A Trip to YALLFest

Earlier this month, I had the extreme pleasure of attending YALLFest 2012 in Charleston, SC. I’ve been looking forward to this for months and months, and it was honestly one of the best book events I’ve attended. Everyone was so incredibly nice and friendly and awesome, from the staff of Blue Bicycle Books and the YALLFest volunteers to the incredibly gracious authors to each and every fellow attendee. Must have been that Southern hospitality and beautiful weather!

Ladies and gentlemen, MARGIE STOHL!

My long-time friend and fellow blogger Elizabeth from Nightmare on Book Street joined me for the festivities and though this was her first big event, she handled everything like a pro. I mean, she brought fruit snacks and everything. She and I arrived bright and early on Saturday to wait outside the Charleston Music Hall in order to see the opening keynote with Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. We were ENTHUSIASTICALLY welcomed by Margaret Stohl. Margie’s arm-waving joy was a fixture for the rest of the day, and she kept us all smiling.

The schedule claimed Cassie and Holly would talk about literary friendships. While they did just that, they also talked the beauty of sharing shoes on tour, their own mutual stalking/admiration society, and the break-up of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Also, the name of elves may have been sullied. Basically, they were delightful.

We followed this with one of my only panels of the day (to clarify: YALLFest has so much to offer in the way of panels and signings that I had to make a hard decision weeks ago: signings or panels. I had so many authors I wanted to meet, so signings won). The YA GIRL BAND featured Elizabeth Eulberg, Stephanie Perkins, Simone Elkeles, Allyson Noel, Jenny Han, and Kathryn Williams. I’m glad this was the panel I got to see in its entirety, because it was just perfect. The authors had a great rapport, playing off one another like (gasp) the YA Girl Band for which their panel was named. The highlight for me was Elizabeth’s story of meeting the New Kids on the Block (she’s a Joey girl, and I’m for Jordan, so we would get along just fine!). Also, I finally got to meet fellow YALLFest attendee and author Lauren Morrill in the crowd. She was straight up awesome, and so’s her new book Meant To Be which released last week!!

After a substantial but constantly moving line, I found myself face to face with two of my favorites: Stephanie Perkins and Jenny Han. I tend to make an idiot of myself in front of authors (see also the John Green Star Penis story), but I think I managed to stay on the good side of fangirl. Well, except that I recognized Stephanie’s wrocker husband Jarrod and had to tell Jenny who the mystery man was who brought her a cupcake. Jenny and I gabbed about Richmond (yay RVA girls!), and Stephanie is exactly as adorably sweet, friendly, and awesome as you would imagine. We’re totally BFFs now… in my own mind.

Stephanie Perkins (Lola & the Boy Next Door),
Jessica, and Jenny Han (The Summer series and Burn for Burn). 

After that, our numbers were up… to meet Cassandra Clare. This is my third time seeing Cassie, and she couldn’t believe I’m not sick of her yet. We talked Jem vs. Will, where it was concluded Will is precious in print but he’s too much work IRL. From there, we made it to David Levithan’s table, where he giggled at my elation over seeing his signature next to John Green’s in my copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. One PBJ smoothie later, and it was time to grin at Gayle Forman, whose signing took place in an urban Narnia. One more line in the sunshine, plus a rousing rally call from Margie, and Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl were in the house! Beautiful Creatures was one of the books that got me back into YA, so seeing the two of them (in South Carolina!) was an all-around treat.

The incomparable David Levithan. 

My last panel was In Production 2013, where Cassie, Kami, and Margie gave us a little bit of inside scoop about their movie adaptations. The preview of Beautiful Creatures gave me chills! And if there were any Jamie Campbell Bower doubters in that audience, they certainly didn’t leave that way after Cassie spilled that JCB learned all of the runes and corrected a make-up artist who gave him the wrong one! He even learned the Bach piece that Jace plays on the piano. Robert Sheehan received the biggest applause during the City of Bones segment because Robbie is the actual best.

Finally, the event closed with the YA Smackdown. Teams Romance, Contemporary, Mystery, Dystopian, and Supernatural competed in a three round battle emceed by Rose Brock and “judged” by Sarah Rees Brennan (plus a proverbial peanut gallery). It was by far one of the silliest things I have ever seen in my entire life, so naturally, I loved it. I cannot recap it in a fitting manner so I’ll say this: Beth Revis and Diana Peterfreund should take their two-woman show on the road (Flippers of Doom!), YA authors are hilariously inappropriate, and Team Mystery was ROBBED.

