It's a Book Life: signing

The Swoon Reads Tour

I was lucky enough to have the Swoon Reads Summer of Swoon Tour (The Authors: Sandy Hall, Temple West, Kimberly Karilus, and Katie Van Ark) make a stop only about 40 minutes away from where I live on May 12! So I obviously had to go. I even switched my work schedule around so I could make it so. I am so glad I did. I dragged my friends from the library who I forced to read A Little Something Different with me. (Please note that they did come willingly because they loved the book I threw at them.) We all had so much fun!

The event was at a nice bookstore (filled with a lot of books and an awesome staff) called The Book Stall. Stacey of the Pageturners blog was the mediator and she did a nice job. There may have been only about 13 people there, but the smaller setting made it less formal, which we ended up really appreciating. I do want to apologize in advance for not taking a lot of pictures. The whole place was super cute looking. I swear.

The Books: I LOVE A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall. It's uniqueness and cuteness made me swoon. Here is my review of that book here. I also LOVE Velvet by Temple West. I am a sucker for vampires and she made a funny and unique vampire story. My review for Velvet is here. I also got to meet Kimberly Karilus of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters and Katie Van Ark of The Boy Next Door. I have a copy of both of these books now and plan to read them soon.

The Books!

So what went down at the event? We created 10 word love stories. We ate cupcakes. We listened to the authors talk about everything from writing, to getting published with Swoon Reads, to their current reads, and more. They had us laughing, smiling, and nodding along in agreement. My friend even won a giveaway of books! The best part... meeting the authors! Every single one of these ladies was brilliant during the discussion panel. They were very down to earth, funny, and very sweet. Getting to talk to Temple West and Sandy Hall one on one was my favorite!

From Left to Right: Deanna, Sandy Hall!!, Alanna, and Me!

****On June 6th when my blog turns 3 I will be having two giveaways and one will feature a signed ARC of Velvet! So come back to the blog to enter to win!

Have you read these books? What did you think? Did you make it to one of the Swoon Reads tour stops?

I met Veronica Roth and embarrassed myself. It was totally worth it!

On Oct. 26 (Now officially Veronica Roth day in Illinois!) I went to the Veronica Roth Allegiant tour in Illinois. It was an epic day.

It all started while waiting outside the theater (after stopping to get Starbucks of course).

Right before we got in line outside the theater!
Left: Amanda Middle: Me! Right: Lyndsey

Even though we stood outside for about an hour and a half in the semi-cold weather before we were let into the theater it was totally worth it. We got to meet some other awesome fans in line, sign a fan made poster (that she later gave to Veronica) where you signed near the faction symbol you think you would be in (Candor for me, although I wish I was I'm just not brave enough to be Dauntless), and the most important reason it was worth waiting in line... we got great seats, three rows from the stage on the left hand side!

By the end of the day it was full of signatures covering the whole page!

An organist played before Veronica took the stage. Right before the big event started he actually lowered into the ground! This was pretty darn cool and he was pretty darn good. My friends and I sat back and talked with the anticipation building with every second. When she appeared on the stage I'm pretty sure I had a epic fan girl moment, but that was to be expected.

Margot from Epic Reads (and Tea Time of course) was there to interview Veronica. Margot is just as awesome in person as she is on Tea Time. I only got to meet her for a brief minute but she book shimmied with me and I got a picture with her! I love her story of hard core fangirling over Divergent and Insurgent.

Love her!

Veronica Roth is a lot of fun and so adorable and awkard and just plain awesome.

Highlights of Veronica's Q&A

She is a Potterhead and fan girls a lot, mega creepy style.
During a Zombie Apocalypse out of all of the Dauntless she would choose Four to fight on her side. (I know I would.)
She doesn't want to co-write a book because she thinks it would be crazy hard.
She wrote Divergent while wearing rubber ducky jamies! :)
She really does write while walking on her treadmill desk thing.
She wouldn't share any details about any future projects but said she will probably be sticking to young adult books.
She tells us what her four fears would be "swarms of centipedes, swarms cockroachs, swarms of spiders, and heights."
She talked a little about the topic of suicide and the character Al in Divergent.
If she had to choose a faction she would pick Abnegation. She says it's because she is a champion of the underdog and that selflessness is important. But in the end she claims she would be Factionless so she could be free.
She admits that there is no question... she would immediately die if she was placed in The Hunger Games.
Veronica Roth can sing! She sung a very moving song about Tris called The Mark with her brother.

Video streaming by Ustream

The Signing

Although I only got about 30 seconds or so of actual face time with Veronica Roth it was a lot of fun! So here is how I embarrassed myself. This is my first big author signing I've been to and so while waiting in line for at least 20 minutes I repeditly practied what I was going to say when it was my turn. I was going to say things about how awesome the books are, how I tell everyone to read them, how I enjoy her writing, how I love four, anything along those lines. So why when I it was my turn this is all I could come up with? For a good laugh see how our conversation went.

Me smiling hardcore while Veronica signs my copy of Allegiant!

Veronica: Hello

Me: Hi! (smiling crazy)

Veronica: How are you?

Me: You look really pretty today! (Seriously that is all that came out of my mouth. Nothing close to what I was practicing.)

Veronica: Thank you very much. (At least she smiled at me and was super nice about my total awkwardness.)

Me: Thanks so much. (While I grab the book from her hands and slowly walk away still staring, once again in a very creepy fashion.)

In the end it was a great day and I wouldn't change it for the world. Hopefully next time I meet someone famous I actually say something more interesting, although at least I gave her a compliment! Here is a picture of all of the swag I received! I had a great day and can't wait to go to another author signing!

Goodies: The Path to Allegiant, Stickers, Button, Allegiant Poster, & my signed copy. Yes, my real name is Alli! lol

Pages

I Feel Like Gabbing Today - Swoon Reads Edition

The Swoon Reads Tour

Have you read these books? What did you think? Did you make it to one of the Swoon Reads tour stops?

Veronica Roth Q&A + Signing!!