book nerdery at its finest

One of the highlights from 2010 and now 2011 has definitely been attending the Decatur Book Festival. I fully plan on making it an annual trip as long as I can spend it with girls from my online book club because the weekend was full of awesome --even if there WERE a few hiccups.

I can't believe how lucky I am to have met all these wonderful girls and if I'm being honest, the weekend was entirely too short. Here we all are before the last panel began.

Back: Tameka, Jacki, Me, Ashley 

Front: Julie, Jennie, Heather

Saturday morning I got up early so I could make the 3 hour drive to Decatur and hopefully make it there before the first panel began at 10am. I knew this was unlikely since I was running late and not long after I left the house I had an "oh crap" moment. I realized that I forgot to convert the 10am start time from EST to CST. Yup, so now I was freaking out because I REALLY didn't want to miss the second panel of the day (Beth Revis and Myra McEntire) but I did.

By the time I got to the hotel, checked in, parked, and found where the panel was being held it was just about over and people were already forming a line for the signing. While trying to call Julie, I was looking at all the people pouring in and almost immediately saw my friend Anne Riley. She came over and stood in line with me and we had a chance to catch up since I haven't seen her since the spring.

While in line my friends showed up and we got to meet Beth and Myra. I was so excited to meet Beth and I loved that I got a chance to thank her for her support of All 4 Alabama in person. She was just as sweet as I thought she would be and I'm really looking forward to seeing her again at YALLFEST in November.

The next panel we went to was Libba Bray's. Tameka kept talking about her and how awesome she was so I was pretty excited even though I haven't read any of her books yet (I know, I know. I bought the Gemma Doyle books around the time I was getting burned out on series books though). Libba was an absolute HOOT. After the first two sentences out of her mouth, I knew I was in for a lot of laughs and she did not disappoint. She even did a mad-lib! We left the over-flow room when the Q&A session was starting and I'm glad we did. Her line ended up being almost 2 1/2 hours long! She was a joy to meet and I REALLY hope I get to see her again soon. She struck up a conversation with everyone and it was like you had known her for years.

By the time we had finished getting our books signed by Libba, Lauren Myracle's panel was almost over so a few of us went down and got in line. I haven't read Shine (or any of her books) yet and since that's what the panel was about I was OK with missing it since I didn't want to spoil things. I was starting to fret over what I would say to her when it was my turn but as soon as I gave her my book she asked why I had taken the dust jacket off and she, unknowingly, saved me from being a super awkward turtle. I also loved that she had burgundy in her hair because that's what I'm most likely going to do in the next few weeks. 

We all headed back to the hotel after Lauren's signing to rest and make dinner plans. On the way, Tameka had her first ever funnel cake. 

When we got back to the room these yummy Harry Potter cookies from Jacki were waiting for me. Aren't they adorable?! I absolutely loved Ron and couldn't eat him until I got home a showed my husband.

We ended up going to Ted's Montana Grill for Tameka's birthday dinner and I had my first bison burger. It was pretty darn good too. Here are some pictures from dinner.

 Jacki, Jennie, and Heather

 Julie's bestie, Julie, and Ashley

 She was looking at a Hello Kitty sleep mask

She got a free birthday dessert!

After dinner we stopped next door at The Chocolate Bar and got some sweets and then went back to the room to hang out a bit before we all konked out. I was pretty out of it by this point, as was everyone else, so it didn't take long before we had an unofficial silent agreement to go to sleep.

Check back tomorrow for day two!

Decatur Book Festival 2011

Today begins the weekend I have looked forward to for a year. Not only does Auburn football start tomorrow but this weekend is the Decatur Book Festival!

Last year was my first year attending and I had such a good time that I couldn't wait to go back. This year I'm looking forward to seeing Beth Revis, Victoria Schwab, Libba Bray, Lauren Myracle, and Stephanie Perkins. I'm also excited to see Rachel Hawkins, Terra McVoy, and Jackson Pearce again.

