The time there weren't hysterics

As a die hard Gleek, as soon as I heard that Chris Colfer was going to be doing a book tour for The Land of Stories, I knew I was going. Didn't matter when or where the signing was taking place, I was going to be there.

On the day wristbands went on sale at Mrs. Nelson's, I called right at ten. And was met with a busy signal. I redialed, only to get the same response. I double checked the number and kept calling.

After 20 minutes, and over 200 calls on 2 phones, I finally got through to someone. She said that people had been calling since 7am, they had several people on hold and the best thing for me to do was order online and notate that I was attending the signing.

The day before the event, Mrs. Nelson's was tweeting about parking and the line up situation. They claimed there wouldn't be a line allowed until 3pm, so we decided to leave San Diego around 1:30. We got up to the store just before 3 and the line was about 2 1/2 blocks long.

We picked up our books, tickets and wristbands and were told by the staff that the line was only going to be 2 hours long. Chris was only going to be signing from 6-8. Period.  Later they would elaborate that he had to catch a plane from LAX at 10:30.

Around 6:20, some of the staff walked through the line telling us that Chris was stuck in traffic in east LA, was doing his best to get to the store and that it would be about a hour. When I asked if he would would still be honoring his signing time of 2 hours, they said that they didn't know, but not to panic.

And so we waited some more...

While we waited, some of the staff passed a copy of The Land of Stories for the people in line to sign for Chris to commemorate the signing.  By the time it got to us, the front and back cover has been filled up.  We flipped to a random chapter and Ava, Kim, Hubs and I all took turns leaving our notes for Chris. 

At 7:15, we heard screaming.  Serious, shrill screaming, so we knew that Chris had arrived.  The line started to move pretty quickly.  Every couple of minutes we moved up a few steps. Until finally we could at least see the front of the store.

And a few minutes after that, we got up to the front door.  [I did forget to mention that the store had set up two huge water coolers with cups for everyone who was waiting.  I thought that was pretty cool.] There were staff lined up all over to stand in front of windows, etc and when we could finally actually see Chris, there were some serious screaming from girls behind us. And jumping up and down.

At that point, I hoped to see some hysterical girls weeping.

The only disappointing thing about the signing was that there wasn't any sort of personalization.  We had even asked if the line moved quickly, would they allow it.  The girl said no because that wouldn't be fair to the people who showed up early to get in line if they let the people near the end of the line personalize. 

I wasn't expecting to be able to take photos with Chris.  Hoping? Absolutely.  Definitely not expecting.  But after hearing that Chris personalized books and stayed for all of the stand by/extra people who waited while at The Grove event the night before, I thought for sure we'd be able to get personalization. 

Anyhoo.

They let us into the store in small groups.  We were only allowed to take pictures from the line up to the signing table. 

A staff member took the book and handed it to another person [I'm guessing it was one of Chris' people because they weren't in the bright orange "I'm a reading Gleek" shirts]. His person handed it to Chris, basically said hi, gave an adorable smile and slid the book across the table.

Hubs went first, so he could take pictures afterwards.  Walking up to Chris in a Batman shirt triggered a brief conversation about the new movie.  They were trying to shoo Hubs away and simultaneously usher me over to him. And while I was in front of Chris, he was still talking to Hubs about mother fucking Batman, so all I got was a "Here you go, sweetie" and the adorable smile. 

We were both quickly ushered of to the side. There was a small corral of people taking pictures, but security kept saying, "One picture and move on".  Outside in the parking lot, there were even more people trying to get pictures.  I wanted to wait to see if the screaming-in-line-girls were going to exit weeping. 

Nope.  :(

We hung out for a few minutes before leaving and I came to the conclusion that Hubs doesn't get to go to signings anymore.

The time I stole a stolen seat

Holly Black was an author who I watched for a while. I didn't start the Curse Workers series until they were all released. And then I devoured them.

As soon as I saw her pop up on the events page for Mysterious Galaxy, I knew I was going. Even though I had no idea wtf Clarion was. While at CC, I had even asked Ben if it was going to end up a ticketed event. I thought it would be a madhouse...

I got down to MG early. I had brought 7 books with me to get signed, but decided that I was only going to get my UK versions signed. When I tweeted about having eleventy billion books and feeling like a d-bag for having so many, Holly actually answered me back, telling me to bring them all.

