In My Mailbox - RT Teen Day/ Birthday Edition

As usual, IMM is hosted by The Story Siren...

It was actually my sixteen birthday this week! Sandy surprised me with a wonderful gift in the mail (picture below)--I love her! Senfaye also gave me an awesome bag full of cool things like marshmallows, The Ivy, nail polish, etc! I wish I could post the picture but I sorta ate all the marshmallows already xD

Yesterday, I went to this awesome convention called RT Teen Day! I met so many wonderful people, and had an amazing experience. My arms are extremely soreeee from carrying around so many bags, but wait until you see what other people and I got!

Some really, really cool swag! I am definitely going to be wearing that T-shirt from Simone Elkeles tomorrow! There is a whole mess of bookmarks, CD samplers, postcards, and more hidden under the t-shirt!

I also brought about 8 books from home to be signed, but I will leave them out of this post for fear that it will get really long. Most of these books are from the Teen Party swag bag with the exception of a small few (which were bought during book fair)! Yay!

Sweet Venom (ARC)

Bloody Valentine

Radiant Shadows

White Cat

Perfect Chemistry

Ghost Hunters: The Awakening

The Clearing

Goddess Boot Camp

Dreamland Social Club (ARC)

Haven

Demon's Lexicon

Oh. My. Gods

The Summoning

Enclave

The Ivy

What Happened to Goodbye (ARC)

Wolfsbane (ARC)

Born At Midnight

Darkest Mercy

Thanks for trading Haunting Violet/Dreamland Social Club with me, Lauren! Even though I was like, "This one comes out next month so no thank you," and then five minutes later, I just randomly came up to you and magically decided to trade. I think I just favor contemporary more over paranormal. And I'm really indecisive.

Anyway, I am so stoked to have gone to the convention! However, I did something really stupid. I talked to a whole bunch of people there, but I never asked for their names! And then when I came home, I realized that from all that excitement, I didn't get to meet a lot of those I talked to on Twitter.

Going to this event made me realize that authors do not get the credit they deserve from the world. I cannot wait to start reading!

...Someone there told me I was in book heaven. I completely agree.

Morgan Matson Signing

So in spirit of Amy & Roger's Epic Detour being about road trips, let me show you several pictures of the California freeway! The drive was only about 35 minutes long, and my 8 year old sister insisted on taking these pictures of the road! There's actually more, but I figured you'd rather hear about the signing.

Anyways, prior to the signing, I was freaking out on Twitter.If you were online at the time, you'd probably see me tweet things like, "OH NO. WHAT IF I HAVE A PANIC ATTACK AND PASS OUT." Unfortunately, readers, that did not happen...but mountains of awesomeness did! I literally do not have words for this special night. I'm actually typing this an hour after I left the signing. Plus, I am using a thesaurus because I just can't think of any more words. I am speechless!

Wow, I babble a LOT... So once we arrived, we sat in one of those comfortable chairs at Vromans. This was actually my first bookstore signing! So I was pumped up, a nervous wreck, and excited. Lots of emotions, right? Ah, when I got there, I wasn't sure if it was

Morgan Matson going around talking to people, but then it was! She looked so crazy beautiful in real life I didn't notice her from the book jacket.

I tried taking lots of photos but then my stupid camera starting making everything super bright. The photo to the right is the only one that wasn't blurry. (Note to self: Bring better camera next time.) But see? Doesn't she look amazing?

Morgan Matson was is absolutely the sweetest person ever. She knew how to make everyone laugh, and the room was just abuzz with her bubbly personality. I actually calmed down a bit due to her presence. My heartbeat slowed down, which was good. She read a little part of her novel (The cabin in Yosemite part which was HILARIOUS)

Anyway during the Q&A, she was asked a bunch of questions like, Would she write a screenplay for the book? (She's hesitant about it, and sorry fans, no film options yet *tear*) What her playlist was like, How she was inspired to write this novel with her roadtrips, and What the age range was for the book. There were more questions, but the dumb ol' me can't remember anymore, but all questions were answered very cleverly with a dash of humor! :) I wish I'd spoken up more though!

...OH AND GET THIS, SOME PERSON ASKED ABOUT BOOK TRAILERS (in general)!!! She mentioned the two she had (one from the lovely librarians and the one from me!) Of course, being the shy one, I didn't speak up. It'd be rude to just pipe up during the Q&A, wouldn't it? Ah well, it's too late now. But I was SO happy when she mentioned mine. There was a lot of freaking out although I didn't show it on the outside. I am quite the expert at looking plain boring. See, this is WHY I blog, read, and love books. No one is as nice as an author--sorry best friends!

You can see the beginning of her talk below! Unfortunately, it gets cut off because my camera ran out of memory. I needed pictures so I stopped. Please put down the pitchforks! I guess this isn't a good time to mention that my hands were shaky too...

So when it was time to line up for the signing, my heart began to pound more and more. But as I introduced myself as the one who made the trailer, everything began to slow down. (Thank goodness...) She was more than happy to sign my things! (I had found postcards in my house for some reason! Ha! I didn't get anything for a reader on here though. I was too worried it was too much...Oh and they sold some at the bookstore too. I should make note of that. Yeah I'm babbling again... )

She was incredibly friendly and I think I may not just have a new favorite book, but a new favorite author too! I wish I had talked more, but it was okay. I expressed my love for her book...sorta. I took a picture, and then I left to the YA section! I must say, their selection beats any other chain store!

This just might be the longest post I've written on the blog, but it doesn't even describe how happy I was to be at her signing! I realized that even if it was across the country, I would have gone. Road trip, anyone? ;)

Mistakes You Shouldn't Make at Festivals

Hey all !

Yesterday, I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and had loads of fun. I met many authors, including Cherry Cheva and Robin Benway. It's unbelievable how gorgeous they look in person! And seeing some of the authors was so surreal because they look NOTHING like their author pictures...possibly even more dazzling!

Being the dorky me, I made an awful lot of mistakes. Make sure you learn from mine because I regret them so much! *facepalm*

1.) Look up schedule beforehand
2.) Bring the RIGHT books! (The books I brought from home were apparently for Sunday's signing...Had to cough out money for books that I already had at home just because I wanted them signed...)
3.) Say hi to anyone you know and introduce yourself! (Especially if this person's a blogger !)
4.) Know that when they mean the YA Stage, it's actually a STAGE and not just a tent. (Yeah, I always thought I was at the stage when it was just the area for the signings -.-)
5. ) Go on Twitter and look at tweets about the festival BEFORE you go! Lots of important stuff on there...

Unfortunately, my mishaps above resulted in me not having the ideal trip I wanted. On a brighter note, at least I know this for next year!