The time it was twelve drummers drumming

Twelve drummers drumming added to the eleven pipers piping means the bird menagerie has to be going insane. This countdown of gifts is so odd.  Welp, here we are.  This is the final day of the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.

I figured the final day of the giveaway had to be a big one, right?  So, up for grabs is....

 

That's right.  I have a paperback copy of Legend and hardcover copies of Prodigy and Champion. And they're all signed.  Click here to be taken to Marie's GoodReads page to read the synopsis of each. Rules for the giveaway are under "terms and conditions" on the Rafflecopter widget. This contest is international!

**Good Luck!!** 

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The time there was a signing rule

Marie Lu was always a sure thing. As soon as I got my work schedule taken care of, it was added to the calendar and I started hoarding books to take with me.

We got up to MGRB early because it was raining. I spent some time raiding the back room [thank you, LeAnna] and catching up with Carlos, who we haven't seen in a while. [And technically, he's the one who let me in the super secret back room, so thank you!]

The chairs filled up quicker than I've ever seen. Before 1:30 came around, the chairs in the event area were already full and there were loads of people standing around. 

Marie came out right at 2:30. She said she would only talk for a few minutes and then open it up to questions. She asked that there not be any questions with spoilers. She talked about being a pantser. Legend was based on Les Miserables. 

June started out as a boy in the very first draft. Some characters were only supposed to be cameos, like Thomas. He was only supposed to give June a ride, but he never went away. 

Pitched as a trilogy, the first book was finished and then a one page synopsis of each book had to be written and submitted. She just recently read them over and they're entirely different. 

Figured if she could get through book 2 then book 3 would be smooth sailing. Couldn't have been more wrong, book 3 nearly killed her. There was a lot of crying and eating chocolate in the middle of the night. Finishing a trilogy is what it must feel like when parents send their kids to college. 

From Carlos: What's the ending of the book? 

Everyone dies. It's a massacre. 

As a pantser did you ever get to a point where you had to fix threads that didn't work?

Yes. I did that a lot with Legend. I had to replace the entire second half. After talking with friends, it seems like the first drafts are the outline for pantsers. I'm working on a new series and I'm on draft 34 because it's just the way I do it. 

When did you know how Champion would end?

I didn't know until I got to the very very end of Prodigy. It was the only plotter type thing I've ever done. I wrote ending paragraph options A-E and shared with my fiancé. 

Even as I wrote the first draft of the last book, I wasn't sure. 

How did Day get his name?

Day is his street name. He's been in my head since high school. It's a reflection of his optimism even though he lives in such a dark world. Daniel, his real name, this is part of the pantsing part. I wanted something that was close to Day. One day, there was an interview with Daniel Radcliffe and I thought that Daniel sounded like Day. I guess you could say he was named after Daniel Radcliffe. 

Does Primo read your drafts?

I spoil him for everything. He gets to hear all of the draft info. Even if he doesn't want to. 

Any updates on a possible film and how involved will you be?

The last that I've heard is that the screenplay is done and they're looking for a director. The producers are working on TFiOS.  

A lot of authors don't get to be involved and I've been lucky. They've asked me about details on the screenplay to make sure the world building is okay. 

Are they talking to you about how visual the book will be?

It's so early on, but I've read the screenplay and it sounds awesome. I've talked with them and as soon as Blade Runner was mentioned, I knew it was okay.

Do you think June would have done what Thomas did to Matias?

I don't know if she would have made the same decision because she's not that trusting of people. If she wouldn't have stepped out of the Republic's circle, she probably would have done terrible things. 

Can you talk about the new project?

It's currently called The New Elites. It's a cross between X-Men and Assassin's Creed. It's about young people who survived a plague and came out with powers. The MC is a girl who is sort of Darth Vader. The first book is her spiral into darkness. 

When do you know when a draft is finished? Do you self edit?

For the first drafts, with Legend, I gave it to my editor. I'm usually too close to the story to be able to fix it and I didn't have any critique partners at the time. With the second book, I would write until I couldn't do anything with it and then give it to my writer friends. When they give it back, I'll go through a major set of revisions. 

