Book Signing

I recently attended the book signing up in Logan, Utah that had authors Ally Condie, James Dashner, Brandon Mull, Shannon Hale, and Jessica Day George. When I found out that the signing was the same weekend that we planned to go up north to visit family I was thrilled. This would be my first book signing ever! I have read Condie’s Matched and Dashner’s The Maze Runner along with its sequel, The Scorch Trials.

The Day we drove up was the day of the event and we ended up hitting some traffic along the way. We dropped off my family in Syracuse but my sweet mother-in-law came with me because I’d never been to Logan before and she was worried that I would get lost. We were late and I missed the presentations and most of the question and answer session but that didn’t get me down! I was still going to meet my authors when I got my books signed by them! I jumped into Dashner’s line first and when it was my turn I was beaming and blurted “I am a BIG fan!” He smiled and FIST BUMPED me! I went on to tell him that the scene in The Scorch Trials (MAJOR SPOILER HERE) where Thomas and Brenda were underground being chased by the Cranks freaked me out and really had me terrified. He told me that he loved reading Stephen King growing up and this was his first attempt at writing horror so he was glad it worked. We also discussed the character Minho. I asked if he was Asian and he said yes. He went on to tell me that the reason I couldn’t figure out who Minho was named after was because the great historical figure was in our future but in their past. Yeah, a light bulb just exploded in my head at that point. It was so great to get some insight from the author himself on a story that I love and with characters that I am attached to. Here is some fan art I made for his books (I’m a photoshop junkie):

Next was Ally Condie. I actually went to high school with Ally’s sister, Elaine. When I first read matched and saw Elaine’s name mentioned in the back of the book under “Acknowledgements” I immediately friended her on facebook and told her I loved the book. I then went on to ask her if the character Em was Asian (am I obsessed with Asians in literature or what?!) and she asked Ally and it turns out that she was. I had also made some fan art for the book and I showed them to Elaine who went on to show them to Ally. Anyways- when I met Ally to get my book signed I told her I was Elaine’s friend that asked those questions and made that fan art. She was so sweet to me and told me that she actually posted my art on her blog! I didn’t know that so I’m glad she liked it. Here are the banners if you’re curious:

I had one last line to stop in. You see, my neighbor’s daughter, Megan, is a HUGE fan of Brandon Mull. Apparently she stays up all night long reading his books. So before I left Cedar City I told her I would get her book signed by the author and she was thrilled. I went to Mull’s line and felt my heart sink to my stomach when I realized just how long his line was. I hurried and took a place at the end and watched the line continue to grow behind me. An hour went by and then another. There were several times that I contemplated leaving and just telling her ‘sorry’. There were other times where I considered forging the author’s signature and figured she would never know the difference. But then I would know the difference and I would feel bad about being dishonest. So I stuck through it and my good mother-in-law stuck by me, running out to get me food and drinks when I needed it. It had only taken me 30 minutes to get both my books signed by Condie and Dashner together. I ended up waiting in Mull’s line for FOUR HOURS! I guess I had underestimated what a big deal this guy was! When I finally did meet him he was very nice and charismatic. I told him how Megan would stay up all night reading his books and in the front he signed “Go to bed Megan!” Then he flipped to the back of the book and wrote again “Seriously Megan, GO TO BED!” We had a good laugh at that.

We ended up getting home at about 1am and while it had been a long experience I actually had a lot of fun. The people I waited in line with offered great conversation and were just good people in general. Meeting the authors and chatting with them was so much fun. I’m glad I went and would have no reservations about going to another event like this!