In conclusion, YALLFest rocked. Thank you Blue Bicycle Books! All book events can be this much fun! Also, BIG HUGE HEAPING thanks Elizabeth for being my event buddy! You should check out her round-up for more stories and fun times.

Forever signing in Williamsburg

Winding down her Forever Roadtrip, Maggie Stiefvater stopped in Williamsburg at Barnes & Noble on Merchants Square. I didn't make it to the launch party in northern Virginia, so I hit this event on August 5 with Louise from Between the Covers. I couldn't miss it you see, but I'd been there for events for the first two Wolves of Mercy Falls books, and I was going for the trifecta!

I got there about a half an hour early and Maggie was already there, caffeine in hand. She was hiding among the stacks talking books and Nooks and sharing roadtrip anecdotes with bookstore employees working the event while waiting for her introduction.

About fifty people showed up, filling the little upstairs seating area at the bookstore. She didn't do a reading of Forever since she'd already read the first chapter online a few months back. Instead she talked about writing Shiver because she wanted to make people cry themselves ugly, complete with snot bubbles, and hopefully ruin their evening in the process. She also confessed that she hand been french kissed by a real, live wolf. See eveidence here.

She chatted a bit about her forthcoming novel, The Scorpio Races (Scholastic, 10/18/11). It's a standalone novel that Maggie described as Deadlist Catch meets My Little Pony. 'Nough said. It's got blood, beaches, and kissing, people! Oh, and there might be a giveaway for a copy at the end of this post...Maybe.

As always, Beau did a great job organizing the event. Beau and Maggie both raffled off books and gift cards. Two of the gift cards were to Wythe Candy, the store that inspired the candy shop in Shiver. (Yes, it does smell that delicious.)

She said that when she went in to buy $10 gift cards the shop clerk questioned her. "Are you sure you want $10 certificates?" Maggie replied, "Should I get $25?" Clerk: "$10 is a lot of candy." Ultimately, she and Maggie had to agree to disagree.

After all the prizes were raffled off, everyone who came got to take one thing  off the swag table. There were heart-shaped "Forever Maggie" keychains, USB drives and foreign editions of Maggie's books. The table was absolutely ravaged by night's end.

Then it was time for cake! There has been a cake at every Wolves of Mercy Falls event held in Williamsburg. All of them have been amazing, not only because they are near perfect replicas of the book cover, but because they are preservative free and thus Maggie-friendly.

Maggie was particularly excited about this year's cake...

When the signing started I got a chance to catch up with some friends who drive hours just to be at the event. Kaila, who created the original Shiver shirt, came down from NYC and picked up her friend Sara in Pennsylvania along the way. Of course, Kaila also made a shirt for this event.

And after Maggie signed the bag full of books I'd brought for myself and others, I had to get a pic with her. As always, she couldn't behave for the mere seconds necessary to take a photo. I suppose, after so many unique photos that a "normal" one with Maggie would just seem out of place here, huh?

GIVEAWAY

Fill out the form below to throw your name in the proverbial hat for your chance to win a signed copy of The Scorpio Races, which releases on October 18, 2011.

Randy Russell Signing Today

If you happen to be in Richmond, VA today and you're looking for entertainment, a great new book, a chilling ghost story, or possibly all three then you should stop by Fountain Bookstore this afternoon to meet Randy Russell. His debut novel Dead Rules was released on June 21. I also have it on good authority (from Randy himself) that there will be donuts!

Here's a little about Randy's new YA novel...

Dead Rules by Randy Russell

Till death

Jana Webster and Michael Haynes were in love. They were destined to be together forever.


Do


But Jana's destiny was fatally flawed. And now she's in Dead School, where Mars Dreamcote lurks in the back of the classroom, with his beguiling blue eyes, mysterious smile, and irresistibly warm touch.

Us


Michael and Jana were incomplete without each other. There was no room for Mars in Jana's life—or death—story. Jana was sure Michael would rush to her side soon.


Part

But things aren't going according to Jana's plan. So Jana decides to do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true—no matter what rules she has to break.

He'll be talking more about it at his signing, but here's a teaser from WTVR's Virginia this Morning.
 

Where: Fountain Bookstore, 1312 E. Cary Street

Date: Saturday, July 9

Time: 2p.m.