I went into the store around 6. You know, when my phone was about to die and I had finished my book. There already were a good amount of people wandering around. After browsing [without buying anything], I noticed that there was a small cluster of chairs set up and some people sitting down.

These were chairs that weren't set up by the MG staff. I approached cautiously. These appeared to be serious sci-fi readers. And then I was sort of invited to sit down...

And as I watched people unpack their stacks of books, I decided to get my bagful. Even if I didn't actually have them all signed, at least I had them with me to be able to decide without leaving the signing line.

Holly got there right at 7pm.  And with her, Cassandra Clare, but we'll get to her later.

Holly started out with briefly talking about the Clarion writing workshop and teaching a class with Cassandra.  And then she shared the first chapter of her new book.  The draft for it is due on the 30th and she's got a little bit of tweaking to do to it before hand...

After reading the chapter [It was sooooo good], she opened it up to questions.  Admittedly, I don't know too much about Holly.  I'm aware of her other books, but I've only read White Cat and it's sequels.  I've never read any interviews with her, etc. 

You guys.

She's hilarious.  Like, laugh out loud repeatedly hilarious.

She answers all of the questions like she's telling a story.  And she tells those stories like the audience is a big group of her best friends.  I sort of want to follow her around and just listen to her talk about anything. Or everything. 

The best thing of the evening was someone asking her to retell the fairy tale that White Cat is loosely based on.  I should have recorded it so I could post it and everyone would be able to see how perfect the answer was because even though I feverishly typed notes into my phone, there is absolutely no way I can accurately get all of her added commentary. 

I'm not even going to try.

After about 30 minutes of awesomeness, she started to sign.  I quickly ran over to one of the bookshelves to grab a paperback copy of City of Bones and [after asking Elizabeth to borrow a Sharpee], went over to Cassandra Clare and asked if she wouldn't mind signing it for me. 

She was so so so nice and said of course.  I explained that while I really wanted to come back to MG for her signing next week, I've heard a lot of people talking about it and I'm not sure I would be able to get to the store early enough to procure a spot to see/hear her.  That made her gasp and say, "Really?"  I did tell her that I was going try, but that I really appreciated her signing for me then.

I got over to the line for Holly and was last.  Everyone towards the end had bagfuls of books.  I was planning on getting some picture of Cassandra [the one I do have is blurry], but by the time I was close enough to snap a few, she had moved from her chair and was in a conversation with two women.

When it was my turn to get up to Holly, I first thanked her for coming.  I was still unsure about having all of the books signed, but when I mentioned it to her, she said that she would sign them all.  I pulled out my UK covers first and we talked about how ginormous and gorgeous they were [because they really, really, really are]. 

From there, I pulled out my hardcover copies and a second UK version of White Cat [which will both probably be giveaways a some point] and she signed those as well.

Afterwards, I asked if I could get a picture with her.  Holly commented on my phone case [Doctor Who] and that launched a brief conversation about how awesome and enjoyable it is.  Which then led to an even briefer conversation about Sherlock before I thanked her again for coming and left.

If you ever get a chance to see Holly Black, I highly recommend it.  Even if you've never read her books, she is an amazing storyteller.

The time I was lucky number 13

Ava is the one who pointed out that Kiersten White was having her release party for Endlessly in Oceanside.  She was the one who pointed out the other authors on the panel.  I just knew I was going.


I got to the B&N in Oceanside around 3:30. I went to the teen section to pick up a copy of Endlessly, but the bookseller working in the aisle told me they had taken all of the books to the front and had them behind the counter.

There were two girls who had heard the conversation and quickly started to walk in the same direction. I told them that if they took the last copy of the book, I was going push them. They started laughing and one girl actually told me to push her friend because she was the prettier one. !!!

After getting my book and line place holder, I asked where the event was going to be set up. One of the booksellers pointed in the general direction of a table and said, "Probably over there".

I wandered around a bit and when I came back to the event "area", those girls I threatened to push were sitting on the ground.  I decided to join them, wanting to get front row seats.  Eventually, we found out that they weren't going to be putting out chairs for the guests.  The events manager said they wouldn't have enough room.

So we waited.  And waited some more.

