Holly Black, Cassie Clare, and Lauren DeStefano at Books of Wonder:

Last night, I went to another amazing book signing at Books of Wonder in NYC. I almost skipped it to go see Charlaine Harris at a nearby Barnes and Noble. But once I realized how many of my friends were coming to town for the BOW event, coupled with having met Charlaine last year, I decided this was the signing for me.

I am so glad I picked this event! When I arrived just after 5pm, the store was already packed with fans decked out in character t-shirts and hand-written runes on their bodies. I met up with some fellow bloggers: Damaris and Wanda from Good Choice Reading, Jena from Shortie Says, and JL from An Avid Reader’s Musings.They were kind enough to save me a spot, and together we waited for the main event.

Damaris and JL.

A decked out audience member.

While we hung out, I spotted a few more bloggers in the audience! Mitali from Alley Of Books/The Teen Author Carnival, and Vania from VLC Productions –who makes awesome book trailers, including The City of Fallen Angels trailer! It was so great to finally meet some bloggers I’ve been conversing with on twitter for the past few months.

Half of the huge crowd!

After a short wait, Lauren, Cassie and Holly came out and began the event!

After they were introduced, each author read a passage from their current works. Cassie read the prologue to Clockwork Prince, Holly read “smut” from Red Glove (my favorite!) and Lauren, a debut author told the audience a bit more about Wither.

Next up, question time! The audience had a lot of good questions for the authors last night. Some a bit silly (lots of cat questions for Cassie), but there was a lot of interesting commentary about movie news, sequels, and the writing process in general.

During a second, lightning round of super fast questioning, I asked Holly about the possible Curse Workers tv show news, and whether or not the series was indeed a trilogy, or would there be more books? Holly said the tv show was a possibility, but mostly unsure. And that she had three books planned for the Curse Workers series, but it seemed to me that she thought maybe there would be more! Which I hope is true, as it’s one of my favorite current series.

Finally, it was time for the signing to begin!

A fan’s books, waiting to be signed.

Each author had brought “gifts” to give away to their fans. Holly had Curse Workers postcards (from the old blog ads back when White Cat was first released), “Worker” bracelets for each type, and an excerpt from Black Heart. Cassie had an excerpt, as did Lauren (from Wither #2), who also had candy!

Dream Worker bracelet.

The signing area.

Another fan, in line.

Lauren DeStefano, who was insanely nice!

Holly Black

Signing Red Glove.

I met Holly during the Teen Author Festival, so I had all of my books signed back then. Holly was nice enough to sign a postcard for me, and give me the Black Heart excerpt that I so badly wanted. When I asked for a Worker bracelet, I kind of just reached into the pile and grabbed a black one. Which of course, ended up being Death Worker! Holly said she was surprised I’d pick that one, “knowing the what it meant”, and all of the problems associated with it. I joked with her saying it was ok, I’ve got ten fingers and ten toes! Not sure if I’d actually pick that ability if the choice was real though. ; )

Cassie was fun to talk to as well. I told her I read City of Bones when it first came out, and had yet to finish the rest of the series. She was surprised to see I had an old ARC of City of Glass (a leftover relic from my magazine editor days). I was in line with Jena, whom she recognized from her twitter icon! I thought that was cute.

Cassie says Hi!

When we we leaving the store, Jena spotted Josh, who played Jace in the book trailer!

After the signing, a few of us went out for dinner, margaritas, and more book chatter. The whole night felt like a “practice round” for BEA in a few weeks. I am so glad I went to the Books of Wonder signing, and got to see some old friends, and meet so many fun new bloggers!

Thanks to Cassie, Lauren, Holly, Simon & Schuster, and Books of Wonder for such a great event!

See more photos at my Flickr album.

Double Signing Day: Patrick Rothfuss and the NYC Teen Author Festival

Last night, I succeeded in doing the impossible: I made it to two book signings, in two different nyc boroughs at the exact same time. Obviously I don’t have a clone, so it wasn’t literally at the same time. But thanks to one event starting early, I ended my night with six books signed by some of my favorite authors.

My evening started with Patrick Rothfuss at Barnes and Noble in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Fans were allowed to line up at 4pm for the 7pm signing. So by the time I arrived at 5, there were already about 70 people in line! The store was way too small for a signing of this size. I ended up having to wait outside in the cold for about an hour because there wasn’t any standing room left in the store.

A signing table for Patrick was set up in the magazine section. Space was so limited, and the crowd so large, that Pat’s reading and Q&A was cancelled. Someone failed event planning 101, but I didn’t let that ruin my night. Which was good, because despite the weather outside, I ended up meeting some awesome fellow book lovers in line!

Around 6pm, the guy behind me pointed across the street. “Look” he said, “there’s Patrick!”. I looked up, and there he was, getting out of a cab. He’s pretty hard to miss. I couldn’t resist snapping a “spy photo” with my iPhone:

After chatting with a friend, Pat noticed us, and started waving and taking photos of the crowd. He stopped to grab some dinner, but came back over around 6:30 to chat with some fans, and tell us he was going to start signing early. I waited for what seemed like forever, chatting with my new friends as the line slowly snaked into the store, and around the magazine section. We joked about cliches in fiction, and our favorite nerdy movies.

Finally, it was my turn. I panicked, and ran to Pat’s assistant with my camera. When I approached Pat, my mind went blank and I forgot everything I’d wanted to say. Which is hilarious, because as a photographer, I come into contact with celebrities all the time. And I can chat with them like they’re my best friend. In front of authors I like–I’m speechless. Pat signed my books, and I finally mumbled something about being so glad he finally made it to NYC after waiting for four years. And then we took this photo together:

At the time, I didn’t even realize what he’d done. Looking at it now, I think it pretty much sums up Pat’s goofy personality.

I said good bye to my new friends, and hauled ass to Manhattan for the Teen Author Panel at another Barnes and Noble, in Union Square. I made it just in time to hear the last few minutes of a reading, before the signing began.

Everyone was SO NICE. Seriously, it was like David Levithan pulled the nicest authors in YA aside and said he wanted to have a panel celebrating friendliness.


The panel of authors. My iPhone decided to partially blur their identities. ; )

David signed my books first, and I told him how I’d rushed there from another signing, and was crazy excited for Sunday’s mega-signing event. I got to chat with Gayle Forman about If I Stay (I bought it when it first came out, but haven’t read it yet! Yet my mother has. Go figure.) and whether or not Where She Went spoiled me. She was sad to hear the description did, but I told her it was ok.

Hands down the best conversation I had was with Holly Black. I remove all my book covers when I carry them around, so that they aren’t damaged. So when I approached her, she saw the book in my hands, and asked what it was because she didn’t recognize it. I told her it was Red Glove, and she freaked out! (She hadn’t seen it without a cover on yet.) I told her how I found it at Strand last week, thanks to someone selling back a review copy. I was so excited I forgot to tell her how much I loved it, and that the Curse Worker books have become one of my new favorite series. She seemed really happy to see it, and said I had the very first copy she’s signed! She even drew me a cute little cat “speaking” what she’d said:

Red Glove is now officially the coolest signed book I own.

I’m so glad I made it in time to attend the first event of the 2011 Teen Author Festival! I never thought I’d be able to make it to two events in one night, and see so many authors I love. Thanks to all the authors for being so awesome!

If you have a chance to check out any of the other Teen Author Fest events, go! You can find the full list here.

My other signed books:

I got my copy of The Name of the Wind signed too, but it pretty much looks exactly like this one.

❤