Utah Book Week: Author Events

In honor of Utah Book Week, I wanted to mention all the awesome book events our local libraries and bookstores put on. Since we have some pretty awesome authors from Utah we get to see a lot of them...numerous times. It's awesome!

Provo city library has hosted so many great events. I go to a lot of them but am horrible at taking pictures or posting about it but just last week my friends and I got to go meet Carol Lynch Williams for the first time and her daughter Kyra Leigh who just had her first book published.

That's Carol on the left and her daughter Kyra on the right. They asked each other some fun questions and then let the audience ask questions.  Sometimes the author's do readings...

And there's always fun giveaways too. My friend Kami won a free tarot card reading. We got to sit in on it and it was awesome!

And of course the authors always sign books.

So big shout out to my local libraries and bookstores that bring all the authors to us.

Oh, I'm Sorry. I Thought You Were Someone Else

Ah, author signings. A favorite pastime of book lovers everywhere. If you're lucky enough to live somewhere frequented by authors, that is. Lucky for me, I am. I live in Utah (Utah gets a lot of author signings?) I know, right? But for some strange reason we do. A lot of these signings are by local authors. We Utahns have a lot of authors in state but we've had visits from people like Kathryn Stockett, Markus Zusak, Sarah J Maas, Lois Lowry and Ruta Sepetys. Maybe it's because we Utahns like to read and buy books? I'm really not sure of the reason but I'm sure happy to be a part of it.

Now, I usually don't post about the author signings I go to. Besides the fact that I don't go to as many anymore, I also just get happy to be at the event and forget to take pictures. I Want to live in the moment I guess. But I think the other reason is because of repeated awkwardness at book signings.

So, you go to the event. You're excited!  If it's an author you love you've been eagerly awaiting this day. You sit amongst other book lovers who are excitedly chattering and then the event begins. Someone announces the author and there they are! They look so human and normal but not all at once. They start to talk and you listen enraptured. Sometimes not so enraptured. I'll admit some authors are sadly not the greatest of speakers and are rather boring. But, hey, who cares? Your fan-girling something awful over here! Then comes the signing. You wait in line...sometimes a VERY LONG line and as you get closer to the author you sneak peeks at them; start panicking about what you're going to say to them. Then the big moment comes. You either smile stupidly as they sign your book and squeak out a, "thanks for coming" or you have enough guts to actually tell them how much you loved their book or books and how excited you  are to finally meet them. And then they look up at you...or not and smile and say thanks. Hand your books back to you and look over your shoulder at the next person in line. Hinting that you, crazy fan girl, need to move on.

I could go into a myriad of reasons this is the response one might get but rather than blame the author, I've decided to blame myself. I think what really bothers me, aka, lets me down is I was expecting someone else. I wanted to meet the character from the author's book I loved so much. Not the author.  So I'm left feeling disappointed and sad.

Sigh! I'm going to meet Cassandra Clare and Holly Black tonight. I'm most excited about Holly Black. Her Curse Workers Series is in my top 5 favorite books! But...maybe it's not Holly I want to meet. Maybe It's Cassel. But since I can't meet him, I'll awkwardly smile at his maker and try not to gush too much!

What about you? Do you feel let down after meeting an author? Do you think it's because we actually wanted to meet their characters?

A Night With Marissa Myer

I can never do these fun bookish things I attend justice but I shall try. I had the fun opportunity to go meet Marissa Myer the other night, author of this not so little book.

I was actually quite excited for this one. Firstly because this is not a local author and for some reason it's just fun to meet an author from somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, Utah has some great local authors who are always having some event or other but sometimes, because of all those events, I tend to start taking it for granted and getting a little bored. I long to see other authors. I know, I know. Very selfish of me. :(
Anywho, the other reason this event was exciting was because us Utah bloggers were invited to a sit down with Marissa before the actual event. So, we got to sit and listen to her talk about her book and chat with her. It was quite fun and much more personable.

After that fun little sit down there was the "normal" event where we got to hear Marissa talk about how a writing contest to win a walk on roll on Star Trek was the beginning of this four book series.

The whole thing was a blast and of course I got my book signed, as well.....Now if I could just hurry and read it. ;)

By Popular Demand, A Night With Christopher Paolini

Alright it wasn't THAT popular of demand but a few of you asked how the night with Christopher Paolini went. I'm a loser and never bring a camera to these things so I wasn't going to post about it but thanks to Suey, who did take pictures, I'll can share some pictures.Thanks, Suey!

After arriving 2 and 1/2 hours before the event started we got there to wait in line...yeah it was that crazy! There were probably at least 50 people ahead of us and by 6:30, when they let us in, the line was very, very long! Crazy! People were dressed up in medieval garb and when Christopher got there they played a fanfare and had a sword salute to welcome him. Holy nerdy-ness!

See, long ago, when I first picked up Eragon, the first book in the series, I saw the picture of Christopher and after noting how young he was I concluded that, yes, indeed, he looked exactly like the kind of guy that would write an epic fantasy. Now don't get mad and call me some kind of nerd racist, I'm a nerd myself, so I can say that. Besides look at him.

 
See? He's a bit nerdy looking. Anywho, after listening too him talk about his books, and read from his book in an overly dramatic voice, and answer questions, my previous impression of him was proven to be true; he's a nerd. ;) It was a total blast! A total nerdy blast!

The signing went well. He's the first author who I've ever seen sign THAT fast and still manage to make eye contact and small talk with each person.

My favorite part of the evening was when he was leaving the room where he had given his speech and some girl in the crowd yelled out, "will you marry me?!" Why did it amuse me? Because that exact thing happened to his character Eragon in the second book. Alright it wasn't THAT funny, but it was a little amusing.

So, there you have it, my meager attempt at a recap of the evening.

Utah Festival of Books!

So, I won't go on and on about the few short hours I spent at this fun event because it would get rather boring, I'm afraid. I will tell you a little about my experience, though, pathetic as it was. First of all the weather here in Utah has been pathetically cold for way too long and then, suddenly, it's freakishly hot on the day of the festival. OK, not THAT hot but hot enough! I only went for a few short hours. I missed the whole David Archuleta thing, didn't go to any panels and only bought one book, but...I did get four books signed and actually chatted with the authors instead of standing there looking stupid like I usually do. Below is proof. Enjoy!

And there you have it. I was beaten by the heat and my sister who came with me and her baby who needed  fed. Ah well, I had fun and got some books signed.