Who was easier to you write?

That answer changes with each book. For the first book, Day was easier because he'd been in my head since high school and that makes me sound crazy. June was difficult because she's smarter than me. There's so much research that I would have to do for her to have two lines of dialogue. 

As the books progressed, I found that I was putting bits of my personality into her. We deal with some things the same way, so it became easier. 

The signing started just after 3pm. 

We were first and Marie thanked us for coming. She was waiting for a pen to write with, so I pulled out a black sharpee from my purse and handed it to her.

 

Apparently, there's a new rule that says you can only take 3 books at a time. So I took 3, Hubs took 3 and then we headed to the back of the line [I had 12 total].  Thankfully, Kelly was in line and between her and her friends, they offered to take the rest of my books. 

While we waited for them to go through the line, I went to work handing out post it's for personalization. And I ran into Amy Tintera in line and fangirled all over her, making a damn fool of myself. 

We left right after 3:30 or so and the crowd wasn't even close to thinning. As always, Marie was adorable and the staff at MGRB is one of the best. I can't say enough nice things about either. 

The time we spent the day in the shade

We went to Festival of Books last year and it was pretty amazing. So I knew I would be going again, I just had to wait until the list of authors was released to decide how long I'd be there for.

I made my plans the day before. And while there were going to be several authors that I love seeing, I was really focused on seeing people that normally weren't in the LA area. There were only two for Saturday: Gennifer Albin and A.S. King.

I already had my copies of Crewel and Dear Bully, so I started the hunt for Ask the Passengers. Again, B&N disappointed me with the BS sob story about how they didn't have it. Surprise, surprise. Thankfully, the awesome people at Mrs. Nelson's had one copy in stock. They were willing to let me pay for it over the phone and agreed to bring it with them for my pick up at FoB.

We ended up getting up to the USC campus early and found excellent parking.

Picture taken from LA Times Festival of Books Twitter

We hunted down the Mysterious Galaxy booth [where I FINALLY met the amazing MaryElizabeth] and the Mrs. Nelson's booth. And then we found LiteraTea, a little campus cafe and killed some time waiting for the official start time.

As we were waiting to sync up with Colleen, we helped ourselves to chairs and sat across from the signing area at MG and people watched.

Marie Lu was signing and even though I haven't gotten a finished copy of Prodigy, it looked she was at the end of her signing time as she was only signing stock before heading over to another booth.

 

We headed back to Mrs. Nelson's to find Colleen. There were hugs and gifts exchanged . We hung out for a bit, catching up before she had to go back to work. So we headed back to MG after getting pictures with the minions from Despicable Me 2.

Robin Benway was at the MG signing table so I grabbed one of her other books and had it signed. I loved Also Known As so much that I'll pretty much read anything and everything she publishes.

 

We sat back and waited in our stolen chairs and just people watched. Gennifer Albin was scheduled to be at the MG booth at 12. Around 12:15, one of the employees told us that they didn't know where Gennifer was, that they were trying to find out if she went to a seller's booth on accident. We were told to stay in line, that they would make sure Gennifer signed all of our stuff.

Around 12:45, one if the MG booth employees came up to us and told us that Gennifer was lost. She had checked into the green room, but no one knew where she had gone.

In the meantime, Hubs had gone back to Mrs. Nelson's booth to pick up my copy of Ask the Passengers by AS King. In their rush to pack for the event, it was left on a desk at the store. They nicely sent someone back for it, so it took some time before it was actually at the booth.

I asked Hubs to stay in line in case Gennifer appeared and I ran over to an adjacent booth to get A.S. King.

She immediately commented on my chest tattoo [which is amazing] and then asked to see my Doctor Who tattoo. We then started talking about tattoos and how her dad told her she wouldn't be able to get a job if she were covered in tattoos.

She's signed my books and came out from behind the table to take a picture.

  

About 30 minutes later, I interrupted A.S. King [who was waiting to start her signing panel at MG] to deliver a message of love from Heather Brewer. I ended up chatting with her for a few minutes about different things and her winning the YA award the night before.

