The time it was the longest event

I wasn't planning on recapping this event. I've seen these particular authors a zillion times and I figured it would be nice to actually just sit back and listen without having to take notes. And then I had a couple of people tell me that they couldn't wait to read my post on it.

Sooooo. Lets see what I come up with, shall we?

I got to Mysterious Galaxy early to meet Michelle for Starbucks. I was there first because traffic was horrible the day before when we met up, so I wanted to avoid it. That left me ample time to people watch. And get "Joanne" yelled at me multiple times.

We got into the store around 5:45 and there were already people sitting down. Thankfully, we were still able to get front row.

After securing our seats, Michelle and I ran over to Starbucks. On our way out, we ran into the authors who were going to interview with Ava. We said hi to everyone quickly and then went back to the store.

The event started promptly at 7pm.  The chair situation was bit odd, so they all decided to stand around the podium.  Veronica started by saying they would do an introduction of themselves and then a brief synopsis before just opening it up to a Q&A session.

When it came to Tahereh talking about her series, she said there was: "Lots of kissing for a girl who can't touch anyone."  I really loved that.

With the angst between Juliette and boy toys: will there be improvements in her situation?

Tahereh struggled to answer at first, the question was sort of worded oddly.  The girl who asked the question kept trying to reword it before she finally said:

Will we see anything about her sex life?

T: Can we get a mic drop? YES. There will be a big finish.

Ransom then commented about the teaser from book 3 that had been released.  Tahereh told a story about how Chapter 62 in Unravel Me made her editor sort of uncomfortable so they had made copies of the chapter and passed them around the publishing house.  Apparently, there is a part in book 3 that her editor is passing around again, but it's not public.

For Anna & Cynthia: both gave an exhale about the series being complete: glad to be done or what's next?

A: both? A bit of mourning. Is working on something new, but thinking about bonus material. Really digging into new book helps.

C: Goes through waves. Up and down due to having to come back to it.

 

Next projects?

C: Can't say anything because it hasn't sold yet

A: A duology, first book titled Blackbird. Mysterious thriller set in modern day LA.

R: Sequel to Miss Peregrine. Takes places during London blitz.

T: Working on book 3, waiting for revisions. Hopefully will work on a new project.

V: Almost done with 3rd book. Working on something every exciting but can't say anything.

What song best describes your writing process?

V: "Hotel California"

T: Listened to rainy mood.com, needs to be depressed while writing book 3.

At this, Tahereh decides to spoiler something from Ransom's second book.  The fact that he coined the phrase "softly crapping". Ransom's response was "there's a lot of birds in the book."

A: "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"

What is your theme song for you book?

R: "People Are Strange" by The Doors

A: "Howl" by Florence + the Machine

C: "Human" by Civil Twilight

T: "Sometime Around Midnight" by The Airborne Toxic Event and "Hurt" by Johnny Cash

V: "Shine" by David Gray

For Ransom: In the second book, will there be scenes in Wales?

Some leaving of wales. Maybe some horses. Softly crapping.

For Veronica: Loved the romance between Roar and Liv.  Will the shocking event be changed? And will there be more novellas? [The second part of this question was something like that]

There will be more novella. Obsessed with secondary characters. Can't just write someone who walks across the room. As for the shocking event question, chooses to take a pass.

Most drastic thing you've done for a deadline?

R: push it by a year

V: A few all nighters. Check into a hotel, becomes gollum of writing. Been hungry and drank coffee creamer. Mixed sugar it's not so bad.

A: Saw a strawberry with a face, went to eat it and took a picture to share on twitter. Now it's out there. What sort of mind set would think that was okay to share?

C: Normally doesn't drink caffeine. Will have a whole tower of iced tea bottles. Writes in the Pepperdine library and is surrounded by other people constantly nodding her head and saying "okay".

T: Gets obsessive pockets of writing and shuts herself off. Survives on tea and whatever is around. Lived on pita bread for a week. Probably just a couple of days.

Are you willing to have your books turned into movies?

A: Be willing? If they begged me.

C: It's very common to sell the rights.

Do you ever find yourself restructuring the scene with a movie in mind?

R: Need to show, don't tell

Ransom then asked: Do you think about the geography of a scene?

A: Drew a map and layout of rooms. Need to be able to see the layout in minds eye to be able to write with clarity.

