Has this past week been a whirlwind! First with Houston Teen Book Con, a full day of author panels and signings! Hearing from authors first hand is always a boost in the writing motivation. Too bad I'm still so behind in my real work to even think about starting my next project. BOO!
I met the lovely Michelle Zink; the hilarious Maggie Stiefvater (again!); Catherine Gilbert Murdoch said I made her day with my hardcopy of
Dairy Queen because she couldn't remember the last time she saw one; Elizabeth Eulberg is hysterical!; Holly Black was so sweet; Marissa Meyer and I chatted about crushing on princes as teens.
TLA was crazy! I'd heard about the ARCs they give away like candy at these library conventions, but HOLY MOSES! They even give away finished copies of books not out yet, and some already out! I showed serious restraint and tried to take books I was legitimately interested in, but I still came home with quite the load!
The two stacks on the left are mostly ARCs, and the stack on the right are all signed!! Believe it or not, I only bought 9 of these books at the conference (I brought some from home), and most of those were bargains. Some of the hardbacks were $5 and the paperbacks were even less. Oh the whole thing was dangerous. And glorious. Be on the lookout for giveaways soon!!
There were SO many authors at TLA. On Wednesday, my roomies and I attended the Texas Tea with YA authors which was really neat. The authors hopped from table to table at intervals (our first author was Maggie Stiefvater! EEEP!) and told us about their books and let us pick their brain. Such a fun experience. Then I went to a party that night and met so many fabulous authors in a more social setting (John Green was there and somehow I didn't notice. *smacks head* But I did talk to him the next day at the convention. He's SO nice!), so that was neat. Had some lovely chats with authors Veronica Roth (
Divergent), Elizabeth Eulberg (
Take a Bow), Jennifer Ziegler (
How Not to be Popular) and my Twitter buddy Stacey Kade (
The Ghost and the Goth). (I'm really trying to keep the name dropping to a minimum in effort not to sound braggy, but if you haven't heard of any of these fantastic authors, I want you to know about them and read their books!)
And please excuse me while I fangirl over Shannon Hale! Here I am with her, looking a little crazed and excited. LOL.
Other authors I had the honor to spend some time with this week that you should definitely check out if you're unfamiliar: My writing buddy Joy Preble (the
Dreaming Anastasia series), local author Christina Mandelski (
The Sweetest Thing), Amy Fellner Dominy (
OyMG), Kiki Hamilton (
The Faerie Ring), and Geoff Herbach (
Stupid Fast). And a shout out to my roomies,
Steph,
Jen and
Cari! I had the BEST time, ladies!
