August aka. Utah Book Month 2015 Reading Wrap

Well, guys! What a month it's been! I had a great time focusing on Utah authors and books this month, but I must say, I'm glad to get back to "normal" too!

This month we Twitter chatted with 11 Utah authors! That was a blast and thanks to all of them for humoring us and joining in the fun. Three of those authors I spotlighted here:

Johnny Worthen
Sara Zarr
Amy Finnegan

This week we had our annual blogger party. It was fun, after I calmed down from the clash with the group that stole our reserved pavilion! Here's the one picture I took at the event:

Jenni from Jenni Elyse
Me!
Jessica from The Bluestocking Society
Penelope from Reading Fever
Jessica from Books a True Story
Kathy from Read This Instead (behind)
Karena from Karena Lapray
Jenny from Alternate Readality
Kami from Kami's Library Thoughts
Toto, who is pondering a book blog with her friend, but in
the meantime has a YouTube channel you can click on

And finally, here are the Utah Books I read throughout the whole month:


Mania by J.R. Johansson: Parker and Jack work together to bring an end to the conflict between Watchers and Takers.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: A young pregnant girl comes to live with the family that plans to adopt her baby.

Eleanor by Johnny Worthen: Eleanor appears to be a normal, ordinary girl, but as the story unfolds we learn that she is anything but ordinary.

Unraveled by Julie Daines: A pair of magic shoes causes much more trouble than than they are worth.

Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani: Claire is trying to figure out how it is that her dead father and her current step dad knew each other before. 

Lost Without You by Annette Lyon: Brooke is trying to find the right guy, and the cop with the kid just might be the one!

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen: As a slave in ancient Rome, Nic is forced to go inside a haunted cave to retrieve a trinket for a general, and in so doing acquires some magical powers. (review to come this week I hope!)

Usually I squeeze in some non Utah books during August, but this time around, it was ALL Utah books! I felt like I could have done more but I guess this isn't bad. 

Favorites from this list: How to Save a Life and Unraveled.. and Eleanor too I'd say.

Plans for September:

• Read Bone Gap
• Read A Mad Wicked Folly
• Read The Girl on the Train for book club
• Read Goodbye Stranger
• Read Fires of Invention
• And if I still have time, read Station 11

Utah Book Month Party 2014

Once again, we are gathering all our awesome bookish-ness in one place and you know you want to be there! Yes it's true, to end our fun celebration of Utah Book Month, we'll be having a party at the same park in Lehi where we've been the past couple of years. Except this year, we'll be in the directly opposite pavilion then we have before, which means we'll be at the NE spot...so take note! Here are the details:

Utah Book Month Bash

Saturday, August 30, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Wines Park in Lehi, Pavilion #1 (NE Corner)

• Bring a small dessert to share; we'll provide plates/forks/napkins/cups/water.
• Bring ONE book (per attendee) to swap.
• We do have a pavilion with picnic tables, but you may also want to bring chairs or blankets for sitting on the grass.
• Families are welcome - there is a playground for kids

Check out the Utah Books Blog for directions. 

We hope to see all you bloggin' buddies and favorite authors there!

Here we are a couple of years ago.
I would love to see this many come again!

In Which We Have a Blogger Party Despite the Tornado!

Okay, so there really wasn't a REAL tornado, but there was something that ALMOST was a tornado and some people even filmed a thing that really LOOKED like one (and as you can hear here, we aren't used to tornadoes in these parts!) But still...

....whatever it was, the storm that blew through here on Saturday just a few hours before our party was to start was EPIC.

I took some pictures of my own from what it looked like where I stood:

And.....I even took a little movie! See what you think... this was almost a tornado, right? The sky was green (though you can't tell from the pictures and movie, but I promise, it was!) and so I think that it was so close and that's very weird for here....and some people are saying that it didn't quite form because of our mountains. Which I'm sure is good thing, though it was pretty exciting!




So.... anyway! This all happened just a few hours before our party was to start. And we were all tweeting each other what we were seeing and wondering if the party would happen. I said... ah... it'll blow over! The party goes on!

Well, it did stop raining sort of. But it sure cooled things off and got the park all wet! So we went and wiped of the benches and tables, dug out our jackets and yes, the party went on!