Order your books HERE.

Hope to see you this afternoon!

Jennifer Murgia Event & Giveaway

I love getting the chance to see Jennifer Murgia at events. I recently went to see her at her release party for Lemniscate, the sequel to Angel Star. There was a promise of cupcakes!

I've been to see her twice, and both times she's been sweet and funny and takes every attempt to engage one on one with her readers, which I think is awesome. It always makes for a great event. I just wish getting to them proved easier.

Late last year, Meaghan from A Bookworm's Haven and I jumped in the car early one morning to make the long drive from Virginia to Pennsylvania. We hit a little bit of traffic, but it wasn't until we got into Easton that we hit problems.

The GPS drove us in circles for a while and tried to take us down a road that didn't go through to our destination. We thought we were totally lost, but it turned out we were right around the corner. *headdesk* Then we'd made plans with Jennifer to eat lunch at a restaurant that didn't open until 4pm. *facepalm*

This trip didn't prove to be much better. Again, we left super early, leaving plenty of extra time for traffic, GPS screw-ups, rampant zoo animals, alien abduction, etc. The supposed three and a half hour trip took five grueling hours. Needless to say, we were late.

As soon as we escaped the car the day instantly improved. We found our way into the Exton Mall and to Waldenbooks to find Jennifer introducing herself and her latest book, Lemniscate. And there were cupcakes, as promised!



Jennifer did a reading from Lemniscate then took questions from the 20 or so people who had come out to see her. Meaghan and I wanted the store while others got their books signed then made our way over to get our books signed. I got a pair of books signed for you guys too! Just fill out the form below....

Dark Days of the Supernatural at Anderson's

You know that crazy driving thing I do sometimes? Well, I did it last weekend. I hopped in the car and headed to Chicago to be at a Dark Days of the Supernatural event, which was awesome, and meet Claudia Gray (Afterlife), Courtney Allison Moulton (Angelfire), Ellen Schreiber (Once in a Full Moon), and Kimberly Derting (Desires of the Dead). I could have shaved three hours off my drive and gone to Michigan, but I had friends going to the Chicago stop and it offered the chance to see the famed Anderson's Bookshop so the extra drive time was well worth it.

I left my place Thursday morning, admittedly not as early as usual, and was on my way. I had to take the same seemingly-serene-but-somewhat-creepy route I took when I went to Smart Chicks Tour in Ohio last fall. This is desolate two-lane country highway that produced the house where the windows had been fitted with boards and slits, eight or so inches long and about an inch wide, cut into them. What I thought was a cute farm house was suddenly not so cute, hence the creepy. I must have blown past it this time or I would have taken a photo. (If anyone can expain the slits please enlighten me!)

Anyway... I traversed Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio before finally crossing into Indiana, but insted of continuing on to Illinois I took a detour to The Story Siren's house! It was about 9p.m. when I arrived so I was running a little late. Mr. Story Siren was nice enough to hold dinner for me! He is truly Master of the Grill.

I spent the night in a super-cool green room that made me happy and slept on a leaky air matress that made me less happy because I woke up in the morning with my butt on the floor. Regardless, I slept well. Kristi and I had breakfast then got on the road around 11a.m. Little did I know that Kristi planned to chronicle the entirety of our roadtrip...



After arriving in Naperville we stopped by a Half Price Books to waste some time while Stacey from Page Turners Blog, who we were staying with that night, drove in to meet us. We had a huge blogger dinner at Ted Montana's Grill just up the block from Anderson's. I met Anna from Anna Reads, Tara from Fiction Folio, Erika from Moonlight Book Reviews, D.J. from DJ's Life in Fiction, Jacinda and Jasmine from Reading Housewives of Indiana, Heidi from YA Bibliophile, Jen from Makeshift Bookmark, and Lynn Marie from Bringing the Epic. (Later at the event I met Heather from One Pushy Fox.) It was a blast and the food was delicious to boot.

There was a good crowd at the event. It ran really smoothly and the authors just had fun the whole time which made for a good time for everyone. We hung around so long that we actually shut down the store! No really. They made us go out the back door.

Thanks to all the authors and Anderson's for a great event!

Sarah from Harper Collins, Claudia Gray, Courtney Allison Moulton,
Ellen Schreiber, Kimberly Derting, Stacey, me, Kristi, and Heidi.



