The time it was all bookish mail -- 3

Welcome to another episode of Signed Books I Got in the Mail...

Sarah Dessen was announced at the 2013 Festival of Books.  She also was going to be signing at the B&N in Huntington Beach over that same weekend.  I didn't want to deal with the crowd that I knew would be flocking to her, mostly because I had never read one of her books.  Thankfully, Jenn was going to be attending a Sarah event and was willing to pick something up for me.

I did send an arc of one of Sarah's books, but Hubs fucked up the address and it didn't get there.  At all.  So, Jenn came to the rescue and bought me a book! Now I can officially add Sarah to the collection.

When Elizabeth Norris announced that any pre-ordered copies of Unbreakable from Books of Wonder would receive special bonus material [including an alternate ending], I placed my order that day.  A couple of days before the book was released, Elizabeth tweeted me and said that she had just signed my book.  I didn't want to get my hopes up since BoW usually has a "no inscription/personalization" rule. 

I shouldn't have doubted her because the inscription is glorious.  Also? That means every single copy of Unraveling and Unbreakable that I own says that I have Ben. He is definitely mine. [I would later also win a signed copy of Unbreakable from Pitch Dark for participating in the Unraveling read along.] 

When Eleanor & Park was released, everyone and their mother told me to read it.  The ever so awesome Jaime offered to get me a signed copy when she went to Rainbow's event.  I think she ended up getting 11 copies or something...

Either way, I'm quite grateful she was willing to get me a copy.  The book is amazing and I can't wait to meet Rainbow myself.

Jaime also went to the Pitch Dark Days event.  I had already ordered Elizabeth's books [plus extra copies at her launch party, but that's another story] and was hoping hoping hoping that Amy Tintera would be doing additional events in SoCal.  Her launch party was at the Bookstore-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named and I refused to go.

However, Kiera Cass hasn't been to SoCal yet... Not one to wait, I asked Jaime to get me a signed copy of The Elite.

I had gotten my arc of Invisibility signed by Andrea Cremer when I saw her at Mrs. Nelson's for the Breathless Reads tour. When the tour dates were announced for Andrea and David to promote Invisibilty, I was unable to get up to the San Francisco date. Thankfully, Colleen was going to be attending the Seattle date. I sent the arc to her and asked for David's signature to be added.

I truly have the best friends.  And who's a spoiled brat?  I am!

What books have you gotten lately?

The time I didn't recap the event

Mrs. Nelson's always puts together an excellent event.  I feel like they always go above and beyond to do something special for the authors, as well as the people who attend.  And the staff are consistently some of the nicest I've ever encountered.

The Breathless Reads tour was no exception.

They had a trivia game with a giveaway as well as a "survival kit" that was full of candy.  As well as some pretty awesome Breathless Reads posters that were of the "if you liked this, read that" variety.

The authors got to the store early and came out with the moderator right at 7pm.

Normally, I would go into as much detail as I could remember [or if I actually took notes]. This time, I'm not going to recap at all. There were several bloggers there [so many, one of the ladies from Mrs. Nelson's actually introduced some of them].  I believe there is going to be a recap post at Read Now, Sleep Later, so go check it out.

Instead of my recap, I'm going to brag a little about the books I got signed.  Because really, when you get right down to it, that's what this blog is about.  :D

I got to meet the lovely Brenna Yovanoff and get The Space Between and Paper Valentine signed.

  

And I got to meet Andrea Cremer [again], but this time I had my arc of Invisibility and we flailed over it together.

 

Jessica Khoury and Marie Lu were also there, but I already have signed copies of their books.  Both of them are amazingly sweet. 

So.... yah.  That's all.

Even though I am was disappointed that the tour was broken up into two coasts, I'm so thrilled Penguin chose not to go back to the Bookstore-Which-Will-Not-Be-Named. 

The time I almost left before the signing.

At the beginning of the month, when the Breathless Reads tour was announced, I emailed Once Upon a Time bookstore to see if it was going to be a ticketed event. Meaning you either had to spend so much money or just buy one book to get a number the corresponded to where in the line you would be. I mentioned that I lived in San Diego and planned on driving up for the event, so I wanted to make sure I didn't need to drive up to the store before the event.

Maureen [who I'm pretty sure is either the manager or the owner] emailed me back. She basically told me that I was singlehandedly ruining independent bookstores by buying books online and that if I wasn't going to support the event by buying something from the store hosting it, author events wouldn't be able to continue. [All valid points, but not even close to answering what I asked]. After further correspondence, I was told a copy of one of the books for an appearing author would be left for me behind the counter.

Flash forward to the day of the signing. We got up to Montrose with 2 hours to kill. We headed straight to the bookstore to pick up my book. I went to the counter and told the girl that I was picking up a book on hold for the signing being held. There was an older woman standing off to the side talking with someone.

I won't go into serious details because they're long. And detailed. I will say that not only were the employees treated deplorably, I was as well. Maureen [who turned out to the the older woman off to the side] flat out told me I was lying about not getting a return email regarding a different matter. When the book that was supposed to be behind the counter couldn't be found she said "God, it can be any copy. It doesn't have to be behind the counter. Can't you pick up a different copy?".

If it wasn't the last night for the Breathless Reads tour and the only day that some of the authors were going to be anywhere near me, I would have walked out the door.

Alas....

The event started at 7pm and we went back to the bookstore at 6:20 or so and all of the seats had already been filled. I stood towards the back, but couldn't see the authors where they were seated due to people standing wherever they could.

The event was set up like a panel, there was even a moderator. They had a planned set of questions that was asked to each author. Even though I couldn't see the girls [I made my husband come in and take pictures for me since he's taller] they are all super animated. They are all full of fun stories and giggles.

After the moderator questions has been finished, I figured that since I couldn't see them anyways, I'd go and get in line for the signing while they answered audience questions. Because the store was going to have an intermission between the panel and the signing, I wanted to be close to the front to get done sooner to be able to start the drive home. As I walked out, I was told that I could start a line if I wanted, but there was no guarantee that the line would form after me.

The Q&A was finished and everyone did file out and get behind the few of us who were already lined up. While the store emptied out, they rearranged the set up so the four women were seated at tables. We walked up first and all four women were eating some gourmet cupcakes that had been provided.

We didn't have a book for Marie to sign. I told her that we loved her and that we attended her launch party at MGRB. As I passed out the 5 books I had for the three women, I also asked if they would sign the lanyard the bookstore required for the signing. Before we left, I thanked all of them for their time and for going on tour for their books.

A bit off topic... Tahereh Mafi ended up making an appearance at the event. I was inside and my husband was standing outside. A guy [I think it might be her boyfriend, but I'm not sure] who came with Tahereh recognized my husband and asked were his "violent counterpart" was. We had met him at Tahereh's MG Dark Days event and started talking to us when he saw me smack my husband after he made an inappropriate comment in a crowded bookstore.

Tahereh recognized me [squee!!], gave me a hug [squee!!] and then willingly took another picture with me. When someone noticed we were both holding our Kate Spade purses, she knocked them together and said "They're friends!!" She is toooooo adorable.

Anyhoo.

All four women on the Breathless Reads tour are lovely. They are adorable and charming and tell the best stories. And while my experience with Once Upon a Time Bookstore was not one I would willingly repeat, all four made it worth the time and drive.