Bur first, another picture. When we got to the park, we were fascinated with this big bird trying to dry out his wings:

He was just standing like that, totally still,
holding his wings out to the air. Awesome.

Well, so only a few brave souls showed up. Besides the rain, it was also Salt Lake's first ComicCon! So, almost every blogger and author went there and NOT to the party! And so, why weren't we there? And why did we plan the party for the same day? Because we didn't know about this event when we planned things! GAH!!! Next year, we'll ALL be there! And we'll plan the party for a different day and then EVERYONE will come!

But, we had fun with our small crowd and enjoyed talking books and eating treats. We had one brand new author join us, Julia King, and we hope to get our hands on her book and pass it around for a sort of informal book tour. It's called Felicite Found and it looks awesome. So, stay tuned for that! (And thanks to her for coming even though she was sick and didn't feel good at all!)

We played a little game to get to know each other better and as a way to hand out the book swap books. Later, Kami had fun giving us all silly nick names. This is what we discovered:

Jenny from Alternate Readality: Number 1 meanest blogger and most creative blog name
Kami from Kami's Library Thoughts: Number 2 meanest blogger and post the most reviews a week
Kathy from Read This Instead: Number 3 meanest blogger
Jessica from Books: A True Story: The "other" Jessica!
Jenni from Jenni Elyse: posted the most blogs this past week
Suey from It's All About Books:  Blogger Mom! (You can decide what that means for sure!)

David (Kami's husband), Kami, Jessica, Kathy and son
Jenni Elyse in the background

Jenny and her fiance, Guy

Suey's husband, Stuey, talking to new author, Julia King

Thanks to those of you who did come! It was fun! Hopefully next year we'll figure out a better day so more of you can come.

Utah Book Month: PARTY!

Attention all Utah bookish people!

(Bloggers, Authors, Publishers, Readers, 

Aspiring Authors, Sellers, Ex Bloggers, etc!)

We've settled on a date for our In Real Life/Face to Face party! 

It's going to be 

Saturday, September 7 at 7:00 p.m. 

at Wines Park in Lehi!

(The same place and pavilion as last year if you came.)

All the details and directions can be 

found on the Utah Books blog here.

Bring your families, a dessert and a book to swap!

See you there!

Utah Book Blogger Party... It's a Wrap!

Hey! So we had a party last Friday night and people came! I'm always amazed! We had lots of fun, playing a "guess the character" game, and a silly book swap, and eating all sorts of desserts, (some even healthy ones,) and just talking and meeting new and old people, bloggers and authors alike.

Here are a few pictures we managed to take and/or steal:

Let the party start!
Here we are playing "guess the character." Can you see the sticker there on
Kami's (Kami's Library Thoughts) back?
(at least I think that's Kami?)
And look! There's Natasha from Maw Books! With her beautiful baby!
I also see Penelope, from The Reading Fever, right there in the center.
On the right, I think that is Melanie, Diana's friend (Book Adventures) and
I also see just a bit of Heather from The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl.

Waiting for the swapping to start!
There's me in the purple, next to Kami and Penelope.
I also see Emily (Emily's Reading Room) on the right,
and Kathy from Read This Instead in the chair.
You'll find those with their backs to us down below,
except for Enna from Squeaky Books, who you will not find
anywhere in these pictures.. except I can see her here... can you?!

The whole crowd.

We covered the books for swapping and played the LEFT RIGHT game.
See story below.

We had desserts!

Oh wait! Here's Enna!
She brought a mask, but ended up tangled instead.
Penelope is hoping to untangle her here.

Kami and Emily,
they've been buddies since 3rd grade!

The three with there backs to us in the picture above:
Jessica from Books: A True Story
(Hey and I have an interview with her this week! Come back to see!)
Jenny from Alternate Readality and
Jessica from The Bluestocking Society

Melanie, who says she is a reader not a blogger,
and her friend Diana from Book Adventures

More of the circle!
I think during the swap game?