V: Fight scenes: likes to make sure it's very clear what's going on. Doesn't want to have readers confused with what is going on.

How much of yourself do you see in your characters?

C: Little pieces of herself in all of the characters. Sort of a beginning writer thing. Versions of themselves, but better.

A: To write well, you have to understand the motivation. Tends to put pieces of friends within the evil characters.

R: Not self aware enough to realize. Probably doing it, but not on purpose.

T: Echoing everything else. Inspired in part by everyone she's met. She has 4 older brothers. At Thanksgiving, one of her brothers had just finished reading her book.  Adam has a bird tattoo on his chest.  So does her brother.  He was supremely concerned. Kenji is an amalgam of all of her brothers and mom.

V: Doesn't try, but there's a limit to how well you can know yourself. Tries to create individuals. Doesn't base on people she's knows. Gets essence for what makes them tick: desire or insecurity. Never looked at family and thought: I'm going to make a character out of you.

For Tahereh: Did Warner always start out the same as how he ended up on the page?

T: No. Doesn't outline, finds out what happens when she's writing. At the end of the first book, she knew what was next.

What makes a good villain? Who is your favorite villain?

C: Needs to be more than 2D, vulnerable. Fun to write.  Loves Snape.

A: Darth Vader. Likes a villain you can understand. Real life is the greatest inspiration.

R: Depends on the story. With a horror story, it has to be what you can't understand. Not everything needs a villain. Likes really smart villains like Moriarty.

T: I should be taking notes. Mobsters who could be a family man. Think they can live a normal life, It's just the family business. So interesting that can be so loving and nurturing and then turn around and kill someone.

V:  Loves dark heroes. Loves when there's a real struggle.

R: No villain thinks they're a villain.

How did you come up with the plot?

C: It's all a mystery. Very intuitive.

A: Comes up with patches and outlines. Will revise if she finds that she's making her characters go somewhere that isn't organic for them.

R: Hard to have entire story in the head. Knows the beginning and the end. Makes balsa wood puppets to act out middle.

T: Intuitive. Trust yourself. Doesn't outline or plot. Likes the story to be fluid, lets character decide everything.

V: Process is similar. Combo of plotting but if characters go somewhere else, go off road. Editor will help in process. Wrote the ending of book 1 2 weeks before print.

There were a few more questions after that, but I just got tired of typing. The Q&A went on for over an hour When they concluded the talk, Michelle and I headed to the end of the line because I was getting a defaced copy for Jaime.

It took about 30 minutes or so for us to get to the front of the line.  For me, I only had Anna's book, but I had two for Tahereh and two for Veronica.  I said hi to Cynthia and chatted to her and Anna for a minute.  Then I handed Tahereh Jaime and Erin's copies of Unravel Me.

 

While Tahereh was working on Jaime's book, Michelle and I were chatting with Veronica.  We started talking about all of the places we had seen each other and all of the places I've traveled for book signings.  I said that I really wanted to fly out for Elizabeth Norris' launch party for Unbreakable, but that Hubs wasn't having it. 

And that started us on the conversation of books to read.  Michelle said Eleanor & Park and I said Unraveling and Unbreakable. Veronica told us that she had forgotten to grab a book and that she always needed to have one for down time.  I gushed about how fantastic Unraveling is and she said she was going to buy them!

After saying goodbye to everyone who was there, Michelle and I left.  It was a loooooong night, but so worth it. All of these authors are just so much fun.

Edit: As I read through this the next day, I realize that the charisma and humor these authors have doesn't even remotely come through. Let me assure you, they are amazing. Don't judge them by my shoddy notes and lazy fingers/editing.

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 did a swoony blog hop

Here we are again for another blog hop.  The lovely ladies at The Book Hookup and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer set this one up too!

 

When the topic of swoony boys came up, it was the hardest decision I had to make.  Which boy did I think was the swooniest? The first boy who comes to mind will always be Noah, but I wanted to give out a signed book. 

 

So.  Adam Kent from Shatter Me it is!

 

Haven't "met" Adam yet? Check out some of the things he's said...