Bloggers in all their glory! (The "Ask Us" sign was a total photo framing accident.)

GIVEAWAY

I got a few ARCs signed at the event, so I'm going to give them away to one lucky reader. Up for grabs are signed ARCs of Afterlife, Angelfire, and Desires of the Dead.

Patricia Briggs at Bailey's Crossroads

Another year of bookish events got kicked off on about two weeks ago when Meaghan from A Bookworm's Haven told me she was going to the Bailey's Crossroads Borders store just outside of Washington, D.C. to see Patricia Briggs, author of the wildly popular Mercedes Thompson series. The latest book in the series, Rivermarked, released on March 1.

I drove up from Richmond and met Meaghan for a dinner of Belgian waffles (gluten-free for her) at Silver Diner in Arlington. As usual there was some book banter and catching up while we ate, then we headed to the bookstore. Unfortunately we didn't arrive early enough because the place was jam packed with people. (This is the same reason I didn't even try for a photo.) Understandable, but still unexpected more than a half hour before the signing was scheduled to start.

Instead of finding the perfect place to stand and look awkward until the signing began, we opted to go downstairs and find books. (We found one for you guys too.) It was a good thing we did. There were only three of the newest book available! Moments later we overheard the store manager telling an employee that if the hardcovers were gone that was it. There were no more.

Briggs read from Rivermarked once she arrived and the reading was excellent. However, she did confess that sometimes she reads things that aren't there because she has a good memory and will reinsert things that were taken out in the editing process.

As far as the signing itself, I thought it could have gone better. The reading and Q&A were over around 8pm, but it took over three hours to get books signed. I have no idea what the hold-up was but there seemed to be a lack of organization.

We actually shut the store down. At 11:20pm, over an hour after Borders had locked their doors, we finished up. All considered, the event itself was great. The signing portion could have gone a bit better, but I'd glad I got to go and meet Patricia Briggs. She was delightful to listen too and nice as could be.

GIVEAWAY

I figured I would tack a different tack on this giveaway since it's a series and get a copy of the first book so that those who haven't had a chance to read it or didn't even know about it can start. I've included a description of it below. Happy entering!

Description: Goodreads
Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself ... and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.
 

A year gone by...

I am never a girl lacking for words, and yet words cannot describe my 2010. It's been an extremely long time since I felt like I was really in my element because most of the friends I see day to day don't share my passion for stories, both reading them and writing them. This year I was among so many avid readers and well-read intellectuals that I felt truly myself for the first time since early high school.

I'm not sure how I am going to recap the awesomeness that was this year in one post. I don't think I can do it justice because I've attended dozens of outstanding events and met so many amazing people, many of whom have become good friends and have been overwhelmingly positive influences on my life. So to all the bloggers, authors and book lovers I met this year - Thank you! You are truly a special breed.

I don't mean to forget anyone in this post, but I know I will, so forgive me now. I will do my best to cover it all though! Cut for an obscene amount of photos...

James River Writers and a Giveaway

Back in October I got an invite to dinner with a bunch of writers and booksellers. You might be thinking, "why that's random". Well, yes, it would be had it not been the weekend of the James River Writers Conference here in Richmond. (Apologies in advance for the lack of photos. You know I'm normally better.)

I showed up at Cha Cha's Cantina downtown just before 7p.m. to find that I was the first one there, so I wandered around outside of the building waiting for someone else to show up so that I wasn't sitting at a huge empty table all by myself. Luckily, Kris Spisak and Lauren Oliver showed up a few minutes into my table avoidance.

Once the table filled up there was a mix of people I knew, like Kelly who owns Fountain Bookstore, and those I didn't, like Kris and authors Gigi Amateau and Silas House. There was good conversation, tasty Mexican food, and it led to Gigi and I having a donut date at Country Style Donuts (which are the best donuts in the city).

I was especially excited for the chance to actually sit down and talk with with Lauren since we'd never had the opportunity before. You see, we had been friends on Twitter for a while before her book came out, and when it did a friend got a copy signed for me. (Of course Lauren had to get a dig in about the fact that I didn't drive from Virginia to Chicago to see her.) A few months later, at Teen Author Carnival in NYC, we finally got the chance to meet! I mean, who cares that it was in a line for the bathroom. Then at ALA in Washington, D.C. we ran into each other again and walked the venue for about 10 minutes before we parted ways. Needless to say, we hadn't exactly had a lengthy conversation at any of our meetings.

