Rockstar Authors

I interrupt the usual Beckett-centric posts to revel in some book-nerd glory.

I've had some pretty stellar author sightings in the last few months. In July a bunch of us went to see Maggie Stiefvater when she came to Kansas City. I first read one of Maggie Stiefvater's books back in 2009, shortly after her first book Lament was published, and I've read every book she's published since. Maggie Stiefvater made my Favorite Reads of the Year List in both 2009 and 2010. She was definitely near the top of my list of "authors I want to meet." Maggie was very funny and told us stories about killing off characters and scrapping entire books much to the dismay of her editor.

I wrangled a bunch of my friends into coming with me to see Maggie. It didn't take too much to convince them. Here's the whole gang waiting in line to get their books signed.

And here we all are with the awesome author trio, Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff, and Tessa Gratton. They were very surprised to see such a big group. We told them it was a book club outing.

As luck would have it Tamora Pierce came to Kansas City shortly after I left. Boo. I wanted to go see her with my friends too. Luckily, I made it to a signing she did in Baltimore a few weeks later.

I was so excited to meet the fabulous Tamora Pierce. She is basically the founder of Young Adult fantasy fiction. She published her first YA novel in 1983. I didn't actually read any of her books until 2009, a glaring hole in my reading history that I quickly rectified as I began to make my way, book by book, through her entire oeuvre. Consequently, Tamora Pierce also made my Favorite Reads of the Year List in 2009 and 2010. (Interesting side note: Maggie Stiefvater and Tamora Pierce are the only authors that share the distinction of having made the list two years running. Check back at the end of the year to see if they make the list three years in a row.)

Tamora Pierce's book signing was actually really small, and that was nice because she was able to be very personable with everyone. She listened to all of our stories about how much we love her books, spoke to each of us individually, and answered all of our questions. The small book venue also gave me the opportunity to meet another author, Diana Peterfreund.

You guys, I have read all of Diana's books too, and she also made my Favorite Reads of the Year List in 2009. (And no every book that I read does not make this list. I just got very, very lucky with book signings this year.) Diana actually came to meet Tamora Pierce herself, and she was right behind me in line. The luck! Hopefully I didn't come across as a crazed fan. Although clearly I am because I recognized her, introduced myself, told her that I frequently read her blog, and asked her to sign a book for me and pose in a picture. Anyway, Diana was very, very nice, and just as thrilled to meet Tammy as I was. She, of course, wanted to thank Tammy for her blurb on Rampant, whereas all I could say to the Grand Dame of YA fantasy was, "I have been listening to your books every night for over two and a half years," but still, shared interest folks.

It was serious book-nerd heaven. And, because everyone who was there was a mega-fan of Tamora Pierce we all had this shared camaraderie that allowed us to easily falling into conversation with one another (mostly about Tammy's books, of course, although I did assure one 24-year-old that she was definitely not the oldest person there).

 

I can think of very few authors I would have rather met. For a book-nerd like me it doesn't get much better than this.