“You have no idea how much I’ve thought about you. How many times I’ve dreamt”-he takes a tight breath- “how many times I’ve dreamt about being this close to you.” He moves to run a hand through his hair before he changes his mind. Looks down. Looks up. “God, Juliette, I’d follow you anywhere. You’re the only good thing left in this world.”

and

“Juliette,” he whispers, and I realize just how close he is. I’m not sure why I haven’t evaporated into nothingness. “It’s been me and you against the world forever,” he says. “It’s always been that way. It’s my fault I took so long to do something about it.”

Still alive?

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Now that you've entered here, check out all of the other blogs on the hop [listed below] for a bazillion chances to win other phenomenal books! You can also check out the host blogs at: The Book Hookup and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.

Good luck!!

The time we were last

As soon as I posted that I was going to the Dark Days tour with Tahereh Mafi, Cynthia Hand, Veronica Rossi and Brodi Ashton, friends started asking if I could pick up books for them.  At first count, I was going to have 36 books for the four ladies.  It ended up being 19 to bring, with 11 to pick up.

We started up to Huntington Beach early, stopping to pick up Ava. She had already talked to Jeanne about holding seats and books for us, so we didn't have to rush.  But, we all know how hateful the 405 can be...

Anways...

We got Ava and hit the store around 4. We had front row AND Jeanne was super awesome and set aside the books we needed to purchase day off.

 

We went to buy the books we needed and headed back upstairs to flap everything. While we waited, we met up with Kristin and chatted about everything and anything book related. It was also good to see Crystal and finally meet Beverly. 

The authors got there just after 7. There was a moderator from Harper Collins and a designated blogger who would also have questions.

The first question of the night had the authors explaining their books as if they were texting their best friends. So there were some BRBs, a LOL and an OMFG.

During questions, Brodi said that she "didn't like reading", but actually meant that she didn't like reading educational materials. She then implored everyone to NOT tweet that she hated reading.

Tahereh fell over in her very tall shoes when she learned that she could have a "pants optional" job.

And now the questions:

Explain the most exciting part of your book:

V: that she got to play with opposites. Two protagonists, two societies, and an Amazing Race of two worlds, who will survive.

T: Chapter 62

C: the question of destiny versus free How Clara has to face that over and over and decide what she believes in.

B: Nikki and Cole both so certain in their reasons and so morally upright. She loves exploring their relationship.

What kept you going from book 1 to book 2?

B: Candy

C: Deadlines

V: Wine

T: Coffee

How did you come up with your villain?

C: Didn't do a lot of research until the end. Knew she wanted a complicated villain and while reading the Book of Enoch, found the name Samjeeza.

T: Thinks its important to create someone who isn't easy to hate. She wants to ask "wait. What are your motivations".

B: At first Cole was the love interest. And that's it.

V: Would second everything already said and then added that she thinks Kelly Slater [the professional surfer] is Sable.

 

After publishing, is there anything you would want to change?

V: The opposite. Finds that it's exciting to go back and the story inspires itself.

T: Exactly what Veronica said

C: Loves revising. She sees that things should have changed [mostly the language]. Sometimes a reader will point something out that will make her imagination go.

B: Once the story is in book form, it's over. But it still lives in her head. There's a specific scene that she hates and when she relives it, Nikki says and does the right thing and its frustrating.

 

After about 30 minutes, the signing started. Ava and I stood off to the side to be last since we had so many books to get signed.

As the lines started dwindling, the handler came over to me and said that I could head over to Brodi to start.

First off, Brodi is adorable and absolutely hilarious. She asked if I was a blogger. When I said yes, she asked if I had included the comment about her reading. I said that I did, but would gladly take it out if she wanted me to. She laughed and said no.

 

Cynthia was next. I had the most books for her -- 11. I didn't have them organized very well, so it took a minute for me to realize that it would be easier for Cynthia to sign the same books together, since different colored markers were used.

After that was figured out, it ran smoothly and I was able to get them all taken care of.

 

Up next was Tahereh. I had asked if she was ready and she opened her arms and said "My body is ready!" I had quite a few for Tahereh as well. When she got to my copy, I asked if she would deface it. She said because it was for me, of course.

I had a book for my HBIC and asked for a special inscription. Not only did Christina get the special inscription, but Tahereh also used my phone to text Christina.

 

We took pictures and hugged many times. And she told me that she expects to see me at every LA event that she does. I happily said that I would be her stalker if she was okay with it.

 

And last but not least was Veronica. We also hugged many times. We started out with the books and then it morphed into a serious discussion about Kelly Slater and Snarkles who was there with the HC woman [and I didn't catch her name].

