The time I was talked into it

I didn't plan on going to Leigh's signing at MGRB once I knew that I was going to Vegas. I had arcs for Robin LaFevers and I wanted to get them signed, but I was more than happy just to drop them off. And then Michelle convinced me to go.

Michelle got to my apartment just before 3 and we left immediately. Traffic was bad, but not too bad for Friday. We got to MGRB around 5:30. Nicole was already there. We chatted for a minute, bought books, and then I took Michelle to the super secret back room. 

We ended up hanging out by one of the side tables in the event area and chatting about all thing books. Kristin came over and said hi and also let me borrow her copy of These Broken Stars. Around 6, Carlos and Nicole informed the small crowd that they were moving the event area to the middle of the store. 

I helped Carlos set up the rows and then asked if I could have priority seating. We ended up in the front row with Anasheh and Vivian.

 

The ladies got to the store at 7:40 and launched into how they decided to do the event together. They talked on twitter about packing for tour, and Robin wanted to be involved. Then Leigh asked her to join her at the event. 

Robin first asked the question about who in the audience was a reader and who in the audience wanted to learn about the writing process.

 

It started out as a conversation between Robin and Leigh. [And FYI: I didn't take down all of the questions. I thought there would be a lot of the same questions that were posted in the lengthy Vegas interview.]

Which your favorite character?

L: Sturmhond, he's a privateer, sort of the Han Solo character. He's actually the Lando character. Writing the second book was much scarier, no one was watching. He never struggles with "can I do this?" Spends less time worrying, not sure if power will corrupt him.

R: It's like asking which child is the favorite. Usually says whichever character is being written at the time.

 

 

R: Loves the subtext that Alina gets more beautiful as she uses her power. Was that intentional?

L: Magic is usually draining. Alina doesn't become stunning all of a sudden, she becomes the best version of herself. The message of the book that the scariest part of yourself is what makes you...[I didn't get this entire answer]

Beauty is a trigger issue for YA. There is something in the water in towns. There are zombies, but they're hot. Vampires? Especially hot.

Worked in makeup in Hollywood, knows what it's like to be beautiful and what it's like to lose it and what people will do to get it back. 

Oblivious pretty? Come on. Standard of beauty in high school is very narrow. The tall girl with gorgeous skin and glossy hair that doesn't know it until the hero comes around and tells her? No. 

R: Authors write half of the story. Readers fill in the other half. And writers have no control over what the readers will see.

 

The Q&A started then. Carlos raised his hand first and asked how Leigh had been since the last time they saw each other. 

If you had to pick one song for your writing process what would it be? 

L: Is there a song about getting punched in the face? "Blinding" by Florence + the Machine.

R: Is that question for both of us? "Roll away your stone" Mumford & Sons.  Every character has that process. 

What character would you want to be in each others books?

L: I love her heroines, but they have to go through so much. Can I be the God of Death? I would want to be in the convent, working alone. 

R: I want to be Sturmhond 

 

With the worlds that you both wrote, do you have an academic background in those fields?

R: I don't have an academic background. Wanted to be an author the entire time, time for graduation and all adults said to go to college. Lasted one year at school. Life long learner, passionate about the Middle Ages. 

L: Was an English major with a lot of history classes. Big history reader. Knew there wanted to be guns. What happens when you bring a fun to a magic fight. 

Do you ship the characters in your own books?

L: I ship everything. I'm team story. I can't get attached to anyone. And you shouldn't either.... I believe in every relationship and I have to serve the story more than the relationship. 

R: That is the best part of having different heroines. I can always ship them in the next book.

 

Would you ever consider writing from another POV?

L: The truth is that we could?

R: The abbesses POV. 

L: Darkling POV. Has written some, may release it, but not until after the trilogy is over. Likes to write bonus content, but doesn't want to have puzzle pieces, wants the original book to be able to stand alone. 

R: There are a lot of extra scenes on the website about the girls being trained. So happy that there are books to prove she needed the research just in case the government is watching. 

When the Q&A came to the end, Nicole came out and offered books to anyone who asked a question. It could be anything. After another 30 minutes or so, Leigh said that she had swag for the first 10 people who showed up. So I got this awesome bag:

The signing started then and the people who didn't have seats got to line up first. We got to line up next. 

Kelly was awesome and grabbed me some nail polish. She also took some of my books up with her, since we were asked to only take 3 at a time. 

I got to Robin first. We talked about my arc for Grave Mercy and how it didn't have a title page. She laughed and said it was made wrong and then amended her statement to say it was special. I thanked her for driving down from Santa Barbara and she thanked me for coming up. 

  

 

I got to Leigh and butted in on the conversation Michelle was having. We talked about her being at SDCC and how I would stalk her properly there. I told her that I had the giveaway book she signed in Vegas, but now I had the winner's name and just wanted to get it personalized. 

She happily did that, then I thanked her and left. 

We sort of made the rounds, saying goodbye and then made our way home. As always, Leigh and Robin are just absolutely amazing. I highly recommend seeing them as soon and as often as you can.