The authors got there at 6.  And the ever so adorable Kiersten introduced herself and then decided to introduce the other ladies as well: Marie Lu, Cynthia Hand and Robin LaFevers.

The ladies opened it up to Q&A right away.  There were several questions, but my favorite asked if they could go to a tea party with 3 characters [other than their own], who would they choose.  After a lot giggling between Kiersten and Marie, the ladies started to throw out random answers: the Hobbits, Gandalf, some magical mouse from a high fantasy book, and Voldemort.

After a quick contest for swag, they started the signing, lining people up in numerical order.

I got to Kiersten [the only author I had books for] and gave her my books.  I already had a signed copy of Supernaturally from Mysterious Galaxy, so I asked her to personalize it.  Kiersten laughed, saying that of course she would personalize it, since we're like old friends now.  As she was signing, she had commented on my Doctor Who shirt, which Marie also said that she liked.  We then got into a conversation about not wanting Doctor Who to become mainstream. 

That led to talking about Sherlock and how amazing it was.  And as Kiersten was telling Marie how awesome it was, I was telling Marie how horrible it was.  Of course, I don't mean that, but I don't want Sherlock to become seriously mainstream either.  Kiersten said she wanted lots of people to watch so they would continue making it.  The woman has a point...

I didn't even see the inscription in Endlessly  until I took the picture... LOVE IT.

I had planned on leaving after that, but realized that I didn't get any pictures with the authors.  The line of people waiting wasn't too long and I had excellent company, so I hung out and got pictures with everyone. 

As always, all four ladies were delightful.  But, it was especially nice to be home 10 minutes after leaving instead of hours away!

The time we went to Comic-Con 2012

Last year, we got up at 3am and waited in line for 6 hours to buy our 2012 CC passes when they were still doing onsite ticketing. I can't complain because we ended up meeting Matt Smith in the middle of the road and he was super nice and took pictures with us.

Anyhoo.

We weren't super excited about it right away. We've been every year for 16 years or so and while it's been interesting watching the growth and popularity, it's also been a downer at how commercial and assholey it's gotten.  For the first time, I actually looked through the schedule and made a note of the panels I wanted to see.

Thursday

I knew Heather Brewer was going to be signing on Thursday. We went to Penguin YR right away to ask about when Heather would be there and just happened to get there right before Marie Lu was signing the special edition copy of Legend. I also *finally* met Christine and Caitlin who were both in line for Marie Lu as well.

From Marie, we headed to the BBC America booth to get the CC edition Doctor Who shirt. The line ran all across the wall and they had to walk people over 20 at a time. It took us about 20 minutes to get up to the booth, but I was able to get my hands on a couple of shirts. And the best lanyard ever.

From there, we had nothing but time. The panel I wanted to go to was at 1:15, but due to the Walking Dead being right after it, the hall it was being held in was already full.

We walked around a bit and then went to scope out where the after-panel-autograph area would be.  There was still a panel signing going on [the topic was "Books in Hollywood"] and Margaret Stohl was there.  I was given a Beautiful Creatures shirt that she signed.

I bought a copy of When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle.  I'm a total sucker for anything Romeo and Juliet related.  She was adorable.  And just so so so nice.  Her marker started to run out when she went to sign my book, so I asked her if she wanted a new one.  She said yes, because she didn't want to "sign it in Fifty Shades of Grey." She started laughing and remarked that she knew it was a bad joke, but couldn't resist. 

We chatted about how the author of Fifty Shades was going to be signing later and how we were all just amazed by it.  Rebecca was lovely enough to take a picture with me... And then asked Hubs to take another one with her camera.

I was handed a few other free books as I walked down the panel line, but only one other one was signed.  The author, Mark Frost, was really friendly.  The Paladin Prophecy sounds amazing too.  Apparently, there's going to be a movie coming out in 2014 based on the book...

After getting through that panel, we sat around for a while and just watched people.  Eventually, I noticed that people were getting in line for the signing from the "Not With a Bang, but a Bite" panel, so I went to get in line. 

And then this happened.

Yes.  You're looking at that right.  The Disney Princesses had an impromptu photo shoot right where the signing was going to take place.  And apparently, I was the photographer, using Rapunzel's camera, and the phones of Ariel and Merida.

