Maggie Stiefvater Signing RECAP!

I'm always a bit slow posting these recaps, but last Thursday Megan from Megan Likes Books and I went to Maggie Stiefvater's signing at the Indigo in CrossIron Mills Mall (it's just a bit outside of Calgary for anyone wondering), and we had an amazing time!! :D

Indigo did an amazing job hosting the event, and it was just a fantastic atmosphere! And so much fun!

Megan & I showed up super duper early! I was driving from Edmonton, so we wanted to make sure that we got good seats...and we did! Right at the front! :D We had quite a few books to get signed, and even got some signed for a few of our fellow Edmonton Book Bloggers! :D We also had plenty of time to get caught up, which was great! :D

Here's a picture of Megan (left) and I waiting to meet Maggie! We were the entire line for a bit there....but we were also REALLY REALLY early! haha This photo was taken by the lovely Megan and posted on her Twitter.

Before Maggie came out, we had some trivia for Chapters/Indigo gift cards, which was really fun! 

 

 Here's the audience for the signing holding up their favourite book of Maggie's! Photo from Indigo Events' Twitter (@indigogreenroom).

Then we got to see Maggie! She told us some hilarious stories (like the one about "The Knife Incident" and her feinting goats), did an audience reading, and answered some questions!

 Here's Maggie!!! :D She's a fantastic public speaker, funny, and just so entertaining! She told us about her struggles writing Forever (she felt like the fans were watching her while she was writing, so she took twice as long as usual to write it because she ended up taking it back from her editor to make it better :P), how she found out Linger was #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and she even mentioned how Hollywood is extremely complicated and that she likes book-to-movie adaptations as long as they keep the same "flavour" as the book, which she said was the reason she pulled the options for Shiver before---apparently Sam was a homeless guy digging up a can of peaches, and that just didn't feel like Shiver at all... and I definitely have to agree with her. :P

As I mentioned before, she had an audience reading! So, members of the audience helped participate in a reading of her book...and I got to be a part of it! We read from one of the chapters in The Dream Thieves, and I was Persephone! :D (Once again, I borrowed this picture from Megan.)

The event itself was really well put together, and it was definitely worth my three hour drive! ;D
Maggie was also nice enough to sign all of our books at once (without a limit), so Megan and I didn't even have to line up again...and we totally thought we'd have to because we had 9 books each! ;D

Meeting Maggie was awesome though! She was really easy to talk to and so fun!!!

 They took some candid photos of us while we were talking to Maggie, and this one was my favourite! I just love both of our expressions...I look seriously fangirly and happy...and totally entertained by Maggie, and Maggie looks like she's saying something intense. :D

 Here are a couple of the books I got signed! :D The Scorpio Races is my favourite because of the doodle Maggie drew (plus, the book itself is fabulous!)...so awesome! :D

 Also, Megan was much quicker at posting her recap of the signing, so if you're curious about what she had to say about the event, youu can find her recap HERE.

There you have it, that's my recap for what happened at the Maggie Steifvater signing that I went to last week! It was awesome, and Megan and I had a blast! Everyone at the signing also wrote a little something to Maggie in a notebook...and Megan and I wrote a poem for her...it was pretty fun, even if we're not very good at rhyming...although hopefully Maggie thought our poem wasn't too "draggy". :P

I definitely hope to get to meet Maggie again someday because she's just a fantastic person, and her books are pretty fabulous, too!

Have you been to a signing before?

What was it like and who was it for?

And if you haven't been to one before, 

which author (or authors) signing(s) would you want to go to?

Smart Chicks Kick It Comes to EDMONTON! :D #SmartChicksKickIt #ChaptersWestside

Well, I've waited a little while to post about it, but a couple of weeks ago, on September 13th, the Smart Chicks Kick It tour stopped in Edmonton! :D We don't get very many author signings here, so it was extremely exciting...especially having so many come at once! Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Ally Condie, Charles de Lint, Beth Revis, Veronica Roth, and Margaret Stohl were all at our stop! :D

Recently, Kristilyn at Reading in Winter actually started up a directory for Edmonton Book Bloggers, so a bunch of us got together for the event!!! :D A few of us met up back in August, but this was the first time that there were so many of us together at once! :D Nine of us ended up showing up...and then we found out about a few new Edmonton book bloggers while we were there! We were hoping we'd run into a few that we hadn't about yet, so it was great that we actually did! :D

Tammy from Madmusings of a Masters Mind made us badges! Aren't they awesome?!