Hey and look!
It's me and Jenny! :)

Here are some of our author friends:
Nichole Giles
Chersti Nieveen
Jenn Johansson
Sara Raasch
Natalie Whipple
and not pictured
Julia King
Heather Moore

I brought these and they turned out pretty good!
Chocolate Macaroon Squares
(That link goes to the recipe for those interested,
which I actually found in a Nestle book I had.
But I left out the pecans!)

And finally, I thought I'd include this story I wrote for the book swap LEFT RIGHT game... you  know.. that's where you pass your book/present every time LEFT or RIGHT is mentioned? Yeah... that one. It got a little crazy and let me just say, we bloggers and authors had a little LEFT RIGHT issue going on!

But anyway, I thought some of you may get a kick out of this, so here's the story, which I call.....

 OUR BOOK BLOGGING STORY:

Once upon a time, a few people in Utah started blogging about books. At first, they thought they were the only ones! But then one day, a couple of them went to an author event. While there, they stood RIGHT by each other in line to see James Dashner! Even though he wasn’t there because he LEFT to get stuff from his car! But he came RIGHT back and signed things and afterwards, they went RIGHT home to WRITE about the event RIGHT away on their blogs.

Then one said to the other, “Gasp! You were RIGHT by me the whole time and we didn’t know it? We LEFT without saying a thing to each other? We need to fix that! So how about we have a party RIGHT away?”

Several months later, they gathered all the other ten bloggers in Utah and had their first party. And guess who was there? You are RIGHT! James Dashner himself! He talked about a new book he had coming up soon, it was called The Maze Runner. He said, “It’s about this kid who knows RIGHT from the start that he LEFT his memory behind! And now he is stuck in a maze. And all he wants to do is get RIGHT out. So one day, he becomes the runner, and gets out there in that maze and he turns RIGHT, then LEFT, then RIGHT, then RIGHT again, then RIGHT again, and then LEFT, and LEFT and RIGHT. Whew. Finally, he.... well, I can’t tell you because that would give it RIGHT away!”

A few months later, a few more people started blogging so we had another party. It was a crazy day! It was so hot and remember? The city had an event in the park... we knew the bloggers were RIGHT there but we couldn’t get to them because the road was blocked! So we LEFT and went up and RIGHT around the whole park and back down and finally all found each other.

This time we had several more authors join us. We asked them RIGHT away, “So, what’s your book about?” One said, “mine is about a boy who LEFT the family that took care of him and then comes back, quite changed. Grace knew him almost RIGHT away and RIGHT away she was loving him all over again. But wait, is this a good RIGHT thing? Or not?” What book is it? RIGHT!!! The Dark Divine! by Bree Despain

The other said her book was so very serious... about a boy who LEFT all his friends... yep, you are RIGHT, he died. And they all talk about him and have memories of him. Which one of them is RIGHT in their thoughts they have? You are RIGHT! They all are!  What book is it? RIGHT! The Way He Lived. by Emily Wing Smith.

Finally, the other author said her book was about aliens, and that’s all I can tell you because that book never came out. Instead, a few years later, we got to read her book about a girl who LEFT her family, but then came back, (but not RIGHT back) and has six months to make everything RIGHT again before she LEFT again to go be in the Everneath with a very scary dude. Opps, I gave that title RIGHT away! Sorry Brodi Ashton!

Then we had a couple of parties at Golden Corral where we were nearly RIGHT on top of each other because now it’s so crowded with all our bloggers and authors and WRITE-rs! At those parties, we brought books to swap and everyone LEFT their books on the table where RIGHT away there was a mad rush to get the popular ARCs. We also LEFT our fancy blogger cards, and we LEFT our email addresses and Twitter names with each other. Yes we LEFT the place with lots of new blogger friends, and went RIGHT home and got on Twitter RIGHT away to share pictures and stories with each other.

Now, there are so many bloggers, it has LEFT our spreadsheet in the dust and we can’t keep it all RIGHT anymore! But at least, now when we go to the book festivals, and author signings and launch parties, we know each other RIGHT away, whether we are standing RIGHT by each other or way over LEFT across the way... now we can say hi and talk books to our hearts content and everything is RIGHT with the book blogging world!

*********************

Ah, yes... we had fun! Thanks to all of you who came! To those that didn't, we'll see you next time!

