Utah Festival of Books

To quote Rapunzel:

I got there about 10:30 and picked up a sheet of events. As I went through and marked the ones I wanted to attend, I noticed that David Archuleta was there. So my friend is a huge fan of his, and I texted her about it, then realized how mean that was because she was at home in Nevada. That led me to buying a CD (which she said she would pay me back for...I didn't feel that guilty) and later that day had him sign it for her.

Whilst I waited for the events I wanted to attend start, I caught sight of Possession by Elana Johnson. Yeah, you know the one that comes out today? So I grabbed it and got it early. I also picked up a copy of Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George and another copy of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White for my sister's birthday this past Sunday.

I caught James Dashner's presentation and then got a copy of The Maze Runner signed for the give-away. Standing in line, I met Alice Beesley of Writing Snippets and had a nice little writer-to-writer exchange with her. And it was pretty cool, I got my own copies of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials signed at LTUE back in February and he said I looked familiar. I missed Ann Cannon's presentation, but I did get my copy of Charlotte's Rose signed by her. She just sighed and smiled when she saw it. I told her how I read it back when I was ten or eleven, and there I was, a college student all grown up. Usually I ask authors to only sign the book (I don't sell them or anything, it's just something of mine that I like to do) but she seemed so enthused about it, I let her personalize it to me.

Then I got to hear Kiersten White speak for the first time. She's mentioned before on twitter and such that she speaks fast, but as a Gilmore Girls veteran, I kept up very well. And she's hilarious, it was so much fun hearing her speak. Then I got my copies of Spells and Illusions signed by Aprilynne Pike. Which, if you ever get books signed by her, she gives you a stick-on tattoo and each book has a designated color that she signs in, and their own phrase she puts. Then I waited for Kiersten White to sign my two copies of Paranormalcy. She was so awesome; I'm looking forward to the Supernaturally signing down in San Diego this summer.

Then I braved the David Archuleta fangirls. In the longest line of the day (sad, isn't it?) I waited and snapped pictures to send to my friend in line, and now have the CD stowed away for when I'll see her again in the fall. I went back down and got my copy of Princess of the Midnight Ball signed by Jessica Day George. While I waited in line for that, I told my roommate Emily to go talk to Kiersten White, because I told her she would get along great with her. After I finished with the signing, I met up with Emily who was indeed having a conversation so awesome with Kiersten, she bought a copy of Paranormalcy for herself and had it signed. She started reading it right away, laughing the whole time, and later in that day tried to find her again to talk to her. Kiersten, if you get a stalker...I'm sorry. She loves the book.

We also went to the Women Author's Panel, which was a lot of fun to hear them talk. Last, we saw Elana Johnson speak (well, I did, this was when Emily went off to find Kiersten) and then got my copy of Possession signed.

Now, I was bummed because they said Sara Zarr would be there, but she wasn't, and so my copy of Sweethearts doesn't have a signature on it.

Overall an amazing day! I'm looking forward to next year already. I might just be a BYU traitor and go over to the U of U when they have it in September.

So many books!

In case I haven't said it before, I'm in Utah. Even more specifically, I attend BYU. And guess what the BYU Bookstore is holding June 4, 2011? The Utah Festival of Books! I nearly fainted when I realized what this meant. And not only will there be fun events (like learning to bind a book. Everyone, I will come back from this thing with a book I bound myself!) there are many authors which will be present and signing copies of their book.

And this is important to all of you because I will be holding a give-away of a signed book. But with so many awesome authors and books to choose from, I need your help to choose one to give away, and ergo the new poll at the side of my blog. These are not all of the authors that will be attending it, but the ones that I believed would be most popular (and if you look and see that Kiersten White, who will be there as well, is not on the poll, don't fret, for I am also from San Diego and will be in town when Supernaturally comes out and plan on getting goodies there at the launch party).

And if you can't decide, you can vote for all of the books you would love to have a signed copy of.