David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion

Have you had the chance to actually see one of your favorite authors in the flesh, or better yet, meet and greet them??

Were you squealing like a little girl during or after? ;-D

Were you fangirling big time!!!!

If so, we want to hear all about it and see pictures (if you can!). :)

I freaking hate India. Never, ever will any author come here for events. Our very own Indian authors also never do events. I dont have even one signed copy of a book D:

I'll start!

Last weekend I dragged my 2 granddaughters up at the crack of dawn so we could drive the 2 hour trek to Tucson from Scottsdale to the Tucson Festival of Books! OMG, I could not believe the number of authors there! We only went one day and many had events that coincided with other events so I picked my favorites!

Ilsa J. Bick has been a favorite ever since I read her a couple of years ago and we've been chatting on Facebook since! So I finally got to meet her in the flesh! And she was amazing and delightful and sooooo funny!







Ilsa did an amazing Q&A in our group a few months ago! What a fabulous person! Definately fangirling and gushing over my encounters with Ilsa! And I got 4 or 5 books signed including my worn out signed copy of Ashes (was signed on the shelf) RE-signed and inscribed! WOOT WOOT!!

Raby wrote: "I freaking hate India. Never, ever will any author come here for events. Our very own Indian authors also never do events. I dont have even one signed copy of a book D:"

I loved India and if I were an author, I'd go in a flash! Sometimes you can find signed books on the shelves, Raby. I did!! :)

Sitting next to Ilsa on her panel was R.L. Stine, author of all the Goosebumps books. My 10 year old grandkid was fangirling big time and brought 5 of his books from home and we bought her 2 more! Eldest grandkid bought his newest YA book!

And last but not least, I went to see a panel discussion with Jonathan Maberry on it! Such an amazing author of the series! This one I was squealing like a little girl all the way home!!

After the panel, I got the chance to talk to Mr. Maberry for quite a while and he told me about the movie currently in production (Eeeeppppp!), his upcoming books which will tie in the Joe Ledger books to the Rot & Ruin series (more Eeepppss!), and just the best conversation ever! He is just so gracious and friendly! I admit I was a little starstruck and just a little tongue tied! ;-)







Note that author Isaac Marion was also on the panel!

Mr. Maberry signed my 2 books of the Rot & Ruin series and gave me an autographed zombie card of himself (it's somewhere in one of the books on the inside cover I believe) and now I have the real card!! I also was able to snag the not yet released which he also signed and inscribed! WOOT WOOT!

What an amazing day!

Wow, Karen, that is INCREDIBLE! That entire day seems like a dream! SO JEALOUS :)

It was so amazing, David! And next year, maybe you'll be one of the authors at the event!! :)

LOVE IT!!! I'm so happy for you, that looks like you had so much fun! :)

I'd visit India if I was in a position to, and be happy to offer signed copies of my books to anyone who took the time to come and ask for one! :)

I'm jealous of you, Karen! I'd have loved to meet R.L. Stine; I've been a fan of the Goosebumps books since I first started reading them when I was about 12 or so.

I've never met any famous authors, though my old writing teacher does storytelling at festivals sometimes and has written some poems and short stories that have been published in magazines, my Grandad has had a couple of books published, and a family friend is a professional storyteller. I also had another writing teacher who'd had his book published, but he wasn't my teacher for long, because he was one of those "I'm better than you, because I'm published and you aren't yet" types, and I ended up telling him he needed his head deflated then walking out of the class (followed by half the rest of them, I might add). Well, actually, I wasn't quite that polite to him, but I won't go in to more detail than that.

My brother met Terry Pratchett once, and got to wear his hat for a few moments. I was totally jealous and sulked for ages afterwards because I didn't get to go meet him too.

I've been to a few signings and I fangirl every time! I've even had the privilege to see my husband fanboying too. LOL! Now I'm revving up for another huge signing in April. So much fangirling going to happen!

Both Marie Lu (Legend) and Marissa Meyer (Cinder) have come to Colorado recently. I met them and got my books signed!

