I'm late! I'm late! No I'm not pregnant, on my post, silly! ;) Better late than never I suppose...
Well I learned today that one of my FAVORITE authors - Charlain Harris!!! - will be in Portland tomorrow doing a reading/signing/Q&A. For any other fans, she'll be at Powell's Books (the one on Cedar Hills in Beaverton) from 7pm to 8pm.
That got me thinking about meeting your favorite authors. I really enjoy reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's books and about a week ago she was the keynote speaker at the Rose City Romance Writers. And, it's not like I expect my favorite writers to be stuck up or snooty, but I find myself always surprised when they are down to earth and friendly. And boy was Sherrilyn down to earth and friendly. She was a great speaker, so real and honest. She was amazing!
I've met several other of my favorite authors through RWA events and I'm always pleasantly surprised, but still nervous to meet them. Although we are all writers, it's hard to avoid those fangirl moments. I must admit I nearly pissed myself when I got to meet Katie MacAlister last October at the Emerald City Writer's Conferene. Many were witness to my "squeeing" and fangirlness. Poor Paty, she must have been driven crazy by my "oh my God, I get to meet Katie MacAlister!" And the subsequent, "oh my God, I met Katie MacAlister! Did you see me sitting on the couch next to her? Did you see her in the same restaurant as us? Oh my God!" Etc...
What fangirl moments have you had? Have you made a complete fool of yourself? Were you pleasantly or not so pleasantly surprised when you met your favorite authors? What about those of you who are published, what are your experiences being on the other end?
C'mon girls, spill the juice!
7 comments:
OH MY GOD.
I wish I was a huge fan of someone like Lisa is. I guess I'd go ga ga over Janet Evanovich or Jennifer Crusie. What was so fun for me at the conference, was seeing the same pair of ladies who sat at my table last year, hunt me down and ask if they could sit with me again. They said my table was so "fun" and she loved my first book, so she bought my second book. I guess she's my first fan. I love the luncheon. It's so much fun and a good time to just get out of the house and do big girl stuff. Fans are the best, I wish I had more of them.
ROFLMAO! I remember a similar scene in Atlanta. Riding up the elevator with Lisa and having her nearly hyperventilate because JR Ward was mere feet from her. At the time, I had absolutely no clue why being in the elevator with the woman would induce such a reaction. Now...after reading her books? Oh, totally understand.
My biggest fan-girl moment was in Reno. My first RWA conference. Because I don't function without caffeine, I was up early, dressed and showered and announced to my growling-lump-under-the-covers roommate (AKA Piper) that I was off to get a hit of espresso. I bee-bopped out of the room, ran into Nora Roberts in the hall and nearly dropped my bag. (Turns out she was staying in the suite at the end of our hall). In my excitement, I went running back into our room (I did manage to wait until Nora's door snapped shut...I hope), threw open the door and yelled, "OMG! I just met Nora Roberts in the hall!!!" To which Piper sat up, rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, "Whoohoo. Now who the hell is Nora Roberts?"
LOL! Lisa, you were too funny about Katie! I would like to see Janet Evanovich, LaVyrle Spencer, and I would have loved to meet Agatha Christie!
I like Nora's books, but I'm not enamored with her. And in case you people haven't figured it out... even if I ran into my all time favorite author - I'd probably just stand there looking totally pathetic because I can't get the nerve up to say anything! Unlike Lisa, who I love to watch when she sees someone she adores!
When I met Jennifer Crusie in Reno, I was a total gushing mess. Twice. In fact, the whole literacy signing thing was so overwhelming because there were so many of my favorite authors, all under one roof. I had a ridiculously hard time falling asleep that night after all that gushing and hyperventilating. My funniest fangirl moment was meeting Gordon Korman. I was the oldest person at the library sans kids, and he probably thought I was a stalker groupie since I was all like, "and I kept reading you after I grew up. Really."
Tuesday post is coming. Just a bit slow today. Enjoy and discuss Lisa's great post a bit longer :)
Eli-- rofl, you're right, I couldn't have cared less about Nora and still don't; furthermore, it wasn't my fault I was a growling lump under the covers! I happen to remember a very giddy Eli who kept me up every single night talking until 5 a.m.! And sure, you could go out and get a hit of fake esspressosized energy, but I couldn't, thus the growling. :)
But... at that same conference I got to meet Heather Graham aka Shannon Drake and I made an idiot out of myself gushing about how awesome she is.
She was so sweet and fun to talk to. She shook my hand with a firm handshake and had an actual conversation with me. She was genuine in her gratitude for me being her #1 fan, cause I am her #1 fan. :) And she told me how she picked her pen name and I loved meeting her and visiting with her for those 10 or so minutes. LOL
I've also met Julia Quinn and was the person who introduced her at Emerald City's conference. That was nerve wracking and fun. She's way more serious in person than the books she writes. At first I was really disappointed in her attitude, but later when I got to talk to her one on one she was very kind and signed my books with real words and not just fluff. She loved that I read her books to my husband while he was building our house.
I've also met, and found them to be wonderful, Eloisa James and Teresa Medeiros. Great authors and terrific women.
Most of us have met Shirley Karr too, and I loved finally meeting her in person. She's a really fun author and just as fun in person. I really like her.
So yeah, I've been star-struck and big fangirl lots of times and can't wait to do it some more. :) I still need to meet Christina Dodd, Karen Hawkins, Suzanne Enoch, Laura Lee Gurhke, just to name a few.
And hey, just look at the terrific authors we have as part of our own chapter! Published and unpublished. I really love being a part of the writing world with them.
Hey JD! Welcome to the blog! I have to be honest and tell you I've not read your books yet, smack me, but I'm really glad you came to our little conference last year and came to our chapter meeting to talk to us about queries. Hopefully you'll come by and comment often. And your kids were soooo well behaved, I'm still totally impressed by them. :)
I'm with JD, I think I might get a little tongue-tied if I met Janet Evanovich or Sue Grafton, Stephen King or Dean Koontz, just because I admire their work so much.
Wish I could've met Pearl Buck. I collect her books. Love her stories. I've been to China so I love the settings, and they're so simply written, yet you feel like you know the main character so well after just the first page. She's my hero. Same with Oprah. What a story that woman has, and she's done so much, for normal people, and for authors, and as we all know, authors are not normal people. We are...well we are special, aren't we? HA!
When I was reporting, I interviewed many locally famous people -- police chief, judges, sheriff, lawyers, DA etc.. also Peter Defazio and other politicians. But my favorite, and probably the most famous, was Ricky Skaggs. I love his bluegrass music, and when I got to go backstage to interview him, I got very tongue-tied for a minute. It was embarassing. His mother had just passed away, and when I got him talking about her, he opened right up, gave me a great, personal interview, and his stage manager actually had to pull him away. It was cool. My daughter was with me too. I'll never forget it.
When I went to my very first writers conference, I was every published author's fan, lol! I was so in awe of all these writers who had actually achieved my dream! I wanted to buy everyone's book, but of course I couldn't. But the ones I did buy became my favorite authors... sort of. I felt so priveleged to say I'd actually spoken to those people, and they actually spoke back. What a dweeb. 8^)
I haven't experienced that awestruck feeling in many years, and I kind of miss the magical way it made me feel. But when it comes to agents and editors, whoa, Nelly! Yeah, then I'm a bit awestruck if it's someone I'm super impressed with. Particularly an editor with a house I'm aching to be published with. Heart pounds, mouth dries up. It only lasts a few seconds, but it feels so good for that tiny bit of time! 8^)
I'd love to sit and have a long conversation with Stephen King, Clive Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, Kim Harrison, and Rachel Caine. That would be cool.
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