The books and the authors ARE pretty awesome alone but what I'm REALLY excited for is getting to spend a weekend with some of my awesome online friends. Some of these girls have become best friends offline and others I'm only getting to meet for the first time this weekend.

If you've read my blog at all, you'll know that Julie is one of my BFF's. We met in person for the first time early last year and although she lives a couple hours away, I've seen her more since then than I've seen my friend who lives 30 minutes away. I haven't seen her in about 2 months and I miss this girl.

Heather lives in Florida and I met her for the first time in Atlanta last year. Considering she lives about 12 hours away from me, I became spoiled last year after seeing her 3 months in a row (in different cities too!) and not at all this year. She's just a fun person and I can't wait to see her!

I met Tameka for the first time in May when I went to the LA Times Festival of Books while on vacation. I've known Tameka online for several years and finally getting to meet her was like meeting up with an old friend. The fact that I'll have gotten to see her three times once this year is over is just awesome (my husband is going to LA for a work conference and I'm tagging along). This is also her birthday week so I think it's going to be an epic trip.

I'll also get to meet Jacki, Jennie, and Ashley. I've known these girls online for several years as well and I am beyond ecstatic that they're coming from as far away as Canada (Ashley) for a weekend in Georgia. They may be online friends now but I know after this weekend, they'll just be regular friends who just live to damn far away.

Decatur Book Festival - Part 2

One thing we weren't expecting was a meet and great with Diana Gabaldon. When Anna, Natalie, and I were on our way to Emily Giffin's panel, we stopped by the AJC tent to get our picture taken.

There happened to be a small table set up and hanging from the bottom it said, "Diana Gabaldon 1-2." Of course we asked the guy standing there what that was all about and when he said the words "meet" and "greet" we were so going to be there for that. The only downside? It was at the same time as Terra Elan McVoy and David Levithan's panel  so we missed out on hearing them speak. Thanks to Julie, Heather, and Leah who went and were able to get my books signed for me, including my first edition of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist!

Anyway, after we left Emily Giffin's signing tent, we headed back to the AJC tent. Anna got in line while Natalie and I went to her car to get my 23 lbs (yes, 23) of Diana Gabaldon books. On the way back, Natalie tried blocking for me because if I went down, I'd look like this:

Once we got back to the tent, the line hadn't grown too much so we got at the end and OMG you guys, cue the uber-excitedness. I was literally shaking!

When it was finally my turn, I started rambling and I don't remember much. Oh wait, Yes I do! I told her about owning every single form of the series I could, having to get rid of the MMP copies so I could order the hardbacks, that I majored in Zoology and lived in Arizona. Somewhere in there she started telling me about the Outlander Musical and seemed very excited about it. What made her even more awesome was that Natalie told her that I was gushing about the books and it made her want to read Outlander. Diana gave her a promotional copy and signed it for her! Isn't that sweet?!

Here's me with Diana.

Later on at 3:00 she had her All Things Outlander panel, so of course the three of us were in that audience.

The panel took place in the Decatur Presbyterian Church sanctuary and it was filled to capacity. She talked about future books (in no particular order: The Outlander Companion 2, book 8, Lord John, Jamie's Parents, and Master Raymond), the musical (Allan Scott is now her Jamie), The Exile (even had a copy to look at!), the film option, and kilts. You can't talk Jamie without mention of a kilt. There was also a guy in the audience wearing a kilt and not only did Diana appreciate it, but he got a roaring applause.

Meeting Diana Gabaldon was my reason for going to DBF (which I also told her) and meeting her was all I hoped it would be and momre. She's sweet, funny, generous, and I loved hearing her speak. If you get a chance to hear her, don't pass it up.

I also have some video I'm going to try and post of everyone, I just need to figure out how to cut it.

If you're interested in checking out Diana Gabaldon you can visit her website, read her blog, follow her on Twitter, and buy her books
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