already.  She wanted to do a story about Sasquatch, but doesn't think the YA community is ready for that yet.

Jennifer Bosworth was next.  She prefaced her introduction by saying she had done a shot of Benadryl before hand, so she wasn't quite sure what was going to be said.  Jennifer was doing really well and then all of a sudden, she completely lost her train of thought and asked aloud what she was talking about.  During her book trailer, she was mouthing all the words along with the actors.

Because there were so many authors and so many books to introduce, the Q&A session wasn't very extensive.  I think maybe 3-4 questions were asked. But there was an excellent little mini debate about self-publishing versus publishing houses.

And then the signing began... We got into one huge line.  Michelle was able to procure some of the Fierce Reads posters and I was able to get my girl, Ava, one signed by everyone.

I got up to Emmy first.  She shook my hand [which I thought was super cool] and thanked me for coming out.  As she was signing my book, I was taking ALL OF THE BOOKMARKS and I made the comment that bookmarks were the best part.  Emmy looked shocked and asked, "Bookmarks are the best part?" I shrugged and said that I had a special box just for bookmarks, so I like to get them.

Leigh was next [after saying a quick hi to Jennifer].  When I got to her, she said that I looked like someone she knew.  I told her that I was the one who did good cop/bad cop with her and she started clapping.  Michelle and I also had a Twitter conversation with Leigh after she made the statement that she would sign anything and requested that we bring a live piglet. 

I told Leigh that I was going to try and make her MGRB event and that I would be stalking her at ALA.  She told me to stalk away and then rewarded me with a special pin!  When it came to my post-it, I had written my name along with "AKA: BAD COP".  Her inscription couldn't be any better.

When I got to Anna, I thanked her for coming out.  She said not to thank her because the publisher makes her go on tour.  My answer was "good."  Anna turned to Leigh and told her that I was being mean.  I asked Leigh who she was going to believe and Leigh pointed to Anna.  I then pointed out that Anna was admittedly under the influence of Jennifer's second hand Benadryl.  I believe I won that round.

This particular group of ladies are perfection together.  They all mesh so well together, feeding off each other's answers.  I feel fairly certain I would have laughed as much as I did without all of the Starbucks.