It was a wonderful night with literary folks. Thanks so much to the James River Writers for inviting me!

Giveaway

Up for grabs is a signed copy of Lauren Oliver's debut novel, Before I Fall, and a total bag featuring the cover of her forthcoming novel Delirium (Harper, February 2011). A huge thanks to the James River Writers for supplying the book and to Lauren for sending me the super-cool tote bag to add to the giveaway!

Smart Chicks Winner

I told you winner takes all, and this is what they'll be receiving in their mailbox... (Feel free to Ooooo and Ahhhhh.)

•As You Wish by Jackson Pearce (signed)

•Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce (signed)

•ARC of Radiance by Alyson Noel (signed)

•Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (signed)

•ARC of Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (signed)

•The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan

•The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

•Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (signed)

•Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (signed)

•And some swag.

And now for the winner...

Congratulations Allison C!

 

Your books will be in the mail to you shortly. Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for more giveaways.

Ye Olde Rennaisance Faire and one hungry girl

I'm a sucker for a good rennaisance festival, so when Monica from Bibliophilic Book Blog invited me to one in Maryland I didn't need any convincing. I mentioned our planned outing to Tess, a friend and bookseller at Fountain Bookstore, and what she said really kicked started the excitement, mostly because we wanted to see if she could do it.

"I'm going to eat my way through the Rennaisance Faire!"



Monica and The Thomas Schroeder
ft. his Robin Hood hat.



And she wasn't lying. My boyfriend (Apologies that there is no photographic evidence of his existence.) and I picked Tess up that morning and drove to Monica's house where we started out day with homemade waffles. When we arrived at the fair we immediately got caught up in the costumes. Pirates and wenches and fairies, oh my!

After exploring a bit and finding Monica and her husband, THE Thomas Schroeder, some grog (because that is the only term appropriate to a renn faire), we played Dunk the Wench. The wench Tom tried to dunk was particularly surly, mocking his feathered cap. "Are you Peter of one of the merry men?"

Tess and I.

We played the game where you toss ping pong balls into cups and win things, and Tess scored a cool renn faire mug. Next came our first stop for food. I went with my traditional renn faire food - ribbon fries. Monica got the same and cheese bites because, no matter where we eat, she has to get cheese sticks/fritters/balls/etc if they have them. But Tess, she started slow with the familiar and broke into a run. She's kind of a skinny mini, so I have no idea where she put it all!

Over the course of the day Tess ingested fried mac n' cheese, spicy nuts, a pretzel, sausage on a stick, chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick, and a turkey leg. I was duely impressed and I bow to her intestinal fortitude.

Tess with her sausage.

Later came sword, star and axe throwing. I was awful at sword throwing and adequate at star throwing, but I excel at axe throwing! Out of the gate I stick one in the the wall, and teh next I put one in the target. YES!

Hack & Slash, a comedy show on one of the stages was the next order of business. It was a hillarious mix of quips and physical comedy. Things they promised we would see during the show:

• High altitude beaver punting.
• "I will do a back flip and land in my own navel."
• "And I will solve the hurricane problem by giving the entire Louisiana Purchase back to France."

It was an awesome day with awesome friends, and totally worth the drive. Renn Faires! HAZAA!

Smart Chicks Tour & Giveaway

You guys know I like to drive. Give me a car and a destination and I'll get there. Good company and rockin' tunes are also appreciated, but if I had to roadtrip without them I suppose I could.

I've pretty much been driving since the end of September, and all those posts are coming. I promise! In fact, I'll be driving when this post goes live at 6a.m. Pennsylvania this time. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about Ohio, lonely winding roads, creepy houses, lots of cool ladies, and strange but wonderful accomodations. Oh yeah, and these ladies...

Smart Chicks Dayton: Kelley ARmstrong, Jen Lynn Barnes, Kami Garcia,
Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Jackson Pearce, and a special appearance by Margaret Stohl.

Nevermore Party & Giveaway

Over the past few months I've become a roadtripping champ, but one place that I'm getting particularly good at going is Louisville, Kentucky. Just last month I was there to celebrate the release of Kelly Creagh's Nevermore at a special party she invited myself and a few other bloggers too.

 

Stacey, myself, Kelly Creagh, and Monica

On Friday, September 10 Monica from Bibliophilic Book Blog and I hopped in the car as we so often do and headed west on I-64. After a short detour to my favorite strange Virginia tourist attraction, Foamhenge, it was a smooth ride into West Virginia.