I met Marie Lu two weeks ago. She's amazing!

I'd love to meet Marie Lu and Marissa Meyer!!!!

And I'm in shock that I had so many authors in one place! And so close! I'm definately going to this annual event! Grandkids are already talking about next year! :)

Marni wrote: "I've been to a few signings and I fangirl every time! I've even had the privilege to see my husband fanboying too. LOL! Now I'm revving up for another huge signing in April. So much fangirling ..."

Hahaaa, "fanboying"! Love it!

Very cool, Marni and J_P!

I have met Louise Erdrich, whom I absolutely adore, at a public event at Kenyon College which isn't too far from me. I managed to get my books signed by her, too. :)

Last month, John Green a Kenyon alum came back to give a talk. I was really looking forward to going and getting my books signed because originally it was to be a public event, but just a couple of days before it was made a private event so, unfortunately, only students and staff were able to get in. For non-students and non-staff, though, the college live-streamed his talk which was brilliant. You can watch it here, if you're interested. There was a Q&A session and the online viewers were able to participate via Twitter. In the end they only chose three or four Twitter questions and none of them were ones I asked. Even though I couldn't see him in-person, I was glad they streamed the video for everyone in Internet-land. :)

Coming up, on April 1st, Kenyon College is also going to be hosting Ransom Riggs, who is also an alum like Green, and it is supposed to be a public event. I would be there in a heartbeat if I didn't have to work that evening!

Wow Karen! That would be my dream panel

I would have loved to have been at John Green's event!! That bites that you have to work during Ransom Riggs! I'd like to see how his mind works!! And very cool that you got to meet Louise Erdrich!!!! :)

☆Joycedale☆ wrote: "Wow Karen! That would be my dream panel"

Seriously, right??! I was fangirling all over the place!

Karen wrote: "☆Joycedale☆ wrote: "Wow Karen! That would be my dream panel"

Seriously, right??! I was fangirling all over the place!"

I'm really jealous over here! :) That sounds like it was an amazing experience!

Karen wrote: "I'd love to meet Marie Lu and Marissa Meyer!!!!

And I'm in shock that I had so many authors in one place! And so close! I'm definately going to this annual event! Grandkids are already talking..."

So would I!

I'm going to have my first author interaction! The author of , Emmy Laybourne, is coming to my local library on April 15th to speak and sign books! I haven't read the book yet, but I just checked it out and read the first chapter :)

Oooh that's so cool!! I'm excited for you! I have not read that book yet, either, although I do own it! If I wasn't in the middle of 3 other books, I would join you :) Can't wait to hear more about the author, HAVE FUN!!!

Oh and I'll bet you love having a local library again :)

Thanks Jenny ;) Oh my gosh, having a library again is AWESOME. I was like, holy shnikes they have so many books I NEED to read, like NOW!

I've met some really awesome authors over the past couple of years!

Most recently I met Patrick Ness, which was incredible. He's one of my absolute favorite authors in the world, and he just happened to have a signing at a small bookshop very close to where I go to college. He was hilarious and a really nice guy and just ... awesome. It was an amazing experience.



A while ago I also got to meet Libba Bray and Meg Cabot, who were both lovely in person. (Maggie Stiefvater spoke at the same event but unfortunately I didn't get to meet her.)

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I also got to meet Rick Riordan, which was awesome. It was pretty insane, because it was a HUGE book signing where there were 2,000 people waiting in line and we had to wait like two and a half hours. And then each person only got to talk to him for like ten seconds, but he was still very friendly––which I really admire because I can't imagine standing and signing books for so long, haha.



I also met Kristin Cashore once. (Unfortunately didn't get any photos.) She showed my friend and I the notebook where she'd written her first draft of Fire, which was really cool. (She writes all her books by hand, which I find really impressive!)

So yeah, that's about the extent of my author interactions. :)

Aahhhhh, Brigid!!!! So very cool! I'm seriously fangirling over your Patrick Ness photo!!

And Libba Bray, Meg Cabot, Kristin Cashore and Rick Riordan!! Holy schnikes!!

