Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to meet two fabulous authors and two fabulous reviewers! Lisa McMann, Cassandra Clare, Chelsea of The Page Flipper and Lauren of Shooting Stars Mag. And also I feel I should mention Chelsea’s friend, Emili and Lauren’s sister, Kari.
The signing was in Cincinnati at the Joseph-Beth Bookstore, which is a very cool bookstore, btw! Anyway I’m not really anywhere close to Cincinnati, it was a four hour drive there, but I couldn’t let the opportunity to meet all these fabulous people pass me by!
So, armed with my bottle of water, dehydration is a killer, the audio book of The Looking Glass Wars, thank you Lisa Mantchev for the suggestions, although I didn’t get to listen to it all, my iPod, and my books, I was off! (Oh and my GPS, otherwise I would have never made it there!)
The drive wasn’t actually all that bad. I hate to drive, but the four hours seemed to fly by! First thing when I get into town, I did a drive by of the bookstore, I always like to scope it out see how big the parking lot and all that stuff is, then I headed to Newport on the Levee! The Levee! YAY! (That was for you Lauren and Kari) I was planning on going to the aquarium but the line was insanely long and they don’t let you in right a way you get a ticket with a time that you come back to actually go in, well I didn’t have time for that... actually let’s back up because actually getting to the aquarium was an adventure! I ended up parking in a parking garage and I guess I didn’t find the right exit, because I ended up traipsing up this big muddy hill and through some flower beds to get to “the levee” I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t supposed to go that way. Ah well.
Luckily there was some neat little shops and a B&N to kill some time before the signing. I also meet up with Chelsea and her friend Emil at the B&N. Emil has a very healthy Edward obsession. She even has a goldfish named Edward.
I was supposed to meet my entourage at the bookstore at 5:30. So I decided to head back there and have dinner at the Bronte Bistro that is directly attached to the bookstore. Before I went to eat, I had to check out the YA section! It wasn't too bad, pretty good sized with a good variety of novels! I also spotted a copy of Willow by Julia Hoban. I took a picture of it of course. On the topic of Willow, I'll be announcing the winner of that contest probably today! Once I made my way to eat, I ordered my meal.
I had a bowl of Tomato and Blue Cheese soup, that was to die for! I’m a huge blue cheese fan, but even if you weren’t I think you would have loved that soup. It was more or less a creamy tomato soup, it didn’t have the bite that blue cheese has sometimes, just smooth yummyness!!
I also ordered the Avocado BLT, I love avocados and I don’t eat them near enough! Along with the avocado it also had chipotle mayo and toasted wheat bread. It was the best BLT I’ve ever ate! MMM! And yes I took pictures and yes, my waiter made fun of me! I ate and read Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbot. It was a very relaxing atmosphere.
After the pow-wow with Lauren and Chelsea we bought some books, of course and then as we were finishing our purchases who would happen to walk in but Lisa McMann and Cassandra Clare!
We got some VIP access to the authors! We were able to head up stairs in our own little cove and have a one on one... well a two on three with the authors! It was flippin fantabulous! They are just as cool as you think they would be! And Lauren and Chelsea are as well. I think I was more nervous to meet Lauren and Chelsea than I was Lisa and Cassandra! Oh and how could I forget about the spoon! I met the Mrs. Spoobin!
We grabbed some seats in the back for the actual reading and signing... people had started taking their seats about an hour before they were scheduled to show! But we actually had a really good view. Cassandra read a piece from her new series. The Clockwork Princess!! I even got a copy of it, it has the prologue and the first chapter and a very cool cover even! It sounds like it’s going to be a great series! Lisa read from GONE!!! I KNOW! And a little bit from Wake too. They were both great! Then they did a q & a! Since we had already asked them a ton of questions earlier I did an off the wall question. I asked Cassandra where she got her dress, and she ended up answering it! In case anyone else is wondering, she got it from Stop Starring an online retailer. It’s very cool! Then after that the books where signed! And they signed them all!
Bronte! Which was delicious, Lauren! It was very refreshing for the four hour drive home!
I did get an extra book signed for a contest, will have more info for that probably tomorrow, and then I still have one more very cool thing to share with you all, that will probably be posted within the next couple days. Chelsea and Lauren should be posting wrap-ups of their day too, so be sure to stop by there blogs and see what they had to say about me, er I mean Lisa and Cassandra!
I made a little slideshow with some more pictures from the event! Hope you enjoy. I was thinking about critiquing myself in my pictures like James does, but I'm not even going to go there!