Edmonton Book Bloggers!

Another EBB picture. This was before Leanne got there though.

And...here we are! Right in the front! :D Kristilyn got to Chapters Westside about a half an hour before I did, and since we were there so early, we got seats right in the front. :D

The crowd!

Later in the night, the crowd got even bigger! It ended up being wrapped pretty much throughout the store, and about 750 people showed up! :D It was the biggest turnout for the tour, and hopefully that means publishers will see how many people in Edmonton are interested in author signings! When I went to the Christopher Paolini signing, it was huge, too! :D

The authors! :D I absolutely loved the authors' talk before they started signing. They focused more on general questions, and had trivia questions for prizes. They also had a lightning round with random questions from the audience. My favourite was when the author's were asked their favourite way to kill people...some of the answers were hilarious! haha :D I already had most of the authors' books, and I bought a few new ones for the event, so I got some books signed by all of the authors. :D

Ally Condie! I absolutely loved Matched and Crossed, so it was
really neat to get to meet her! Can't wait for Reached!!! :D
___________

Beth Revis! :D Yay for Across the Universe! I REALLY need to read
A Million Suns, so I'm going to have to get on that! :D
___________

Charles de Lint! Or the Smart "Chuck" as the "Chicks" called him! haha
I haven't read any of his books yet, but I did pick up a couple from
Chapters Westside. I can't wait to read them. :D
___________

Melissa Marr! I really enjoyed her Wicked Lovely series, and Graveminder. :)
I can't wait to read Carnival of Souls! :D
___________

Margaret Stohl! I bought the first three books in the Caster Chronicles for the signing,
and I just read the first one, Beautiful Creatures! So glad I bought them! :D Also, even
though I hadn't read her books yet, it was pretty hard not to notice how hilarious and
fun Margaret is...she's a riot! :D
___________

Veronica Roth!!! Love, love, love her and her books! :D Divergent and Insurgent
are definitely some of my favourites! :D She also made jokes about the third book,
and how the file is actually titled "Detergent" on her laptop! haha
I told her that I can't wait to read it even if it doesn't have a title yet. haha ;D
___________

Kelly Armstrong!!! I absolutely love Kelley's books! I'm super excited for The Rising,
and I'm so glad that I got to chat with her and get some of my books signed.
I didn't get all of them signed (I left at least ten at home :P so hopefully I'll get to meet
her again and get the rest signed ;D), but I did get back in line to get three more of her books signed. :D
___________

I've only ever been to one signing before this, so I was a little awkward trying to make conversation, but I got a bit better as I moved down the line...and I love all of the pictures that I got! They turned out great! Yay for my iPhone having a good camera! :D I also had a really nice girl who worked at Chapters to help me carry and sort out my books for the authors. It was really sweet, and another girl took my pictures! It was going fast, and I didn't get their names, but I'd like to say thank you! :D Who knows...maybe they'll read this! Thank you both! You were awesome! :D

I didn't take pictures of all of my signed books, but I did take a picture of this
one because I loved how cute it was! "Ambur is a...Beautiful Creature ♥". :D

The Smart Chicks Kick It tour was awesome! :D I got a lot of books signed (trust me...they were HEAVY! haha), and had a great time getting to know my fellow bloggers better. Cassay from Vamps, Weres, and Cassay and I got to chat a bunch while we were in line the second time, too. haha We even made friends with the people behind us. :D I just love how easy it is to bond over books! It's such a great feeling! I'm definitely looking forward to getting to meet up with my fellow bloggers in the future! :D

Have you ever been to a book signing before? 

If you got to choose one author (or a few authors if you can't choose :P), who would you want to meet, and why? We can call it your dream signing. ;D