The time I got a history lesson

I had bought tickets to see Deborah Harkness in May.  I then went on a super mega huge hunt for an ARC of Shadow of Night.  I figured that if I could get my hands on a copy, I could get her to sign it at ALA and then I would cancel my ticket with Warwick's and not have to leave Comic-Con early.

And then Kassiah got me a copy while at BEA, but I decided to go to the signing anyways.  I wanted to hear Deborah talk about the series.

I got to Warwick's around 6:45.  I had reserved seating, so I didn't have to worry about fighting anyone for a seat or trying to rush.  They had the table set up off to the side, so I got my book and watched people line up.

They let us in around 7.  The entire store was filled with seats and mine was in the front row.  On the chair there was my seat number and a Shadow of Night bookmark.

Deborah came out right on time.  She had been at Warwick's during her tour for A Discovery of Witches and commented right off the bat how there were so many more people attending this signing than for ADoW. 

She briefly spoke about how she came up with the idea of ADoW: She was in Puerto Vallarta and saw a wall full of books about vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, new angels, fairies, etc and had questions.  Like where did they all live? How did they date? Where did they work? Those questions sparked an interest to the historian side of Deborah and she started thinking about the answers.

One of the questions she gets consistantly is about her character Matthew knowing all sorts of famous people and why she made it happen.  Apparently, Matthew Roydon was a real person who is referenced in the inquiry of Christopher Marlowe's death.  Matthew Roydon the real person was around the same people that Matthew Roydon/de Clermont the character is and Deborah uses that has her explanation.

She did two separate readings from the book and after 30 minutes of talking, Deborah opened up the floor to a Q&A session.  The one answer that I really loved had to do with when book 3 was going to come out [she's still working on it, it's outlined, but needs the time to write].  Before she gave that answer, Deborah talked about how the day before the release of SoN, she called her local bookstore and checked her Kindle download to ensure she could get the book in every format on release day. 

After about 30 minutes of Q&A, she started signing.  It was sort of a free for all and everyone bottlenecked right in front of the table.  Thankfully, everyone was pretty cool and it didn't take long for me to get up to her. 

I had my copy of A Discovery of Witches to have signed, along with a second copy of Shadow of Night.  When I walked up to her, she looked at my name on the post-it and said hello and asked if I was on Facebook.  I said I was, but not under my real name, explaining that I don't use my real name on the internet.  She said it was probably a good idea, but it makes it difficult for her to remember who she talks to online.

I asked how she liked Comic-Con [she had come to the signing straight from CC] and she said that it was unlike anything she'd seen before.  Then she noticed that I had my badge still hanging off my belt loop and commented on how I also just came from there as well.  She even took pictures with everyone.

I was delightfully surprised at Deborah.  Her writing reflects her intellegence and I wasn't expecting someone so much fun.  Not that smart people aren't fun, but she's witty and captivating and really knows her way around a story, fictional or imagined.  I look forward to future books and signings.

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.