An Author Signing and Swag Giveaway

 

This past Monday I went to an event at one of the local bookstores. Three YA authors, who also happen to live here, were visiting to have a Q&A session and then sign books. We don't get very many events like this where I live (in Arizona) and the event was only a few miles away, so I was so excited to be able to go. I was even more excited because of who was coming: Suzanne Young (whose books I have a few of), Janette Rallison (who I love and have all of her books), and Aprilynne Pike (who I also really like and have some of her books). Here they are below in that order:

I know it's not the best picture - it's a little pixely. I didn't have my camera, just my cell phone which has a really low pixel count. I was trying not to be too fangirl/geeky and so I didn't take a picture with them or have them all pose. I've decided though that next time I will.

Oh, yes. There will definitely be a next time! It was so much fun!!! I also got to have my sister come with me, which made it even more enjoyable. It was also nice that this was a small enough setting that the crowd wasn't crazy and we didn't have to wait in line for forever. I do have to say that I totally embarrassed myself. I had things prepared to say and then I got up there and was just so happy and excited that I wasn't extremely coherent. Oh, well. They're probably used to that. Right? I will just have to admit that I do have author crushes. I know they're just people, but they're amazing people who write these books that I love. :)

I'll tell you a couple things from the discussion. All three of these ladies have great sense of humors. We were all laughing quite a bit. Janette made a comment about how she has switched gears a little in her writing. She said she just decided that going back to high school over and over again for over several years was enough. :) She just decided to take a little break. Aprilynne apologized for some of her own books, specifically Wings (which I really liked and own the two middle books to still read). Her somewhat literal words were: "Someone came up to me and said they just read Wings and I was like, Sorry." She just said that you go back and see all the mistakes and things you could have done better. Someone asked about how many rejection letters they got for their first book before it was accepted. Aprilynne said she thought six the first time, Janette said she got one, and then Suzanne said 122 or something. Crazy! The way she said it too just cracked us all up. She reminds me a little, in looks, of Mariah Carey. Take a look at the picture or her author picture, if you have one of her books, and tell me what you think. She has some similar mannerisms, so that adds to the similarity when you're in person too. Then they all said that regardless they have gotten plenty of rejections since then and that sometimes they only send out so many, so your rejection percentage could be 80 or 100 percent depending on how many manuscripts you've sent out.

I picked up one of Suzanne's books, A Want So Wicked, since I have the first one and got both of them signed. I thought about getting The Program, but I have heard mixed things so I thought I'd wait. It was interesting hearing Suzanne talk about the inspiration for that book though. I brought two books for Janette to sign for me (I limited myself - I will just have to keep going to her events so that eventually I can get all of mine signed). Then I also brought Spells and Illusions for Aprilynne to sign and my sister bought her Earthbound and had her sign that, which was just released this week.

I also got some signed swag for you lucky followers, if you're interested. The Earthbound poster is pretty large. It's probably a little under 2x3 feet. On the back it shows you how to fold a paper fortune teller (I remember playing with those when I was a kid). There is also a book mark with Life After Theft on one side and Earthbound on the other. Then there are two posters from Suzanne for The Program and Just Like Fate.

 

I will be going to one of Suzanne's events towards the end of August promoting Just Like Fate, which I've heard is good. I will probably pick up a copy - maybe even an extra one to give away - and have her sign it. I'm really looking forward to it!

 

For those who would like to, you may enter to win the swag shown above by using the rafflecopter form below. The usual rules apply. You must be at least 13 years old and a US resident as I'm mailing this myself. To see my full policy, visit my Policies page.

 

So have you been to an event like this before? What was your experience like?

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