Utah Book Blogger Bash 2012

It's been awhile! Which means it's about time we pulled together a gathering for Utah bloggers, authors and almost authors! 

And what better time than now when we are in the midst of celebrating our bookish Utah? There is no better time!

So if you fit into one of the categories above, or even you happen to be traveling through and you know all of us here in Utah, consider yourself invited.

Here are the details:

Utah Book Blogger Bash

Friday, August 24, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

Wines Park in Lehi*

Pavilion #3, SW corner

--Bring a dessert to share; we'll provide plates/forks/napkins/cups/water

--We'll be having a book swap again, 

so bring a book(s) to give away!

--You may also want to bring chairs

 and blankets for sitting on the grass.

--Families welcome

*From I-15, take Lehi Main Street Exit. Turn west onto Main Street (toward Lehi Roller Mills). Turn right onto 100 East. Turn left onto 500 North.

I hope a bunch of you can come! And please, help us spread the word by blogging, tweeting and emailing your blogger/author contacts. Thanks!

A Report on the Utah Book Bloggers Social

Last Saturday night our group of Utah Book Bloggers met up for the sixth time (twice a year since Jan. 2009.) We gathered at a park in the canyon, ate some awesome food, and just talked and talked. We were a small group this year and I was a little disappointed that more people couldn't make it, but that's how these things go, I suppose. Last time there were so many it was hard to really talk and this time we sat in our cozy circle and got to know everyone! So that was a good thing. I took these three pictures which I'll share despite the fact that you can't really see anyone.

From left to right:

Jenny from Alternate Readality

Julia from Writing Jewels

Becky from One Literature Nut

Penelope from The Reading Fever (and her son)

Emily from Emily's Reading Room (and her daughter)

Natasha from Maw Books

Lorren from The Story Girl

Kathy from Read This Instead (and her son and husband)

Diana from Diana's Amazing Book Adventures (and her husband hidden on the bench)

Taylor, Natasha's husband

Lorren's husband

And here's my daughter Toto, who had the choice of coming to a book blogger party or watching the football games with a bunch of rowdy boys. Of course she choose the party, but spent much of it curled up in the chair reading!

So thanks to everyone that came! I had fun getting to know a few more of you and hopefully you all enjoyed the evening out.

Utah Book Bloggers Summer Social

If you live in Utah, and you blog about books, or maybe you live in Utah and you write books (published or almost published, or hope to be published) or perhaps you live in Utah and you sell and promote books, then YOU are hereby invited to our:

UTAH BOOK BLOGGERS SUMMER SOCIAL
Saturday, September 10 at 6:00 p.m.
at Vivian Park in Provo Canyon at the small pavilion
(800 North in Orem to Provo Canyon, 5.8 miles up the canyon, park is on the right, pavilion is on the right after turning into the park)

Drinks and meat will be provided.
Bring a potluck dish to share.
Bring a book to swap.
Bring extra chairs if you can.
Families invited!
Bring a fishing pole if you have kids under 12 that would like to fish.

Let us know if you have any questions. We hope to see lots of you there!

Book swapping at last year's party!

Utah Book Blogger Party: A Report

So I thought I was arriving to the restaurant a little bit early in order to prepare a couple of smallish little things, but when we got there, several bloggers were already there! Welcome! It wasn't long before that room was hoppin'! Wow, we had a lot of people come! The room capacity said 62, and I think we had it to it's absolute capacity!

At first, everyone was just talking and mingling and finding their spots... until Natasha arrived and said, "People! Go get food!" So we all did. At my table there was Cari from Book Scoops and her husband Michael. Also two new-to-me bloggers Cindi from A Utah Mom's Life and Annika from Munchkins and Manuscripts. They are friends in real life, and it was fun to meet them, and realize that Cindi knows my sister in law! :)

Next to us were Cory Poulson, author of Reiyalindis and his wife, along with Jonene from The Wonderful Obsessions and her friend Angela. At the table behind me was Kim from Good Clean Reads, Alison from So Many Books So Little Time, Penelope from The Reading Fever, Lisa from The Book Worm's Library and Sheri from Belle's Book Blog.