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "I've met some really awesome authors over the past couple of years!

Most recently I met Patrick Ness, which was incredible. He's one of my absolute favorite authors in the world, and he just happ..."

Wow! That sounds amazing! :)

WOW, that is AWESOMESAUCE!! I would love to meet every single one of those authors!! So impressive :)

@Brigid So cool! I haven't met any authors but would love to! I need to find out where they are having book signings!

Not many come to Iowa, unfortunately :(

We will have tons of author interactions and sightings at UtopYA in June!! WOOT WOOT!

Yup, in my case I have to go to them! lol

Oh wow, Brigid, I've got some major catching up to do! And Patrick Ness? Ahhhhhh! Coolest. Thing. Ever :)

I know right?! I was so lucky to get to meet him. :D

Had a fabulous time at the Phoenix ComiCon yesterday!!

Here's the amazing Laini Taylor


And Kevin Hearne was a sweetheart!


Also saw Nathan Fillion from Firefly and Castle (We just gazed longingly at his awesomeness! Sooo gorgeous!), Richard Dean Anderson from Stargate and MacGyver, Stephen Amsell from The Arrow, John Rys-Davis from Lord of the Rings (Gimli!!), and John Barrowman from Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Arrow (soooooooo handsome!).

SO COOL!!!! Love the pic of Laini, you cracked her up!

Yup, we were both giggling! ;)

WOW! That sounds amazing, Karen! I'm jealous of some of the people you met; all the ones I actually recognize, LOL!

I meet Matthew Reilly, he came to my home town to sign his books. It wasn't a long conversation but he was lovely.

Karen wrote: "Had a fabulous time at the Phoenix ComiCon yesterday!!

Here's the amazing Laini Taylor


And Kevin Hearne was a sweetheart!


Also saw Nathan Fillion from Firefly ..."


That is so awesome! I would love to have been there too! :)

LOVE those pics, Karen!!! Especially the one of you and Laini, how awesome was that!!

You are so lucky, Karen!! Lovely pictures c:

That's so awesome, Karen! And great pictures! :D

I went to BookExpo America on May 30th and met some cool authors! Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures, although I do have a couple of me with Jeff Kinney (who wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books); he was very nice and funny!






I also met Jason Segel (who complimented my purple hair––ahhh!!!), David Mitchell, Laurence Yep, Tony DiTerlizzi, plus a few other authors who I didn't know but they were nice ... and finally Scott Westerfeld, who is one of my favorite authors of all time and I was super psyched to meet him! (My friend and I got in line like an hour early so we'd be guaranteed to meet him, haha ... Good thing because it was a long line!) He was very nice and he said he'd heard of my review blog, which of course was an amazing fangirl moment––AAHH I still can't believe it. So yeah ... I had an incredible time. :D

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "That's so awesome, Karen! And great pictures! :D

I went to BookExpo America on May 30th and met some cool authors! Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures, although I do have a couple of me w..."

WOW! Sounds awesome!

It was!!!

That's so incredible, Brigid!!!! Love the pics!

I JUST bought the last wimpy kid book for my grandkids yesterday!! They were telling me they've been trying to get a library copy and it was always checked out, so I thought I'd surprise them with the book. That's so exciting that you got to meet him!!

And how cool is it that Scott knew who YOU were!! Aaaahhhhh!!!

Joanne wrote: "I meet Matthew Reilly, he came to my home town to sign his books. It wasn't a long conversation but he was lovely."

Any time is perfect, whether it's just gazing or actually getting to speak to them for 10 seconds!! So cool, Joanne!

Karen wrote: "That's so incredible, Brigid!!!! Love the pics!

I JUST bought the last wimpy kid book for my grandkids yesterday!! They were telling me they've been trying to get a library copy and it was alwa..."

Aww that's great! My little brother loves the series and I got him a lot of free Wimpy Kid swag at BEA, haha. He was very happy! I need to actually get around to reading the books ... I've only kind of glanced through them, but from what I've read they're funny. :)

I know, I can't believe it! It was super awesome!