From Where I'm Standing [16] - Roadside YA Tour

It's been quite a while since I've gotten to go to a book event, but on Friday the 24th I got to attend the Nashville stop of the Roadside YA Tour! It was held at Parnassus Books and featured four amazing authors: Tessa Gratton, Natalie C. Parker, Bethany Hagen, and Julie Murphy!

Traffic was horrendous in Nashville so instead of visiting some places before the event, we (my mother and I) decided to go straight to the bookstore even if we were going to be extremely early. It worked out though and we got great seats.

The moderator was the amazing Courtney C. Stevens, author of Faking Normal, and she did a great job. She asked fantastic questions and got the authors talking easily, making this one of the best panels I've ever seen.



So much was discussed that it's hard to recap everything, so here is (in short) what I learned:

L-R: Courtney C. Stevens, Julie Murphy, Natalie C. Parker, Bethany Hagen, Tessa Gratton

Natalie C. Parker is a BAMF. Not only is her day-job title incredibly long (like a paragraph) and she is crazy-smart, she's also fun and witty and sweet. I've been following her career since 2011 when I participated in her Call Me Icarus critique project, which was really enlightening for me, so I've been looking forward to buying her book and seeing her for quite a while. She even recognized me (by my name because we were both Parkers).

Julie Murphy is a woman after my own heart. So much of what she said about her life and writing process connected with my own and it was encouraging to see her success. Her sense of humor felt so much like mine and I loved how she had woven some of her own life experiences thematically into her book.

Bethany Hagen is multi-talented --- librarian, author, mother, and 3-time karate black belt. I loved how she spoke on the legitimacy of the teenage experience, and she also had some great writing advice: keep writing no matter what, because your Moment may come when you least expect it.

Tessa Gratton is scarily intelligent, and she's still as hilarious as the first time I saw her. Her writing advice was not only the funniest (because of how expressive she is), but it was also my favorite of the night: if you don't love what you're writing, you're DOOMED.

If you get a chance to see these authors in person, I highly suggest you take it. It was worth the trip and even my non-bookish mom, who's never been to anything like this before, had a great time. You can find links to the Goodreads page for each book below. Happy reading quirks!

Side Effects May Vary ~ Beware the Wild ~ Landry Park ~ The Lost Sun

Ink Anticipation [12] - June 2013

This old feature has a new use! Ink Anticipation is now for sharing what books I am looking forward to that will be released during the following month. Clicking on a book cover will either take you to the book's Goodreads page or to my review. Don't forget to share your most anticipated releases in the comments!

June 4th

June 8th

June 11th

 

June 18th

June 25th

 

June 27th

From Where I'm Standing [10] - 2012: The Year of Signings and Sadness

I did a Year in Review post for last year that I had a lot of fun with, chronicling the events in my life, but if you have been following WQ this year, you know what the single most important and devastating event was, the loss of my dad.

Despite the hardships of this year, there were good times. One was celebrating my first wedding anniversary with Captain Italian. All the others came in the form of awesome bookish events.

Those special times where I got to meet authors and other book bloggers is what I am going to focus on in this post. I apologize because I have a boat load of stuff from these things that I never shared, so here you get it all a.k.a. this is a long post with a lot of photos.




Way back in April I finally figured out what I wanted to use this feature for, and I did that, but only a couple of times because I got lazy and then things happened and you know the rest of the story. The two posts I did get to were about getting to meet Rachel Hawkins at Parnassus Books in March and getting to go to SOKY Book Fest in April. What follows is all of what I didn't get to (and advanced apologies for my lacking photography skills).

MAY
My trusty friend and traveller, Meg, accompanied me to Parnassus Books to see Myra McEntire and Amy Plum. It was a lovely event that I remember for two main reasons. The first is that there was a guy doing some filming for a piece on independent bookstores for the BBC and at one point Myra looked right at him and basically said she wanted to lick Matt Smith's face. Having not delved into Doctor Who yet, I didn't really get it, but oh how I do now. Second, this was the first time I got to meet some of my bestest blogger friends!

Myra McEntire and Amy Plum

L-R: Hannah (The Book Vortex), Nikki (Books Most Wanted), Marla (Starting the Next Chapter), Lauren (The Housework Can Wait), me, Meg (Myth-illogical)

JUNE
At the last minute I got the opportunity to go to Nashville to see Myra McEntire again at a public library with Marla (STNC). We got there a little late because we were trying to find copies of Timepiece (my review here) and the bookstore we went to was out. But we did get there and it was great fun because we all just sat in a circle and just chatted with Myra about anything and everything. We got to see Lauren (THCW) again and I finally got to meet Shannon of Stalking the Bookshelves. I also ran into reader and bookseller Elizabeth and her mother Debbie, both of whom I had met at the Southern Festival of Books in 2011. After the event, Shannon, Marla, Lauren, and I went to Applebee's and got to meet Paul, the worst server we've ever had the displeasure of knowing (you can read Lauren's hilarious account here).