And that's pretty much my little corner with which I interacted.... and when it got even crazier as the evening went on, the more overwhelmed I became, so I just stayed in my spot! Ugh, bad Suey! It was fun though, when we calmed the roar of conversation just a bit in order to do introductions. Lots of new faces and bloggers to get to know! And WAY too many to list here! (Check out the list Natasha has made over on our Ning page if you want to see who some of them were!) We were especially honored to have picture book author Rick Walton join us... along with several with increasingly famous authors (Bree Despain, Lisa Mangum, Matthew Kirby, Emily Wing Smith) Thanks to them all for coming! But hey... James Dashner.... where were YOU???

One thing was for sure, the aspiring authors have discovered us! Wow, there were lots of those types. It made my head spin! Good luck to you all, and let me know when the book comes out and I'll read and review! Really.

We took some pictures. I thought I'd video them into a slide show... a project which seems easy enough, but is not as you can probably guess. They aren't that great, but perhaps you'll get a feel for the event. Better and more thorough pictures can be found at Maw Books Facebook page.

A Bunch of Business (including a one question poll)

Just a few things on my mind:

First of all, I wanted to remind my Utah readers that the book blogging party is tomorrow! I know that came up fast, but why linger in anticipation, right? It will be at 6:00 at the Golden Corral in Midvale (about 7200 S and 13th E). Bring a book to exchange if you want. If you haven't been contacted, emailed, tweeted, or otherwise personally invited... that's okay, you are officially invited if you live here in Utah and have anything to do with book blogging or the bookish business. Please come!

Second... I've been wanting to ask everyone a question. This is a one question poll. I'm wanting to know how long you've been around reading this here blog. Because I'm staring to feel at times that I'm repeating myself, and am worrying that it's getting boring. But then I think... hey, there's some new people here I bet who haven't seen that story yet! Or whatever. So then I wondered what percentage of my readers are newish or oldish. And besides,  it's been awhile since I did a poll. Okay, so are you ready for the ONE question? It will be so easy I expect every single one of you to hit that one button!



See that was easy, right?

Finally, I'm wondering from my fellow American Idol fans... what do you think? Do we have some interesting people this time or what? Who's your favorite so far? I'm liking Stefano and Casey, and maybe Paul a little. Sad to see Tim go, I wanted to hear him more. Oh well. And as you know (or maybe you don't if you are a new reader...see what I mean? I need to know!) I'm not so much into the girls. I really like guy voices! :)

Okay I've been on this computer way too long! I'm off!

Upcoming Utah Book Blogger Party!

We've got a day pinned down and now it's time to spread the word. If you are a book blogger, author, aspiring author, bookseller or publishing type person in the Utah area, please join us for our fifth get together coming up on Saturday, March 5 at 6:00 p.m. We'll be meeting at the same Golden Corral as we did last year (7200 S. and 655 E.) in Midvale. The cost for dinner is just under $10.00 plus drinks/tips. We'll be doing the book exchange like last time, so bring a used/loved book to share.

Please, all you Utah people, spread the word. Put up your own blog post. Tweet about it. There's just too many of us now to send out personal invites, so we need help to let everyone know it's happening!

And if you haven't already joined the Utah Blogger group on the Ning, now is your chance. That's where we are trying to keep track of everyone and it makes for a good central location for all that's happening.

Here's my posts from past parties if you want to know what you'll be getting into! You can see how we've grown tremendously, and how much fun we have, and how you really want to try and come if you can.

First Party in January 2009
Summer 2009
Last Year in Feb. 2010
Last Summer Aug. 2010

It would be awesome if you could let me (or Natasha at Maw Books Blog, or Becky at One Literature Nut)  know if you plan on coming so we can get a feel for our numbers that night. You can also email us at utahbookbloggers AT gmail DOT com.

Also, let us know if you have any questions or suggestions! We hope to see many of you there!

The Sunday Salon: Utah Book Bloggers Party On

Once again, the wonderful crowd that is the Utah Book Bloggers gathered to get to know each other better. We met at a very windy park, ate food, talked and talked, exchanged books, and planned an upcoming project that you'll hear much about later! And once again, it was great fun!

Here's a few pictures I took. I'm sure I didn't capture everyone that was there, so sorry if I missed you!

