As most of you know, I’m in school for liibrary science and I’m from Texas! Well this past weekend, I was able to attend a huge event in Texas called the Texas Library Association Conference! I was told to attend for extra points for my class, but trust me when I tell you I was going to attend anyways as a blogger lol
This was my first book conference I’ve attended by myself (normally I have my mom with me) and the day before I was really anxious. Then to spike that up, I was worried about the weather because the day before I was at the conference, Houston had ended up flooding. It was such a crazy, scary scene. The firs day I attended I was able to grab at bunch of books (that I won’t post because I don’t want people to think anything…) that I KNEW I would love. Then the next two days were all about making sure I could get only exactly what I wanted and then meet some of the area bloggers! I ran into only 4 of them 🙁 I wish I could have met all of you! But out of 4 of them that I met, they were all so nice! And I have funny stories on how I met them all. In case you all hadn’t noticed, I’m one of the most unobservant people on the planet lol
Top left is, a super cool librarian and blogger who I actually recognized from her reading Star wars tattoo lol Top right is @Ladybuggirl724 from Twitter! She asked me about Morgan Matson’s The Unexpected Everything and I just answered her and posted about it on Instagram. A few minutes later she commented and said “Omg I was one of those people who asked.” That was pretty cool lol Bottom left is @Kris10MFAF from Twitter! Me and her had randomly talked about TLA and the Lunar Chronicles a bunch of times before! She recognized me in line for Heartless! Huge coincidence that we ended up in another line for Marissa Meyer! And last but definitely not least, bottom right is @Lena1xoxo from Twitter. Her story was the most hilarious. We were in a signing line and she was right behind me. I was scrolling through Instagram and she had JUST posted a picture. I was saw it and looked over and then looked again and asked “Lena?” She turned to look at me and I showed her the picture that she had just posted and we both laughed for a long time. It was the most perfect friend meet cute ever lol I love meeting other bloggers because they’re always so sweet and nice! Hopefully we can continue to hang out!
As for the authors I met, there were so many great ones! Since I volunteered some of the time I didn’t get to meet everyone that I wanted, so here’s those that I did get to meet! Top left is David Levithan and Alex Gino! Both I was SO EXCITED to meet! They were impressed that I book pushed George to my mom and even more so when I said it was one of my favorite diverse reads from last year! Top right was Marissa Meyer! It was so fun to finally meet her again. I was finally able to get my Scarlet ARC signed and I got my ARC of Heartless! I could have fainted, but yet all I did was fangirl! The middle left is Adam Silvera! Funniest moment was when I met him waitng on his signing line! I ranted to him about breaking my heart with More Happy Than Not and then I hugged him for such a great book lol Middle right was Emery Lord! I put in a post a long time ago that one day I would love to meet her and I finally did! I got to volunteer in her signing which was awesome because the next day she reemembered who I was and in passing said Hello. That may not seem like much, but to us, authors are rockstars so I was 100% flattered lol The bottom right was Samantha Mabury. She gave out copies of A Fierce and Subltle poison that I’ve been trying to convince Houston Public Library to get, so she even though she ran out of books, she gave me her display copy! And then there was Goldy Moldavsky. I was volunteering for her as well and I had my ARC I wanted her to sign. But then there was a librarian who had just missed the signing and was upset about not being able to get one. I gave her my ARC and then Goldy gave me her display copy so it worked out for everyone!
As for my epic adventure to get Heartless, I had to strategize the night before how I would do this. I came up with a plan with my fiance on how to make it work. I would get there an hour before the exhibit floor opened and then just wait. Then I would make a bee line to the author area through my favorite publishers and then go straight to make a line for Marissa Meyer, Oddly enough, several people had the same idea lol We started forming her line at 9:15…… and her signing was at 11! Luckily we were all nice and said we could take turns going to look around and grab things while the other stood in line! I was able to be #7 in line and I got to snag my most anticipated read of 2016!!!!!!
TLA was really great and hopefully I’ll be able to go when it’s in San Antonio next year! (I’ll be getting married in April 2017 so yeahhhh) I had so much fun! BEA in Chicago next month will be my next big book event and I can’t wait to see what kind of fun that BEA brings!
I was also happy to give myself some tips after TLA for BEA. One, always bring a dolly suitcase and get it checked. Your body will thank you. And two, Chuck Taylor’s, no matter how nice they are, do not count as comfortable shoes. There is no sole and your feet will be pounding later that day. And lastly, pack a lunch or something because otherwise you will be stuck eating the same sandwich days at a time if there is nothing else around and you don’t want to leave the exhibits yet lol
Here are the books I received that I was most excited about!
(Add on to that Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch… It’s missing from the picture because the fiance had already started reading it -__- lol)
See anything you like?
Which book would you have wished for at TLA?