Soooo.  I have a couple of books up for grabs.  I got signed paperback copies of Shadow & Bone and Grave Mercy...

Rules for the giveaway are listed under the "terms and conditions" on the Rafflecopter widget.

**Good Luck!!**

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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 Festival of Books

I'm not going to recount my ordeals with getting information about the author panels versus author signings because I'm pretty sure everyone already knows about it. I've been pretty whiny about it over the last couple of weeks.

Needless to say, we got up to FOB just after 11:15. We had already missed the John Green panel that we had tickets for were just trying to get to the YA panel with Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Lauren Kate and DJ MacHale. We ended up passing the signing area and since there wasn't a serious line yet, I decided to stay and wait.

There were a two people already waiting and somehow we got on the topic of John Green. The woman waiting told us that he was signing right then, so my husband took my books and ran off to get in line.

The line he waited in...

Since I was third in line, I was able to see Lauren right away. She's always so nice and makes conversation. Lauren asked where I was from and if I'd been to FOB before. Turns out, this was the first time for both of us. She very graciously signed my copies of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove and Fallen in Love

Meanwhile, I had met Ava while in line for Lauren. We made plans to meet up for Stephanie Perkins, Gayle Forman and Nina LaCour. I will come back to this.

After Lauren, I ran over to where my husband was in line for John Green. I was able to get there when he was about 10 people away. There was someone there to flap my books [which was already done]. That woman handed them to another woman who handed them to John. I was a bit bummed that I didn't bring TFiOS with me to have personalized, but I didn't think I'd even get to see him, so I couldn't be quite that upset.

When we got up to him, I told him that I wasn't sure what to say because I'm sure he had heard it all already. He agreed that he had, but that he always liked to hear it. So I told him that I only read TFiOS because everyone was talking about it, but that I loved it. He told me that he loved into hear when friends threaten to "punch you in the face if you don't read".

After John, I ran back to the YA section to get in line with Ava for The YA or Bust tour stop. I purposely didn't bring my books because I'm going to be at the stop in Huntington Beach. And maybe San Diego...

Anyhoo. Since I didn't have my books, I asked Gayle to sign her swag while explaining that I would be at the HB stop. And I got an awesome Team Adam pin.

And then it was time for Stephanie...

Ava went ahead and pointed me out, telling her that I'm one of her hugest fans [I will be getting her back for this]. I completely went to 11 on the fangirling and told her how I've been waiting so so so long to meet her. That I planned to go to AZ in May for her and that I tried to get Hubs to go to NC when Lola came out. She is the sweetest person ever. Especially since she dealt with my absolute flailing with smiles and nice words.

Now, while I was waiting for Stephanie, I told Nina that I will have books for her at the signing. And then she asked if I was "Stacee from Twitter". [Perhaps I didn't mention that I had a post-it on my chest like a name tag...]. I'm not sure if this "getting recognized" is a good thing or not... [I also got recognized by a woman who was at the Breathless Reads tour at the bookshop-which-will-not-be-named].

Either way, I got some cool stuff. And I walked away thinking I hadn't made TOO big of a hot mess of myself. Turns out, while waiting for valet, all three ladies walked by. Yes, I did run after them. Yes, I did ask for a picture. Yes, I was a total hot mess.

Moving on...

After the ladies, Ava said she was going to see about going to the other John Green signing hosted at Mrs. Nelson's. You had to buy a copy of one of his books to get a priority ticket. I offered to buy TFiOS to have personalized so Ava could get her autograph book signed. She then left to get in line.

Hubs and I walked around to kill time. Somehow we ended up at the LA Times stage during Tori Spelling. We stood under a lovely tree in a grassy area just hung out. Well, I hung out, Hubs pretended to be Tori answering questions. He even spoke in a high pitched voice for a bit.

Just after two, I went back to the YA panel signing area for Kendare Blake and Robin LaFevers and asked if I could get in line since they were still setting it all up. The guy asked if I knew there was a panel with the authors that was happening. I said yes, but that I'd rather wait for the signing. He was really cool and even let me stand under the tent.

Ava showed up shortly after and traded me my signed [and personalized!] copy of TFiOS for a copy of Anna Dressed in Blood that I bought her. We settled in and just chatted a bit. Nicole joined us right before the signing started.

Robin was first. I told her that I loved Grave Mercy and that I read it in one sitting and that it didn't feel like 500+ pages. She was surprised at that, said it must have been a long sitting. When I told her that it was only about 3 hours, she was even more surprised. I took a pin and thanked her.

As soon as I saw Kendare was going to be signing, I knew I was making her a priority. I absolutely loved Anna and I'm dying for Girl of Nightmares. And like a total idiot, I pretty much said that exact thing. *facepalm*

After chatting with Ava a bit more and waiting for Hubs to come back from seeing John Cusack, we left. And waited at valet for 30 minutes before I made a fool of myself.

All in all, Festival of Books was amazing. I know for next time that there's no need to pay for panel passes. And valet parking is a big maybe. But, I'm pretty sure we'll be going again...