We found ourselves (me and a couple kids) at yet another book festival this past weekend. This one held at the local library, a free event geared toward the kids. There were a ton of local authors and illustrators there, so of course, I had to be there!
First, we listened to a reading by the three authors I was most interested in... James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, and Brandon Mull. They each read from their latest kids fantasy books. That was lots of fun. Then, we went to a Q and A panel that they, along with Mette Ivie Harrison, did where we learned more about them, their background, interests and style. While there, they did a raffle and gave away a bunch of books and t-shirts. JJ won The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull! Cool.
After that, it was book signings. I took along five old books (well some old, some sort of new... but books I already had anyway) to be signed. Four of them (the Jimmy Fincher series and the 13th Reality) by James Dashner, and one (Enna Burning) by Shannon Hale. Plus now we had another Brandon Mull book to get signed. (We'd already taken our other Mull books to be signed a few months ago... remember?)
But first, I had to buy some new books to be signed. Of course. That's the whole point, right? So, I bought two Brandon Sanderson books, Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians (that I just recently read) and Elantris, which I've heard is just as good or better than Mistborn, which I also just recently read. Then, of course, I decided I better try one of Mette Harrison's books, having just listened to her on the panel... so I bought Mirror, Mirror.
Armed with all those books, we tracked down all the authors! We were first in line for James Dashner. He was very cool and made my son promise to email him once he finished the book and tell him what he thought. (Now he feels pressure... silly kid!) Then we got our two new Brandon Sanderson books signed. Then, waited just for a bit for Brandon Mull to sign the book that JJ just won. Shannon Hale's line was long and she wasn't even quite there yet since she was stuck in traffic, so we gave up on that one. Then, we met and talked to Mette Ivie Harrison and got that one signed. Fun, fun!!
I wish we'd had more time to talk to all the illustrators too. They were drawing fun little pictures for all the kids that stopped by their tables. They also had fun crafts and things going on that we didn't have time for. Anyway, a very fun event that I hope the library continues doing in the future.
Two things I decided you must have to be an author:
1. You must have a great sense of humor and be witty and funny.
2. You must have perfected the completely illegible signature! Something that's even worse a scribble than a doctor's!
Both of these must come with the creative brain territory I'm thinking.
Think about how many books the authors on tour must end up signing. I think shear exhaustion leads to the most efficient (or messiest) version of the usual signature. It's probably the same with doctors writing all those prescriptions. Happy reading.
ReplyDeleteOh Suey! I was in the exact same two classes as you! If you remember a mom with a hideously large double stroller that would have been me! My husband won a t-shirt and I won a book at the panel and I vaguely remember somebody winning The Candy Shop wars book. And to top that off, we were second in line for James Dashner which means you were directly in front of us as we waited for him to run to his car to get the posters. Ahh, if we had only known!
ReplyDeleteYou were right behind us? REALLY??? That is a bummer. I do remember the stroller! Funny. I was telling James Dashner all about how I was "Suey" too, since he commented on my review of his book awhile back. Too bad you just didn't accidently overhear that or something....
ReplyDeleteOh, well.