 

She mentioned how many books I had and asked if someone had recorded how many it had because it had to be a record.

We were the absolute last people there and said goodbye to all four ladies a few times as we left the store. Huge thanks to Brodi, Cynthia, Tahereh and Veronica for making the trip out. And extra special thanks to Jeanne at BN for being so amazing.

Now.

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The time we went to ALA

I bought tickets for ALA12 in Anaheim before I even knew what it was. I figured for $25 it was worth a chance. Plus, I've spent way more on less.

Leading up to the start, I made a list of various authors who were going to be there and the ARCs I was going to try and get my hands on. The ever so lovely Michelle shared her awesome chart with me and when I finally looked all through it, she had scheduled everything for me!

Saturday was the day we were planning on going. Last minute, I decided that we should go up on Friday to get our badges and when I saw Jackson Pearce would be signing, it was a definite thing.

Friday
We went into the convention center with the plan to see Jackson and go around to a few of the big publishers booths to scope everything out. From the holding area outside, we were able to see the aisle Jackson was going to be at. And when we walked in? The LBB YA booth was right there.

Everyone swarmed the booth for ARCs and I was able to walk right up to Jackson. I had my copy for Purity for her to sign. She thanked me for coming because she was worried that no one would show up. When I told her that I was there just for her, she looked up at me and asked if I was the Stacee on Twitter. I can't stop laughing at this question.

After I confirmed that I was, she thanked me again for coming. I then walked over to the ARC table and got two more of her books to have signed. By then, Jackson had a good line and wasn't really able to talk to everyone. She had been writing tag lines in each of the books and had to stop...

When I got back up to her, I asked if we could quickly get a picture and she said yes.

From there, it was like being dropped down the rabbit hole. People were pushing and throwing elbows and just being rude. I've been making jokes about this for a while, how I'm prepared to go all ninja on people and yet, I didn't expect it to actually happen. We did see Kami Garcia in the middle of the smackdown at Penguin and yet, she still put her bags down and shook our hands.

Most booths had lines, but some were just a free for all. Some people were just standing in the aisles passing out candy or bags or books or children. Okay, not that last one...

We hit Harper Collins and I wanted to slap myself for not realizing the Rae Carson that Michelle had been so eager to see was in fact the author of Girl of Fire and Thorns. We got in line for her [after having a conversation with Rae about how gorgeous the new Shatter Me redesign is].

I bought the hard cover of Girl and got the ARC of Crown of Embers. Rae was delightful, commenting on how horribly hot it was [seriously, this is an understatement. 10 minutes in and I was drenched in sweat. Attractive, I know]. I told Rae I was going to wear a bathing suit on Saturday and she said she was going naked. We both started laughing, I thanked her for signing and told her not to melt away.

We started walking around some of the smaller booths [Less people! More a/c!]. At one point, we rounded a corner and literally happened upon Mike Mullin. I had him on my schedule for Saturday, so it was cool to be able to see him early.

I bought Ashfall and got the ARC of Ashen Winter. Mike does a lot of events at libraries and part of his event is a Tae Kwan Do demonstration. When I told him that I was planning on going to his upcoming signing in Oceanside, Mike stated that he was going to call me up to break all of the boards.

He then told us how he carried a cement block through the airport in his luggage and he thought for sure TSA was going to stop him, but they let him through without any delay.

After asking if I was a librarian and then briefly talking about my blog, he signed my books, I thanked him for coming and we were on our way.

For the most part, everyone at the booths were super friendly and accommodating. I did have several people walk away from me once they found out I was a blogger. Or that I wasn't a librarian, or in the "industry". Other people were happy to grab me ARCs that I made general questions about.

Two upcoming books that I'm really excited about are Betrayal by Gregg Olsen and Middle Ground by Katie Kacvinsky. I was able to get both ARCs and in both instances, the people working the booths went out of their way to get copies for me.

After 2 hours, we had 7 bags FILLED with books. Books on top of books. And then more books after that. I felt like I had simultaneously run a marathon, given birth [even though I don't have kids] and participated in one of those clearance sales on designer wedding dresses but it was held on Black Friday.

Saturday

Saturday was all about the schedule.  I had authors that I wanted to see every hour starting at 10 am and ending at 3:30.  Usually there were more than one author signing at the same time and that's where team tactics came in. 