Before we went to our last event, I spotted Debra Driza in front of the signing table, so I stopped to say hi. I ended up chatting with 4 or 5 of the most hilarious girls [I wish I would have gotten names] along with Debra. We talked about tattoos [because they loved my River] and the clothing choices people made. After a few minutes, I excused myself from the group.

The last signing we had was Michelle Gagnon. She was on a panel with Tahereh Mafi and Kiersten White.

I talked to Tahereh briefly about getting Jaime a defaced copy. I may have also gushed about her eyelashes.

I then went over to Michelle. I had talked to her on twitter about where she was going to be signing. When she saw me, she commented on how I really came. And I said that I was an experienced stalker. See below for the best inscription.

We talked about Strangelets. I told her that I loved the book and she told me how she had to cut 20k words from it. And how there's an entirely different ending out there somewhere.

We also talked about Don't Look Back and how I was dying for it. She told me there were arcs out and that it was up on Edelweiss. GAH.

 

After that, we got to steal Colleen away for a few minutes. We went to a courtyard area to hang out and catch up on all of the things.

And when Colleen had to go back to the booth, we called it a day. And right after we drove out of our awesome parking spot, Gennifer Albin tweeted me about the signing and said she was told the signing was at 3pm. She also offered to meet me anywhere to sign my things. I was so bummed that I didn't get to see her, but I love that she offered.

Festival of Books is always worth the drive up.  The USC campus is gorgeous and everyone there is always so accommodating.  If you're in the area, I can't suggest a better way to spend a day outside.  With books.

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 it was a contest

So. There's a super secret event that's not really going to be a secret anymore... Check out the post below to see how you can win an amazing YA author event with Beth Revis, Marie Lu, Marissa Meyer, Victoria Schwab, and Megan Sheppard.

Have you ever wished that a big YA book tour would make a stop in your hometown? Well, here's your chance for that wish to come true! YA2U is a program that features five award-winning and best-selling authors who are holding a contest to see what city they should visit in an exclusive tour stop!

The authors are collecting votes from January 1 to February 15, and any city in the continental US or any Canadian city that has an international airport can win an exclusive visit from all five authors, including an author panel and book signing! Entering is super easy--and if you help spread the word about the contest, you can also enter win a signed copy of all of their books (TEN signed books in total!)--and the book contest is open internationally!

The authors in the program are:

• Marie Lu, the New York Times best-selling author of Legend & the upcoming Prodigy
• Marissa Meyer, the New York Times best-selling author of Cinder & the upcoming Scarlet
• Beth Revis, the New York Times best-selling author of Across the Universe, A Million Suns, & the upcoming Shades of Earth
• Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch & the highly-anticipated upcoming The Archived
• Megan Shepherd, author of the debut novel The Madman's Daughter

And they want to have an event in your home town! To participate, just got to the YA2U website and let them know what city you want them to come to. And while you're there, help spread the word about the contest and you can be entered to win all of their books--TEN signed books in total! 

Here's why the YA2U Team should come to MY hometown! 

Now.  I always think authors should come to the west coast.  Obviously, I want everyone to come to San Diego specifically, but most just don't.  So, instead, I hope to get them to LA.

I have been lucky enough to meet Beth, Marie and Marissa.  But, I really want to meet Victoria and Megan. 

I want the 5 ladies to come to LA -- specifically Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach -- because who doesn't love sunshine and Disneyland and the ocean? MGRB is a fantastic independant bookstore with an amazing and friendly staff.  They also have an excellent YA section of the store.

There is ample room for a large event, plus an excellent coffee shop inside the store that makes the best hot chocolate.  Oh and they serve beer and wine and scones, if that's your sort of thing.

Why should the YA2U Team come to your hometown? Why not join in the fun today and share with others about this program and your hometown. The more votes your town gets, the closer you are to having your very own personal tour stop! Vote for YOUR town here!

And if you help spread the word, you can also participate in the book giveaway. Tell them that you learned about YA2U from me and we both get extra entries in the contest! 

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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.