L-R: Marla, Elizabeth, me, Myra McEntire, Shannon (Stalking the Bookshelves), Lauren

AUGUST

I got to go to my very first book launch for the release of C.J. Redwine's debut novel, Defiance (my review here). Meg and Captain Italian was with me as well as my friend Catilyn (whom I have converted to the YA cult muahaha). Lauren was there again (which is awesome because she is awesome and I love seeing her) and I also got to see Myra McEntire again and she remembered who I was and gave me a hug, which is also awesome. And then I ended up standing in line with Melinda Doolittle of American Idol fame, which was very cool because she is extremely sweet and gorgeous. There was also delicious cake made by C.J.'s husband, and all in all it was an amazing event.

Defiance cake!

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER
There were two events that I went to that sat on the weekend before Labor Day, and those were Dragon*Con and the Decatur Book Festival. Both were amazing but DBF was much more my speed, though I got to meet a lot of great authors at both places. There is too much to even talk about, so suffice it to say if you ever have the chance to go to either, you should go.

Dragon*Con

me and Captain Italian

Boggart Snape and Dumbledore

Debbie Viguie and Nancy Holder

Diana Peterfreund

Decatur Book Festival

David Levithan                                                 Meg Cabot    

   

Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia                                 Erin Morgenstern     

      Barry Lyga                                                   Maureen Johnson

SEPTEMBER

I went to two great events in September. The first happened right in my hometown when Anne Lamott, bestselling writer and author of one of most influential books for writers (Bird by Bird) came to our local university. Meg and I went and listened to her speak and it was amazing and inspirational.

Anne Lamott and me

The second event happened at the end of the month when I want to see C.J. Redwine and Kat Zhang at Parnassus Books. It was another lovely event where I got to see two great authors and meet another awesome blogger, Ang. After the event I went to McKay's and spent three hours filling a cart with books.

Kat Zhang and C.J. Redwine

OCTOBER

The month of falling leaves and spooks also had two events. The first was an Author/Blogger dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Nashville along with the Southern Festival of Books. The dinner was organized by Hannah (TBV) and I had so much fun at the dinner meeting a lot of bloggers I have only known online. I also got to meet and hang out with several amazing YA authors and I must shout out to Amanda Havard who sat next to me and had to deal with my randomness all night. It was great fun and the food was awesome too. Sadly, none of my pictures turned out because we were sitting at a very long table in a dim room.

The next day Meg and I made our way to the Southern Festival of Books. We got to listen to and meet so many great authors and came away with tons of books. We also got to eat lunch with Shannon and it was good to see her again, as well as hang out with Lauren after our last panel.

Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han                                       Gillian Flynn            

          Bethany Griffin and Amanda Havard                             Sharon Cameron                                      

The second event was YA Trick or Treat at Parnassus Books. There were six authors on the panel and they shared their personal haunted happenings and talked about their books. The featured authors were Myra McEntrire (and if you think I've become a major Myra stalker...you would be correct), Victoria Schwab, Sonia Gensler, Beth Revis, Tessa Gratton, and Stephanie Perkins. Ruta Sepetys (whom I got to meet at SoFest but never got a picture with) and Kat Zhang were also there and we got a great picture with all of the authors together.

Back L-R: Ruta Sepetys, Stephanie Perkins, Sonia Gensler, Victoria Schwab, Myra McEntire, Beth Revis ~ Front L-R: Tessa Gratton, Kat Zhang

I also got the best signature from Myra in my copy of Timepiece which was totally worth not owning a copy until then. The reason I didn't own a copy yet (despite loving the book) is that when we went to the library to see her back in June, I only had one book and I had her sign it for Meg (who couldn't make it). Myra, because she is sweet and amazing and thought it was nice of me to use the only book I had for my friend (Meg is totally worth it ^_^), told me that she would send me a copy, but she forgot, which was no big deal because I thought it was nice of her to offer in the first place.

So when I got up to the table to have my copy signed at the event in October, she looked at me and stared for a second and then said, "I was supposed to have sent you this!" and it was so funny. So now she is supposed to send me the next book to make up for it and I got a great memory from it. Anyone not understanding why Myra is the best ever?

best signature ever

So quirks, that was my year of bookish events! I hope you enjoyed it and I applaud you if you made it to the end. If you can get to any signings or festivals in the coming year, I highly recommend it. And just like last year, my Favority-Fave Reads of 2012 list is coming up, so check back in a few day!