RECAP: That Time I Drove To Michigan to Meet Susan Dennard and Victoria Schwab!

I am at a loss for words right now

Photo courtesy of Sarah K!

(probably because I am dead tired, but also because !!!!) If you don't follow me on Twitter, then I shall inform you that I travelled to Livonia, Michigan on Friday to attend the Tor Book event that featured nine authors including Victoria Schwab and Susan Dennard at a Barnes & Noble.

This was a huge trek for me since I had to cross a border (it actually was pretty simple, just a super long drive). I was DETERMINED to go because I loved A Darker Shade of Magic and Vicious and I was super excited about Truthwitch so I wanted to meet it's creator! I especially wanted to go because I knew I would be able to also meet some amazing bloggers and because Elise Kova was going to be there too! It was like a meeting of all the best people I know in one place. Which for me is pretty convenient. Because it was January and it was a long drive, I roped my dad into making the trek with me just to be on the safe side (I didn't want to end up in a ditch on my own).

Friday morning arrived and we took off around 9:00am!

Me + Earth's End = Love

I arrived at the hotel we were staying at around 3:30pm after a stop for lunch. I dropped off my stuff and headed over to the Barnes and Noble to meet up with some bloggers around 5:00pm. The event was starting at 7:00pm so I wanted to make sure I got there early enough to snag a front row seat and talk to the bloggers there ahead of time. I met up with Annalise and Sarah right away and we had time to chat and meet face to face, which was awesome! We were lucky to get the front row seats and even save a couple for people we knew were coming that were close by.

Look at us!!!

I saved one for Elise because I was SO EXCITED TO MEET HER IN PERSON. Elise came in with the other authors (cause she's sitting at the cool kid table now!!!!) and we hugged. It was glorious. She sat next to me because we're tight like that and she let me hold Earth's End so that was pretty chill. I have a running "joke" that Minister Victor in Air Awakens is the #ShadyMinister and secretly poisoning Vhalla with his tea, so she brought me some tea that you can only get in Florida because she's awesome.

Then the EVENT started.

Photo courtesy of Sarah K!

All the authors were introduced and people asked questions (the first person who asked a question got an ARC of AGOS which made me super jealous but I survived). It was interesting to learn about all the authors different processes to publication and how they started writing. It was also interesting to hear about world building and how it is best to watch people to learn their ticks when you are developing a character. Victoria mentioned that Neil Gaiman has been a huge influence in her life because she saw that he was writing across genres and mediums and she knew that if he could do it, so could she! (I 100% AGREE. PLEASE WRITE EVERYTHING!)

The Q&A lasted about an hour and then we got to get our books signed. Since I was just going for Susan and Victoria (sorry other authors! You all seemed great!) and had the luxury of being in the front row, I just snuck right up and got my stuff signed first(ish).

MY PRECIOUS

Susan is a SWEETHEART. Honestly the nicest person I have ever met. She was trying to get me to take more posters and bookmarks and I was like "but there are so many people, let them get some too!" She was so nice to talk to about Truthwitch! I was really nervous (because 1. famous people and 2. I am an introvert) but she was so calming and I just really enjoyed talking to her!

After that I moved over to the line for Victoria and was like super shocked that when I said my (real) name, she was like, "Oh you're Books and Ladders!" because ?????????? But I guess when you make inappropriate jokes on Twitter people remember you for that. So I was in awe of that because ??????????? and !!!!!!!!!!. We talked about how I'm SUPER EXCITED for AGOS and how much I loved Vicious (and that I read it the day before). She also gave me an extra Rhy card that is exclusive to the events to "make the internet happy" so watch for that :)

Group Shot!

!!!!!!

We were told that pictures could happen after so the bloggers that were there all stuck around and hung out and took group photos! That was a lot of fun. It was so nice to put names and faces to Twitter handles (because we all introduced ourselves by those). Everyone is SUPER NICE so that was great too. We all did group shots with Victoria and Susan, so we were joking about how we were all going to have the same display picture after.

It was just such a fun event and I loved every second of it! Thank you to everyone who made this weekend special and shout out to my dad for coming with me so that if I got snowed in I wouldn't end up dead in a ditch. I have all these lovely signed books and if you head over to Books Are My Fandom, you can win a signed copy of Truthwitch!

My next event is the book launch for FIRSTS by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn! I am heading out to London, Ontario for that on Feburary 10th and will be sure to grab an extra signed book for you guys! I'll also have a recap post up for that one as well!