At 2:30, the authors from the panel came over. 

Max Brooks was first for me.  Basically, just a hi, nice to see you, thank you, bye type of situation. He was smiley and nice, though.

Stephen Blackmoore is a riot on Twitter.  We've been having an ongoing conversation about CC involving tasers, matching Sailor Moon costumes and our mutual awkwardness in real life.  He made me promise that I would identify myself when I got to him... And I sort of did, in the form of my name on a post-it note in the book.

We chatted for a few minutes before he signed my book and took a picture with me.  Seriously, go follow him now.  Now.  Now.  NOW.

Last, but certainly not least, was Susan Dennard.  I just happened to see that she was going to be on the panel as well and I almost died when I saw that Something Strange and Deadly was going to be available to buy before the signing [and before the release date].

Susan is super friendly on Twitter and in person.  She had a bunch of trading cards of the characters in front of her, along with a sticker that said "aim for the knees".  When I commented on it, Susan said that one of her characters uses her parasol to knock down zombies.  LOVE IT.  She was also more than willing to take pictures!

As I was walking out of the signature line, Sarah J Maas was there. [squee!!] Because I've repeatedly flailed over her, I was going to try and play it cool. Again. Well, that didn't work out.

She said hi to me and I actually did the I'm-shielding-myself-from-you-because-if-I-can't-see-you-then-you-can't-see-me-and-I-won't-make-an-ass-of-myself. Did that work?

No.

I had some ridiculous word vomit about how I wasn't really stalking her, it was just a coincidence and not to be afraid. She said words back, but I have no fucking clue what they were. It could have been any combination of:

"Nice to see you" to "Okay, I'm scared now" to "Get the fuck away from me" to "I'm calling the cops"

After making a complete ass of myself with Sarah, we decided to call it a day.  And what a first day it was...

Friday

I had been bugging Heather Brewer on Twitter about her CC schedule for about a week before.  She was signing ARCs of Second Chance at Penguin on Thursday at 5 and having gotten First Kill last year, I really really really wanted it.  However, Hubs couldn't miss school, so I was unable to go.

Thankfully, Caitlin and Michelle were available to get to Penguin for me.  And apparently, Heather recognized my name and told them I was a liar since I didn't show up.  After Michelle text me to tell me about it, I tweeted Heather again and thanked her for signing the book for me, even though I wasn't there.  I also said that I'd be seeing her on Friday. Her answer? "You better be".

So. That brings us to Friday morning.

The line across from Hall H, for Hall H

We were walking down the sidewalk in front of the convention center, trying to get down to the section that we wanted to enter at.  As we were walking in, Heather Brewer and her son were walking out.  Hubs noticed her and we spun around to talk to her.  Hubs told her who I was [namely, that I was the one who didn't show up Thursday].  She started laughing, telling me the story of what happened and how she called me a liar. 

Afterwards, she was awesome and took a picture, but not before jumping up and down with me. I promised her that I would see her at the Penguin booth at 10.

We got right into the convention center and headed to Penguin.  I wanted to confirm that they didn't mind that I had my own books for Heather to sign.  The ladies they had working were so nice.  I told them I wasn't going to take the copy of Legacy of Tril they were giving away and they had no problem with my request.

Heather got there just after 10.  When we got up to her, she said "YAY!!!" I was able to get my ARC of Legacy of Tril signed as well as my Dear Bully and four of the Vlad Tod books.  Heather was thrilled to see that I had Dear Bully and we had a discussion about how I was trying to get everyone to sign their entries.

We thanked Heather for taking the time to sign all of the books and Penguin for letting me do it and went on our way down the aisles, just to wander around...

And then we ran into the some of the cast members of season 2 of The Glee Project.  Aylin, Charlie, Blake and Abraham were walking around with Samuel [who was one of the winners from season 1] and Robert [the mentor/Glee casting director].  They were all super friendly and willing to take pictures with me. 

After walking around for a couple of hours, we headed upstairs to where Heather's panel was being held.  It was scheduled to start at 3:30 and by 2pm, they had already cut off the line and we were unable to get into the room.

Walking through the autograph area, we saw Kiersten White interviewing Rae Carson for Epic Reads.  I told her the secret phrase she posted on her blog ["So, how are you preparing for the unicorn apocalypse?"] and was given some signed bookmarks.