If you take away nothing from this blog, please take this: If you plan on going to any sort of book convention, take at least one person with you. I could not have seen as many people as I did or get as many books as I came home with if I didn't have the help of Ava, Kim, Michelle and my ever-so-amazing husband.  Our schedules were all pretty similar, so we were able to always send someone ahead [usually my husband] to get in line at the next signing.

Upon entering the convention, Hubs and I headed right to Penguin for Ally Condie and Marie Lu.  The signing was to start at 10 and they weren't starting a line until about 15-20 minutes before hand. They weren't sure if there was going to be one single line or a different line for each woman.  After a few minutes, one of the girls confirmed there would be two lines and came around giving sticker numbers to indicate your place in line.  Ava and I were first for Ally, Hubs and Michelle went for Marie.

The sign I made for the booth.

Ally and Marie got to the booth right at 10.  Both ladies settled in and then they told us that I could head over.  Now.  I found Ally and her books late in the game.  I was able to catch her at a signing in NorCal when she toured for Crossed and get a personalized copy, but I had never met her before. 

I thanked her for being at the event and flailed all over her. I'm sure she was super interested to know how I tracked down signed copies of her books.  *cough* Either way, she took it all in stride, smiling and just being so so so sweet.

After Ava got her stuff signed, we ran over to Marie's line where Hubs had stickers numbers for us.  To get an ARC of Prodigy, you needed to buy a copy of Legend.  The girl who was running the register wasn't sure if she was allowed to sell me two copies, but she did.  I sent a text to Kassiah to see if she needed either book.

When I got up to Marie, of course, I thanked her and we started chatting while she signed... And when she opened Kassiah's copy, Marie asked how to pronounce it.  Somehow, I started flailing about Kassiah and how adorable her accent is, especially when she says her own name.  So there's that...

While we were getting things signed for Marie, Hubs was in line for Libba Bray.  Ava and I went running over to her booth to get copies of The Diviners. He had gotten sticker numbers, but if you weren't in line by the time you got to the author, only one book was given out.

Thankfully, we got there just in time.

Libba is adorable.  Right when I got up to her, she commented on the frames to my glasses, saying that she really liked them.  I said that I really liked hers.  They were quick to push us through the line, so I thanked her for signing and we left.

After Libba, our schedule was wiiiiiiiiide open to make sure we got in line for Unravel Me at 12:30.  All of us were stalking the Harper Collins booth and finally, [after seeing Gretchen McNeil briefly to look at her "hugging shoes"] there was an "unofficial" line starting up.  I quickly got in it and assured Michelle that I would stay in line [Ava and Kim had gone somewhere else and Hubs was wandering].

After about 30 seconds of being in the "unofficial" line, a girl from HC moved us and made it the official line.  People started running and screaming and I went from being about 10th in line to being about 25th.  There was also a rumor floating around the line that there was only going to be 2 copies to be handed out.  That was quickly squashed when the HC rep assured us there were plenty books for everyone.

I sent out a mass text informing everyone where I was in the line and that we were now official. After a few moments, they had a HC rep come by with post-its to give us our number.  Hubs was gone, so I asked if I was able to get his number for him. The woman looked at me and deadpanned, "And he wants a copy for himself?" I assured her that yes, yes he did.

Finally, we got up to the table and we were given our copies in exchange for the number.  We heard that they had cut off the line and there was only 55 copies total.  I don't know if that's true or not.

When we got up to Tahereh, she saw us in line before we approached her.  And when it was our turn, after I thanked her for coming out, she thanked us saying that it was always nice to see familiar faces at her events. Hubs [acting as Kassiah] handed Tahereh his copy.  She looked at Hubs a bit oddly and then I started to explain how Kassiah had rearranged her entire BEA schedule to get me Shadow of Night and getting her Unravel Me was my return gift.

After Tahereh, Hubs ran to one booth for Maggie Stiefvater and I ran to another for Kendare Blake.  The line for Kendare was insane, but it hadn't been cut off and I was able to get an ARC of Girl of Nightmares.  Instead of numbers, they had someone walking through the line, passing them out. Basically, your ARC was your ticket.  Ava and Kim quickly joined me and we just hung out.