Monica & I at Foamhenge in Glasgow, VA.

We even stopped in White Sulphur Springs (great town name!) for lunch and I had "Honey Stung Fried Chicken." How delicious does that sound?

I'll skip over all of the details about traffic jams and neverending construction zones even though I know you want to hear all about it. All I'll say is that, if I had the power, I would remove the offending land mass that is West Virginia and push Virginia and Kentucky together. It would shave a good two hours off the trip.

After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the hotel and crashed hard. The next morning we met up with Julie Kagawa at Borders and kidnapped her for the day. We ate endless breadsticks at Fazoli's, traversed the city in search of copies of Nevermore, visited a hobby shop for sealent, and finally wound up back at the hotel where we kicked off arts & crafts time.

This would involve origami. Why you ask? Because when Monica, Julie, Stacey from Page Turners and I were together in May she told us all how amazing and moving the stop motion trailer Maggie Stiefvater created for Linger was, and described it thusly:

"With the tree and the cranes, and I was like...*fanning herself with one hand and feigning sobs*"


The notorious petal fold.



That description got her mocked for an entire weekend, during which Julie and I brought up trees, cranes, and crying at every opportunity. They got drawn on napkins and pictures of trees and cranes got tweeted at Stacey pretty much non-stop and there was much laughter.

So, when we sat down for art therapy, there was no maccaroni art. Julie did her best to teach us how to paint Grimalkin on a rock while Monica listened to the monotone man on her phone describe how easy it is to fold a paper crane, all the while cursing under her breath. One day she will master the petal fold. Oh yes.

Maggie Stiefvater's Linger Launch & Contest

When NYT bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater arrives to an event almost two hours early, how does she waste time? She goes in search of kilts, candy, and kitchen contraptions. (Yes, this is how we came upon the suggestively shaped mango pitter last year before the Shiver launch.) Once again, I was privy to this pre-launch ritual.

By the time I met up with Maggie, she had already obtained caffeine and a cookie and found her way into Williams-Sonoma. Of course she had to show me what she found there this time because it was too strange not to share. I mean, can you tell what this is?

We played with hand puppets at the toy shop, found Beck and a baby Sam stowed away on a shelf, and mourned the loss of one wall of Breyer horses. To Maggie's dismay it had been replaced with John Deeretractors.

Wythe Candy beckoned, full of fragrant and beautiful confections. It is every bit as enticing as it sounds in candy shop scene in Shiver, which the store inspired.

A Maggie, a sharpie & a whole lot of Lingers

I spent my morning unpacking books. I know that might sound boring, but trust me when I say it wasn't. It's all in the company, right? And I had great company.

I was unpacking, turning, and stacking books Fountain Bookstore with owner Kelly Justice so that NYT bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater could sign them. (Yes, she makes me call her that. She likes to say "NYT bestseller, I win.")There were so many copies of Linger that, seriously, we could have built the most amazing fort. See off to your right there?

But we didn't build Fort Linger. We did the responsible thing and created a meticulous system of moving books so that Maggie could sign and doodle each and ever one for the adoring fans that ordered them. Of course, there were other books to be signed as well.

Shivers, Laments and Ballads, oh my!

With as many books as she signed and doodled in, I'm surprised she doesn't have an advanced case of carpal tunnel. Take a look at these mad doodling skillz...

If you haven't ordered your copy of Linger or you just want signed Maggie books, never fear! Fountain Bookstore has boxes full of them, and you can snag one HERE.

Maria V. Synder signing & contest!

Lately, my poor little car has been getting a workout. Trixie, a Sunfire coupe, has been on an obscene number of roadtrips in the last four months and she's racking up some serious miles. I've been traveling so much that I am woefully behind on posting about these awesome events. Bear with me as I try to catch up.

In mid-April, I hopped in the car and headed north to meet  up with Monica from Bibliophilic Book Blog. I left at the crack of oh-my-god-why-am-I-awake because we were going to see the amazing Maria V. Snyder and needed to be in Pennsylvania by 1pm. Two hours and lots of I-95 later I made it to her house and she took over driving.

We picked up her little sister along the way and she devoured a good bit of  Poison Study on the way there. Traffic was bad, so we were late. (Imagine... Traffic on I-95? Nooooo.) Luckily, Maria was signing until 3pm.