Bookmarks and bumper stickers

As we walked out, I saw Stephanie Perkins on her panel, but I didn't have my Nook for her to sign and didn't want to buy more books [or wait in line], so we decided to call it a day.

Saturday

Saturday morning had us sleeping in.  On the drive home Friday, we had discussed attending at all on Saturday.  The conclusion we came to was no.  After waking up late and having breakfast, we decided to head down to the convention center.  We got there around 1 [after having to make a stop at my work to print the parking pass because I forgot it] and just headed into the exhibit hall.

Earlier, Lish McBride had tweeted that she was going to be signing at 3:00.  After telling her that I would try to come by, she said she would save me a shirt... We went to find the booth and Leigh Bardugo was there signing!

I stopped to say hi and finally get a bottle of the super cool Shadow and Bone nail polish she has.  She said that I needed to paint everything in the house.  I said I would paint the dog and Hubs' nails. Leigh signed my badge and ever so nicely signed some bookmarks for Jennifer.

Now.  As I said at the beginning of the post, we met Matt Smith and Karen Gillan last year.  The two of them and Arthur Darvill were going to be on panels over the weekend, so we were hoping to run into them again.  Knowing that Matt was on a specific panel that was about to be over, we took a chance and ran over to the side of the Hilton to see if we could catch any of them.

After about 20 minutes, Matt came out of the hotel without security and signed.

 And I even got him to sign my Tardis bag...

After being out for about 5 minutes, security told Matt he had to leave and escorted him to the limo across the street.  Security got really thick and then all of a sudden, Karen and Arthur were whisked by us right into the limo.

We hung out by the side of the Hilton for a little longer and ended up seeing Joel McHale, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Naya Rivera, Darren Criss, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Lea Michelle, Cory Monteith, William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Don Cheadle, Robert Downey Jr, Ian McKellen, Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Sean Hayes, Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and Robert Downey Jr [again!!].  There were tons of other people, but I had no idea who they were. 

We left just around 3 [much to Hubs' dismay, he was happy to stay there] and headed to Lish.  I introduced myself to her [per our Twitter conversation] as the person who would avenge her if she didn't show up after going with the crazy cab/shuttle drivers. 

Lish signed my badge and I told her that I would have her books on Sunday.  We took a picture and she gave me an awesome shirt. We also all compared our Doctor Who phone cases...

Hubs wanted to go back to the hotel to see who else would be walking out, but once we saw the crowd, we decided to leave.

Sunday

We got to the convention center around 6:30 because Hubs wanted to try and get a wristband for the Sons of Anarchy autograph panel.  When we got to where the line was, it really wasn't bad.  Hubs got in line, I went to a table across the way and contemplated if the table top was clean enough for me to sleep on.

After about 2 hours of waiting and snacking, the line started moving.  We had thought that it was just a let's-go-up-to-the-table-and-tell-them-what-we-want sort of thing, but it was a drawing.  Hubs went first, they only allowed one person at the table at a time.  He pulled a ticket out and while it was a white one that didn't count for the signing, there were also several other white ones and one green one stuck to the palm of his hand.  According to him, the girl told him to take it.

I was at the door and started teasing him, saying he was a cheater.  Then I went to pull a ticket.  I had one in between my fingers and shook off the others.  Or so I thought.  I had a white one between my fingers and a green one stuck to my palm.  The girl told me to take it.  I think they were all just so tired of being there and dealing with it...

After we had our tickets, we went to the room where the YA panel was going to be held.  It started filling up quickly and I debated whether or not I was going to even stay for it.  After my girl, Ava, got there, Hubs left to go wander around the exhibition floor.  I started getting pictures of the cast of  Criminal Minds. They were doing a signing and security let him stand there and take pictures.

Love love love Matthew Gray Gubler

After the first panel was finished, Ava and I got up to the front row.  And with about 20 minutes before the YA panel started, Ava left to go to the restroom.  She came back into the room all giddy, happily whispering to me how all of the authors were outside and she met Myra McEntire and hugged her eleventy billion times.  She encouraged me to go out into the hallway as well.

