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!