Here's Leisha Maw and her daughter, along with Jessica from The Bluestocking Society.

Here's Melissa from One Librarian's Book Reviews, and Kim from Good Clean Reads.

Here we have Sharla from WinterWrite and Lyn from Barding Well.

Oh boy, this picture didn't turn out too great! Right into the sun!

On the left you can see Bree Despain sitting on the grass. I think Britt from Confessions of a Book Habitue is right in the sun, with Lisa Mangum to her right. Standing up in the write is Barbara Richardson.  In the pink is Jenni from Jenni Elyse. I didn't hear who is in the black sitting in front of her. Next to her, who you can't see much at all is Debbie from Cranberry Fries. And in the blue at the very edge of the picture is Julie from A Small Accomplishment.

Here's the pile of books we brought (well most of them are Natasha's!) to exchange.

This is Kika from The Book Bluff on the left and Becky from One Literature Nut on the right.

Sitting are Anna from TangognaT  and Myke from Live and Learn. (he is also the husband of long time blogger, Book Logged from A Reader's Journal, who ended up not being able to make it.)

Standing is Jason, Kim's (Good Clean Reads) husband. He was promoting a new project he's involved in that authors will be very interested in called TaleSpring.

Everyone's taking pictures! But of who?

These guys, that's who! Matt Kirby, with his ARC of The Clockwork Three, and Bree Despain with her ARC of  The Lost Saint.

Here's a picture of Natasha from Maw Books Blog!

In this one we are examining the books on the grass, trying to decide which ones we want.

More foraging for books!

Others that I remember were there, but didn't get a picture of:

Lyn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile

Graham from Graham Chops

Catie from Book Bound

Emily Wing Smith

Brodi Ashton

Sheralyn Pratt

And that's all I can remember! If I left you off, feel free to yell at me bring it to my attention and I'll be sure to edit to include you!

We missed all those that couldn't come, both old and new faces! Hopefully we'll see you next time. We are thinking it will be the last Saturday in February, like last year. We hope that if we stick to the same date every year that people can plan around it. It really is a fun time and we hope to see as many of you there as can come.

Calling All Utah Book Bloggers!

It's time once again for another fun gathering of the Utah Book Bloggers and other bookish people! This will be our fourth get together and each time our numbers have grown substantially. Yes this has become quite the event! If you are blogging from Utah, or are an author, aspiring author, bookseller or publishing industry professional from Utah, you are invited to attend. Here are the details:

Saturday, August 28, 2010
6:00 p.m.
Riverfront Park East (10991South Riverfront Parkway in Sandy, same park as last year)
At one of the small pavilions 
Families invited!

It will be potluck salads and desserts (or whatever else you want to bring!). Pulled pork sandwiches and water will be provided.

Also, bring a book to swap (like we did last time.)

Please RSVP by sending an email to utahbookbloggers AT gmail DOT com or a Twitter message to @MawBooks, @SueySays or @mjmbecky. We look forward to hearing from you. You know you don't want to miss this!

Any questions? Just ask either myself, or Natasha at Maw Books Blog, or Becky at One Literature Nut.

And if you're curious as to what went down at our previous gatherings, here's my take on those events:

Winter Blogger Social January 2009
Summer Blogger Bash August 2009
Winter Blogger Gathering February 2010

It really is a lot of fun, so we hope to see all you Utah types there!

Utah Book Blogger Winter Social 2010

As you may or may not know, we had a blogger get together last night, for all the fun and amazing book bloggers in Utah. And of course, we invited authors too! It was the third such event we've had, and the biggest by far. So this time (unlike the times before) I won't be able to tell you who all ended up being there, but instead, can only tell you about those that I met and talked with.

But first, some pictures:

This one is an overview picture of the whole area we occupied at the Golden Corral. We thought we had the banquet room, and would be off by ourselves, but wires must have been crossed and we ended up just with our own little corner. It all worked out.


Here I am trying to be brave and chatting with the authors. In this picture you can see Bree Despain and Emily Wing Smith (facing the camera) and Brodi Ashton and Sydney Salter (backs to the camera) and me on the end. This table laughed non-stop all night long and we all wondered what we were missing. But I'm sure we really didn't want to know what was going on over there!

