That Time I Met Ann M Martin & Neil Gaiman

Also known as The Best Weekend Ever!! This is going to be super long and there will be lots of pictures, so be warned! :)

So, on April 19th I found out there was this thing called the Texas Library Association Convention and it was going to be in Ft Worth on the following weekend. Library con, awesome right? Then I found out Ann M Martin was going to be there. And I nearly fell out of my chair. I made it my mission to go and meet her. I figured I could go on Saturday, since the exhibit part was only $20 and hopefully she would be signing that day. (Spoiler: she wasn't) I posted on Facebook how excited I was...evidence:

And then my amazing, wonderful, fabulous coworker told me that our manager was going to be there with a booth for our magazine (for obvious reasons, I'm not going to say which one). She said I should email her because she had taken people in the past to help out. I freaked lol. So I did, she took an agonizingly long time (days) to reply, but it was worth it, because she said I could go on Friday with her! Woo!! Which turned out to be an excellent day, as that was the only day Martin was signing but I could still get in again on Saturday if I wanted to. Then I had to make the tough decision of what books to take to get signed lol. I decided on Kristy's Great Idea and Super Special #1 because those were the beginning of it all. And I know you're all wondering if I took anything to get signed for a giveaway...well, I did. :) More on that soon!

Friday morning, I got on the train to FW (much easier than driving) with my tote bag full of BSC goodness and was on my way. It was a short walk to the convention center, my manager met me with my badge and showed me to our booth and also where the authors would be signing. Here's our view before it actually opened.

Our booth did okay, I think, we had a fair amount of interest. My manager was super awesome about letting me go off and wander around. Ann was signing at 11, so I got in line about 15 minutes early. They were handing out free copies of the first in her newest series, Family Tree, and also Ten Rules for Living with My Sister and the remake of Kristy's Great Idea (which I didn't bother getting). As I am typing this, I took a break to check out Ten Rules and it looks pretty cute. :)

My BSC copies were definitely the most worn (my Super Special is completely falling apart actually) but that just shows how much they were loved, right? Ann noticed and we laughed about it. I was too shy to ask her for a picture, but I did get this (blurry) one of her before she signed mine (and her assistant who was really nice too). And stupidly, I didn't use my regular camera for any of the pics, but my cell phone. Dumb. Did I mention this was my first real book event? Or convention even? And mostly by myself? I've been to a PostSecret event before, but with my sister and other friends and it was very low-key. So this was pretty nerve-racking. But she was super nice and I managed to tell her that I've been rereading the BSC books for my blog and she thought that was great and I am so happy I got to go. And what did I get signed for all my lovely readers, you ask? Well, I got her new one, Family Tree, and BSC #2: Claudia & The Phantom Phone Calls and yes, I will be doing 2 giveaways SOON for those 2 plus some extra goodies! :)

So, after all that excitement I was wandering around looking at all the booths & came across a small sign that said "Ask us for Neil Gaiman signing tickets for Saturday" (or something like that). What??! I knew he was speaking on Saturday, but hadn't heard anything about a signing and wasn't even sure if I would come back Sat. I asked them if they still had any tickets and they said yes and gave me one...I was number 84 out of 100! I was definitely coming back! :) Saturday, I got there around 11:30 (the exhibit hall closed at noon) and picked up a few books super cheap. Here's my haul for the whole weekend: I bought Friends with Boys (which I have started & love), Emiko Superstar (one of the only Minx comics I don't own), and Twins (just cause). The rest were freebies...love it!

Then I went to get in line for Neil's signing. There were about 15 people ahead of me and half didn't have tickets. :( I felt bad for them, especially the girl who was first in line! (She ended up getting a ticket after all though.) They let us in in groups of 10 and we found out that he would only be signing his ARC of Fortunately, The Milk which is a very cute children's chapter book. I was super sad though, because I had wanted to get one signed for my dad for Father's Day since he was the one who first made me read Sandman and Gaiman's other books. And I had tweeted Neil that morning asking if it would be weird for him to sign my Little Endless Storybook, because I only have the giant Absolute Volumes of Sandman. He said no, not weird. :) But I got over it, obviously. Neil is so funny and gracious and has awesome hair and a great accent and I was so happy to get to meet him. I was even more shy with him though, I know I said thank you, but that's about it. :/ He drew a stegosaurus in everyone's books which was adorable.

I did get my picture with him though! I'm wearing my Harry Potter shirt lol...and yeah, I'm always that red. Pttthhh....Then I got to see his speech, which turned out to be the closing speech for the convention, which I should not have been in as I am not a librarian, which I got into anyway because they had old men and ladies for security hah! And it was wonderful, as I knew it would be. I tried to find video of it, but it doesn't seem to be up yet. I will update later if I find it, but the title was "What the [very bad swear word] is a children's book anyway?" :) And that was my super awesome, fabulous weekend!