Trip #3: D.C. Author Event
Mode of Travel: Car & Metro
My week of cupcakes, books and crazy weather came to an end on Saturday May 3, 2014 at the D.C. Author Event which was held at the Four Points Sheraton in Washington D.C.
(Click the link above to see all kinds of great photos of the event.)
Originally, I had planned to do this one solo, but at the last minute Hannah decided to join me. I'm always up for company especially when it's someone like Hannah who always seems to know where she's going.
Except for those few minutes when we got of the Metro. ;)
We drove to Greenbelt and metroed into the city (with cupcakes of course) saving ourselves time, traffic and energy.
It was a little nostalgic for me because the Greenbelt station was my go-to station growing up and it had been a long time since I'd been there. And by "long", I mean, like two decades, but whatever.
We ended up on a train full of Cub Scouts who were learning all about how to use mass transit, navigate a city and the importance of paying attention to your guide instead of trying to perfect the metro selfie. It was cute.
And a little loud.
The weather was gorgeous which was a plus considering Hannah and were both still recovering from Wednesday. Once we reached the hotel, we caught up with Malissa from Reads All The Books, Stephanie from No BS Book Reviews and met Emily Lalone, Event Coordinator Extraordinaire!
Emily quickly put us to work unloading and unpacking books, making sure we knew how the event was going to run and equipped with all of the information we needed to help the fans.
Fans who were already lined up around the block hours before the doors opened.
Before the doors opened, the volunteers (us) had the chance to do a quick meet and greet with the authors...
 |
| I FINALLY got to bring Cora cupcakes! |
Have our books signed...
Get up close and personal with book characters like Hamlet, Bliss' cat in LOSING IT...
 | ||
| CATS! |
And Roth from Jennifer L. Armentrout's, WHITE HOT KISS.
 |
| Yes, that IS JLA creepin' in the background. |
We even had time for a few selfies!
 |
| (L-R) Malissa, JLA, Wendy Higgins, Me |
But then it was time to work.
Now, I've been to quite a few book events in the past couple of years along with two major Cons, but this type of signing was a whole different animal. Fans showed up with suitcases, SUITCASES full of books to be signed, waited in line for hours just to have a chance to meet their favorite author(s) and then trekked back to wherever they came from.
And then there was this guy...
He had JUST gotten home from Afghanistan four days prior and was on a day pass to D.C. His wife, who was completely unaware of what he was doing, is a HUGE fan of Jennifer's and he had come to the event to gets books signed for her a surprise.
BE STILL MY BOOKISH HEART!
When word got to Jennifer that he was was outside, in the back of the line, she asked him to be brought in A.S.A.P. where she not only took the time to chat, snap pics and sign all of his wife's books, but she also took off her Llama phone case, signed it and gave it to him to pass along to his wife.
THIS IS WHY SHE IS AWESOME!
(Well, just one of the reasons anyway. She also made me say the word, "balls". Repeatedly. But that's one of those, "you had to be there" kind of stories.)
It was a long but fun day and I really enjoyed being able to spend time with bookish people. People like,
Jessi from JK Ranting, D.J. from Life In Fiction (twice in one week!), Liza from Reading With ABC and the writing duo of Toni Decker!
Meeting authors I've worked with on blog tours in the past was fun as well even if I did flake and forget to take a picture. I'm looking at you, Patricia Glenn. ;)
If you have the chance to attend one of these events, or volunteer, I encourage you to do it! You'll be exhausted mentally and physically by the time you're done, but you'll have had so much fun you won't even care!
This is one of my favorite pics of the day despite how I tired I look. :P
This sounds like a blast. I would love to volunteer for something like this. And even though I had already heard the story, via facebook maybe, the guy getting his wife a prezzie still got me. Right in the feels, as the kids say. (I think... I'm old.)
ReplyDelete