When we got up to Kendare, I said hi, but Ava jumped right in, telling Kendare my Twitter handle.  Kendare remembered me from stalking talking to her on Twitter and asked why I didn't introduce myself.  I said I just didn't do that and explained that Ava had somehow given herself the role of my pimp.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a better inscription out there...

Ava and I were able to run over to Maggie right after Kendare, since she was signing around the corner.  I was able to get a copy of The Scorpio Races and ARCs of The Raven Boys. 

When I got up to Maggie and she opened my book, she commented on how at first she thought my name said "Steak".  I said that it wasn't that bad, that I liked steak in general and that Apple was a pretty cool name.  Plus, I am a Stacee with two e's, so... Maggie said there was no way that Stacee was worse than Steak.  I sort of wish I would have asked her to sign one of the books as "Steak"...

After Maggie, Hubs and I had to pull over and assess what we had.  We combined a lot of things and while he went to bag check [a steal at $2 a bag], I went back to the Scholastic booth to get in line again for Libba Bray for Beauty Queens.

When I got up to her this time, the first thing she asked me was is if she could try on my glasses or would I consider that too creepy.  My answer was that I didn't care, but they might be sweaty and gross.  She took mine, I took hers and we got a picture of the two of us together, wearing each other's frames.  After we traded back, she signed my copy of Beauty Queens, I thanked her and we were off for about an hour with nothing to do.

We wandered around a bit with Michelle, eventually making it to the very small graphic novel section of the convention.  After killing about 30 minutes, Michelle headed in one direction and I headed to Sarah J Maas.

Now.  Between the review post I wrote and my general flailing on Twitter, I'm pretty sure everyone knows how I feel about Sarah and Throne of Glass. Her line was a pretty good size.  I got there just after 3 and it was already down the aisle, I was on the corner.

I had planned on playing it cool.  I wasn't going to say anything or introduce myself, just get my ARC signed and quietly walk away.  And then Sarah opened my book and saw the post-it with my name on it...We both squee'd a bit and we both gushed about how nice it was to meet.  She said that she wanted to write something really special, but couldn't think of anything.  I told her that I'd see her for the release party, so maybe then.  After thanking her, I stepped to the side for Ava to get things signed.

More like, I stepped to the side to really start flailing. Her husband, who I was standing next to, must think I'm a total spaz.  I sort of jumped back in while Ava was there and asked Sarah if I could get a picture with her.  Ava started giggling and said that it must be just like Stephanie Perkins again. I told Ava that it might be worse than with Stephanie.  Sarah jumped in and said, "Really? It's Stephanie Perkins, though." 

And even though Sarah wasn't supposed to take pictures because her line was so long, she did anyways. :D

And with Sarah being our last person on the schedule, Hubs and I said goodbye to Ava and Kim and we started to head out....

But wait, there's more.  We just happened to walk passed LBBYA where Laini Taylor was still signing.  We snuck over to the booth and picked up the last two copies of Daughter of Smoke and Bone they were selling, along with chapter samples of Days of Blood and Starlight and a super cool reusable bag with DoSaB on the side of it.  And being the last in line, we were able to chat with Laini for a minute while she signed.  She also took a picture with me.  [Her hair is even more amazing in person].

Hubs was prepared to do more walking around if I wanted, but by then, I was beyond ready to go.  Even though I have bruises all over my legs from people hitting me with bags, broken capilaries on my shoulders from carrying those same bags and welts on the inside of my arms from the plastic pieces on my backpack, ALA was a blast.  I was able to see a lot of authors I haven't before and the books were amazing.  If you're able to get to one, I highly recommend it.

Now.

If you've made it this far reading the post and you're still with me, congratulations.  There's just a bit more.  I'm planning on my very first giveaway.  I don't have all of the details worked out yet, but I will show you what I'll be giving away:

That stack has the following books:

Prodigy and Legend by Marie Lu [signed]
The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson [signed]
Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin [signed]
Betrayal by Gregg Olson [unsigned]
Rift by Andrea Cremer [unsigned]
Wonder by R.J. Palacio [signed]
Beauty Queens [signed] and The Diviners [unsigned] by Libba Bray
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater [signed]
Daughter of Smoke & Bone [signed] & sample chapters of Days of Blood & Starlight [unsigned] by Laini Taylor
Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie [signed]

As I said before, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this.  Yet.  I expect the giveaway will be up within the week.  Keep your eye out for it!!!