We managed to slide in between groups of fans, which was good because between the three of us we easily had over a dozen books. Maria never flinched. She was incredibly nice, talking to us as she personalized and signed each book. She even signed two books for lucky readers!

Maria signing of multiple books is like an elaborately choreographed dance that is wonderful to watch. She signs each book with a pen that's ink matches the color of the book cover and is fastidious about it. The trend continued at Book Expo America when she signed Spy Glass in orange to match its orange cover. :)

CONTEST

Virginia Festival of the Book & Contest

So I've had the great fortune lately to attend a lot of events and meet a lot of authors, and each and every one has been amazing. Trouble is that, between features and events, I've gotten a little behind on posting, so my apologies for the fact that this post is extremely, obscenely late. The honest truth is that life went crazy for a bit and this post got lost in the shuffle. (I'm ashamed enough without you shaking your heads at me. Give a girl a break.)

On March 20, I drove the hour to Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book. I met James from Book Chic Club, my cohort in crime, at the Barnes & Noble there to kick off the day. Kim Harrison's signing was the first order of business.

Unlike James, who arrived early and had the chance to eat breakfast, I was late. When I did arrive I got the skinny from him. He explained that they were handing out numbered bracelets, and that there was a "paparazzi line" for photos. We waited in line and finally had the opportunity to meet Kim, who was extremely nice. She even signed a book for one of you lucky readers!

We left there and drove circles around the city for about 15-20 minutes before finding a parking spot. I paid for parking without a problem, but James and the electronic "Pay for Parking" machine had a slight disagreement. (It was operator error.)

Once James worked things out with the cranky yellow box holding his parking pass hostage, we began our search for the Omni Hotel. That took another 15 minutes because GPS lies, and we were late to meet Amy Brecount White (Forget-Her-Nots) and head to the first panel discussion we planned to attend. (Thank you yarn store ladies who pointed us in the right direction!) On arriving to the hotel, we went to every room on the first floor except the one that held that particular panel.

Upside: We knew the layout of the hotel like the back of our hand. Downside: We were even later now. We got there in time to grab a seat on the floor and hear a bit about children's publishing.

Still Amy-less and on the hunt for lunch, we snuck out of the panel just before it ended. That put us in front of the elevators just in time to cross paths with Jennifer Hubbard (The Secret Year), who ushered us out into the shopping district. We chatted with her as we walked her to a lunch get together then broke off to find sustenance for ourselves. We wound up at Five Guys because the local joint we hoped to eat at was super-busy.

Burgers, beverages and much witty book banter kept us busy during lunch. James flaunted his shiny ARC of Will Grayson, and I'll openly admit that I touched it. I'll say it loud and proud. I am a shiny object floozy.

After sufficient grease intake, we found our way back to the hotel a into a panel on worldbuilding where Suzanne Morgan William (Bull Rider), Keri Mikuski (Screwball), P.J. Hoover (Forgotten Worlds) and Barrie Summy (I So Don't Do Spooky) talked about how they go able creating a world readers can believe. Shortly after the panel got going, Amy appeared.

We talked for a bit about books and writing then James headed off to find the table where P.J. Hoover and Barrie Summy were signing while I went to the car to grab all the books I planned to get signed later in the day. I returned in time to find one unchaperoned boy blogger still gabbing with the girls. Apparently James had been talking about me because I was asked if I  was the other half of we.

I told them I was a blogger too and that blogging was how James and I knew each other. Naturally, this prompted Barrie to ask, "What's your blog?"

I had like 100 followers at the time and was more than sure my blog royally sucked. Embarrassed, I looked down and sort of ground my toe into the ground. Then half-muttered, "Wastepaper Prose."  The  reaction that followed nearly gave me a heart attack.

Barrie Summy, author of three middle grade books, reeled back in her chair and squealed! Over me! She cried, "I READ YOU!"

I almost died. All James said was, "See? I told you your blog didn't suck." Smart aleck.

Finally, it was time for Amy and Jennifer's panel on hot teen literature. Along with their fellow panelists, Paula Chase (Flipping the Script) and David McInnis Gill (Soul Enchilada), they read from their latest works, discussed their writing, and talked about young adult literature today. The panel was fantastic and afterwards all four authors signed books and we had the opportunity to talk with them for a while. All in all, it was a great day!

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