My schedule started with Speed Date an Author, where the authors stayed in one place, and every two minutes we had someone new sitting across from us for a little chat. This was so fun! I met authors, an illustrator, fans, bloggers... good times. Authors were each only signed up to do one of these chats, but I'd do 2 or 3 if I had the chance to. I gave all my "dates" a sunglass sack, and got their email address and name for an entry to win Fallen Star Trouble. You know what I found out? Readers LOVE author newsletters. Several of them asked me to add them to my list, and they were all quite positive about it.
My next event was the signing, or "Book Fair". (this is the part where I'm jumping up and down, so it m
akes it hard to type) My first every fan-girl experience... but hey. I sat right next to Carly Phillips!!! Carly Phillips, whose books were some of the first chick-litty type hot contemporary romances I read, whose books made me think, "Yeah, this is the kind of novels I want to write". Lori Foster? Same situation with her being an idol, but unfortunately she was at another table, so I had to settle for meeting her and getting her to sign a book and my Reader, you know, during one of the lulls in the enormous crowd waiting for ME to sign books (no, not really). Lori was supernice, remembered me from FaceBook, and had someone snap a photo of us together--her camera! But I digress. Carly. Yeah. Very nice, and I finally got over my starstruck muteness, admitted I'd chosen my pen name so I could sit next to her and she told me she completely understood, had done that. I got a photo with her! I look like such a total doofuss, but it was awesome. She's very nice and gave me some great advice about promotion stuff. Probably, honestly, one of my high points of the entire weekend. She's one of those successful authors who remains nice and doesn't have all those big-headed snooty airs (like a few I had contact with over the weekend. I mean, hey, it's great they are proud of their accomplishments, but seriously? Be real, ladies!). I'm a bigger fan of her after meeting her. (oh, and of course I had her sign a book...)On my other side was Julia Quinn, who had a line, and then a line, and then a line... oh my. Her fans are rabid. (Carly says Julia always has a line) It was almost the end of the signing before she had a moment to catch her breath. And she's also very sweet. I fully intend to read some of her books now, because I liked her so much as a person. She's funny as all heck. I didn't have a book for her to sign, so I asked her to sign my Reader also. And got a pic with her...
Well, crud. Blogger doesn't want any more pictures today, so I'll leave off there, and tomorrow I'll post the pic of Julia and me.
Autumn Piper
Got romance?
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