Bree Despain and Emily Wing Smith pose for the camera. They are too stinkin' cute!


Then Emily stole the camera from my husband and "made" him pose for this picture with Sydney Salter and Brodi Ashton. He tried to get out of it, by Emily would have none of that!

Here's part of the crowd that we managed to reel in for a picture. Alison from So Many Books, So Little Time, me, Natasha from Maw Books, Kim from Good Clean Reads, Cherylynne from Critiquing the World, Shannon Hale, Michelle Teacress , Ann Cannon. Front row: Karen from Typing With My Toes, Melissa from One Librarian's Book Reviews, and Cari from Bookscoops.

And another group shot (yes I ran from group to group!) James Dashner in the back. Ann Cannon, Catie from Book Bound, Emily Wing Smith, me, Sydney Salter, Michelle from Flower Petal Books

Sitting was Jenni from Jenni Eylse, Debbie from Cranberry Fries, and Bree Despain.

Kim from Good Clean Reads was just about as star struck meeting the authors as I was. Here we caught her finally chatting with the two biggies: Shannon Hale and James Dashner.

Another author table (next time we need to mix up authors and bloggers a little better!) with James Dashner and his wife (who I feel bad about not actually meeting and saying hi to) and Shannon Hale, Nikki Mantlya , and Karey Shane.

Our fearless leader, Natasha, with her husband Taylor and her sister, Leisa. Taylor looks thrilled, does he not? But he assured me later that he loved being there!

Highlights of my experience:

• when Ann Cannon said to me "Oh, I've read your blog! I really like it!"


• when Shannon Hale said to me "Suey! I've met you!"


• when I was able to say to Sydney Salter, "Hey, I've just read your book and I loved it!"


• when I finally talked to Melissa from One Librarian's Book Reviews, and Angie from Angieville, Alison from So Many Books, So Little Time, and Becky from One Literature Nut, bloggers I feel like I've known forever


• when Kim from Good Clean Reads said, "I really really love your blog!" and when talking to her felt like talking to a long lost friend.


• when James Dashner didn't say hi but just held out his fist for a "rock it" shake instead.


• when I got to meet and talk to a bunch of new to me bloggers (some new to blogging, some not so new) such as Caitlin from All Things Print, Cherylynne from Critiquing the World, Debbie from Cranberry Fries, Jenni from Jenni Eylse, Michelle from Flower Petal Books, Rachelle from Bibliobabe, Lyn from Barding Well, Catie from Book Bound, Brenda from Brenda Loves Books and Karen from Typing With My Toes.


• when on the way home, my husband said, "You did good" meaning, I mingled well and managed to come out of the corner!


• when I got the book "I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It!" brought to the swap by Sydney Salter.


• when James Dashner got the book "The Baby Manual" from the book swap!


• when I see so many supportive spouses having fun along with their fanatic blogging partner


• when I see so many supportive authors coming to hang out with fanatic bloggers!
  

Lowlights (because there's always some!):

• when I got a text from home saying my 11 year old had locked my 18 year old in the basement because she wanted her to stay home to play, and not go out with friends
• when I was too uptight to eat anything!
• when I came home and saw all the goofy pictures that were taken of me (did I ever say how much I hate myself in pictures?) and being posted all over
• when I came home and realized how many people I didn't get a chance to talk to, including many of the authors who came
• when the night ended too fast (even though we were there for three hours)
• when my friend, who I was so happy to have coming, texted and said she was too too sick to make it.
• when there were so many other blogger friends that couldn't make and who I truly missed talking to!

Thanks to everyone who came! I thought it was a blast and truly look forward to the next time. I hope those who couldn't come this time will be able to make it then. I tried to mention and link to at least everyone I talked to and met last night. If I missed you PLEASE let me know and I'll fix it. And if you are a Utah book blogger or author and you are thinking "Ummm hello, I'm in Utah, why wasn't I invited?" then also PLEASE let me know and we'll get you on The List. (It's getting big enough now that there's no way we can find everyone on our own and need everyone's help to make sure all those interested are included.)

Happy blogging to you all!