I left to also use the restroom before the panel and as I walked back to the room, I wasn't going to say anything.  I had no intention to jump into any conversations... And then Lauren spotted me.  After some of the best hugs from her and Christina, Lauren brought over Myra.  I'm pretty sure she said, "I hope you're a hugger" before she latched on.  It was perfection.

Now.  Of course there's a backstory.  Lauren had confirmed that Myra was coming to Comic-Con when I saw her in April at the Spring Into the Future event.  Since it was super secret news, I couldn't say anything, but I did take to bugging Myra on Twitter about it.  It started out as a general question and then became a game.  Her answer every time was to use shouty caps and say "DAVID TENNANT".  Sometimes, it was "MATT SMITH".  And on one very rare occasion, I got a "DAVID TENNANT. MATT SMITH. EXTERMINATE. AMYRIVERRORY"

When the panel started and the authors were introduced, Ava and I shouted "DAVID TENNANT", to which Myra leaned forward and into the microphone answered with a "Matt Smith".

The panel was phenomenal.  Of course I didn't take any sort of notes, so I won't even attempt to recap.  Just know that all of the authors were amazing and thoughtful with their answers.  They had excellent rapport with each other and all were equal in their awesome.

I ended up leaving the panel after about 30 minutes.  The room was filled with people and I wanted to be sure I was going to be able to get into the signing line.  Turns out, Hubs was already there. And at the front of the line.

Luckily, the authors got there early, so Hubs was able to stay with me to help me juggling the backpack full of books before going to the SoA autograph panel that was starting at the same time.

Scott Westerfeld and Melina Marchetta were first.  Unfortunately, because we were trying to hurry, there wasn't a lot of time with either author.  We both said hi and thank you to both Melina and Scott, but not much more.

From there, Lish McBride was next.  She laughed when I handed her the books, saying that she had already signed everything for me.  I reminded her that I didn't have the books with me and she started laughing. 

And finally... Myra.

I had brought her a David Tennant action figure. For that I got more hugs and a fantastic picture with her, where she's holding it.  She was the only one I chatted with for a brief minute.  I wanted to make sure she knew just how happy I was that she came out here. 

Pictures courtesy of my girl, Ava.

She told me where she was going to put the DT figure [near her computer!!] and while she was signing my books, her marker ran out.  I had pulled a gold one out [thank you, Michelle] for her to sign my Nook with and told her she could keep it.  Myra said that she would send it back to me with some prizes... I'm probably going to hold her to that.

After saying a quick hi and bye to Tahereh Mafi, Veronica Rossi and Kami Garcia, we ran off to the Fox booth to get in line for the SoA signing. 

Apparently, word had spread that the booth was allowing people to "stand by" for the signing in case there was extra time after the ticketed people went through the line.  Due to that rumor, there was a shitload of people just hovering around.  When security and the Fox booth people finally convinced those people the rumor wasn't true, everyone cleared out.

Hubs had ended up giving away one of our tickets.  I asked the two girls working the line if I would be able to just walk through the line with him if I agreed not to take anything.  They both said yes.  When the ticket was exchanged for a laminated number, we were led 10 at a time over to the booth.  Security initially told me that I wasn't allowed to go through, but once I assured everyone I wasn't going to get anything signed, they all said it wasn't a problem.

We got up to the Fox booth girl who was handing out the posters.  She tried to give me one.  I told her that I promised not to take anything.  She said I could take it if I wanted and I still said no.  Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy was sitting at the first position and I got a little nod [of respect? agreement?]. 

Hubs went through the line and every one of the 11 cast members was engaging and so so so friendly.  Lots of handshakes, eye contact and smiles.  It was a lot of fun and definitely not what I was expecting.  Somehow, when we got to the end of the line, there was an extra poster and one of the actors handed it to me and said since it was just sitting there, I should take it.

After the autograph panel, we tried getting into Hall H to see if there was room to see the SoA panel.  There was.  We sat through The Cleaveland Show panel [where Seth MacFarlane was eerily quiet] before we were shown 7 minutes of the first episode of Sons and a 45 minute panel. 

The last panel of CC became the last thing we did as well.  We left as the last question was being asked and headed off to the Karen Thompson Walker signing at Warwick's. 

Every year we say it's going to be our last and after 16 years, it hasn't happened yet.  2012 was definitely the best CC I can remember. And I definitely plan on going in 2013.