Now, whenever I go to a book signing, I drag my husband with me. I also make him drive. This time, he was in Valencia for work and I had to decide if I was going to brave the 405 on my own. Obviously, I did.
I left San Diego at 4. The event started at 7 and I wasn't sure how bad traffic was going to be. It was full speed [and that means not going 90+ mph *cough*] until the 73 dumped out onto the stupid 405. And then it looked like this...
Turns out there was a Honda CRV that had broken down in the middle of the freeway. The driver was bawling. Of course, after passing the car, traffic only broke up for 10 seconds. Thankfully, I only had to go 1 more mile.
I got to the store and was caught taking a picture of the sign they had posted. An employee told me I could have it after the evening was over. I was tempted, thinking it would be cool thing to have signed.
After perusing the store and buying a few books [have I mentioned I shouldn't be allowed in a bookstore unsupervised?], I found the event area and plopped myself down in a chair with an hour to kill. The woman who caught me taking the picture is the same person who set up the seating. She kept giving me the side eye. It was fairly amusing.
After about 30 minutes, people started showing up. I grabbed a chair in the second row and listened to people discuss where they drove from, whether or not they had read Fracture, what book signings they were going to next and of course The Fault in Our Stars. [I just can't seem to get away from that book].
Megan was prompt. She was there and started talking at exactly 7pm by my clock. [This is amazing to me because it is the very first time it's ever happened]. She started out by giving a brief synopsis of the book and then read a little bit. She also gave a bit of her background. Then the Q&A started.
What I was most intrigued with is the fact that she rewrote the story 3 times. The first rewrite she was told there wasn't a plot. She got rid of everything but 2 chapters [I could be making this up. I know she got rid of almost the entire book, but I didn't make a note of the exact amount. Surprise, surprise]. After submitting the rewrite, she was told the new copy didn't have any heart. She again deleted everything, except the first 4 sentences. Those are the only words that remain from the original manuscript.
I asked who her favorite character was to write, excluding Delaney [apparently, this has become MY question to ask]. Her answer was Decker because he's easy to write and Janna because she's someone Megan wants to hang out with.
When the signing started, we lined up and they handed out the obligatory post-its. I got up to Megan and blurted out how charming she is [it's true, she totally is]. It was fun to see an author have fun talking about their entire process, making jokes about her undressed children and smart husband, all the while giggling. Literally giggling. Even her giggle is charming.
She signed my book, I thanked her again and stole a bookmark.
And then proceeded to drive back to San Diego without killing anyone on the 405. I'd say that was a success.
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