Okay friends! I have been DYING to finally share this post with you! Last Wednesday, after what felt like YEARS of waiting, I finally got to go to the PassTruth Tour! It was so amazing and very much worth the wait!
No new information here really, but I drove four hours home to my dad's when I got off work on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning I was wide awake at 6:30 am. Still had plenty of time before I needed to leave, but sleep just wasn't coming to me, I was FAR too excited for that! At 8 am, my sister and I picked up my grandma and drove the 5 hours to Minneapolis. Which was a bit nervewracking for me since it was my first time driving in a city that big. I didn't have to venture too far in though. Thank goodness. I probably would have died.
Anyway! So I have a relative that lives in the cities and we went to her house and she drove us around for awhile. I got to go to an actual Lush store for the first time in my life which was SO AWESOME! It smelled so heavenly, I never wanted to leave! I got a super glittery bubble bar and a very colorful bath bomb. I can't wait to use them. Then we had to wander the streets until we found our ride at Starbucks. Which really wasn't a lot of wandering, I was just being dramatic.
After doing a little bit of shopping, we went back to my relative's house and she made pizza for my sister and I since she and my grandma were going to go out for supper while we were at the bookstore. We ended up leaving for the bookstore REALLY early.
We got dropped off about an hour and a half before the event even started. Which, I really like to be obnoxiously early to these things, but also I didn't want to be in the way for the people working at the store. I shouldn't have worried too much because we weren't even the first people there. I nabbed my preordered books and tickets and grabbed copies of Never Fade, In the Afterlight, and the Something Strange and Deadly series as well.
Good thing I had my trusty EvieSeo tote because dear GOD, that was a LOT of books I ended up carting around all night.
Since this was my first event, I was a total noob to this so I didn't know that I could bring my books from home. Found out too late that I could, but my sister had one of my Alex Bracken books so I brought that and she brought her copies of The Darkest Minds books! It's probably a good thing I didn't know that because I would still be in that line. Ha!
Anyway, so when they set up the chairs, we snatched up two front row seats!
And we waited...
But finally 6:30 rolled around and they came out and it was SO AMAZING!
They're so pretty and funny! It was so cool to listen to them talk about their books and answer questions. And it felt like it was all over so fast!
And okay, my worst thing ever about this was that, despite thinking about it ALL WEEK, I couldn't think of a single intelligent thing to say when I got up there. I wanted to have at least one thing planned so I could go from there if it was as bad as I made it out to be in my head. And since our tickets were numbers three and four, that didn't give me a lot of time to think about it in the line.
I definitely need to chill out and not worry so much because it was so much easier to talk to them than I ever could have imagined. I basically opened up by bluring out, "YOU'RE MY FAVORITE!!" to Alex, which must have been a good icebreaker because it earned me a hug. I could totally feel myself tearing up and I could feel my voice shaking. No shame.
Talking to Susan was easy because I planned ahead of time for us to wear Legend of Zelda stuff because I know she's into that. So that was a good ice breaker too! We all chatted about how far we had travelled to get there and my sister babbled about video games with Sooz. So it was an overall success. I felt like we were up there at the signing table forever. Which was totally amazing!
I am actually kicking myself now because I've thought of so many good things I could have said up there. Like how Liam is my one true fictional love. What was I thinking?!
Basically, I was nervous and shaky up until we finally got through the signing line. And then I think I got more excited after we left. I wanted to stay and see if we could talk to them more after, but we were at the very front of the signing line and our ride was waiting! To be totally honest, I didn't know that I was personally capable of the level of fangirling that I achieved after we left.
We left with a pretty legit stack of signed books and I'm pretty sure we were the ones there with the most books. I mean, I didn't see everyone's stacks, but this was more than anyone else I saw!
I also got to meet Tamara from Tamaraniac.com which was exciting because she is the first fellow blogger I've ever met in real life! :)
Overall, my first book event was an EPIC success! I met and got hugged by my favorite author, Alexandra Bracken. I also got to meet the sweetest author ever, Susan Dennard! I got to support a cute little bookstore that I plan to hit up everytime I'm in the cities from now on. Everyone was so nice! I also am REALLY jazzed that I got to hit up an actual Lush store. I hope that Alex visits the midwest again someday (maybe when its warmer out?) because I will come prepared with my books from home!
Did anyone else hit up this tour? Did you have a blast? Tell me all about it or about your successful first event!
I'm so jealous you got to go to the PassTruth tour! I really wanted to go, but unfortunately they didn't come to a city near me. But I'm glad to have read your post, and what a great time you had! Sooz and Alexandra are so lovely, it's fantastic that this was your first author event. I'm like you too - I always agonize on what to say, and kick myself after for things I didn't say. :D
ReplyDeleteThat's so lame! I can't believe that there was actually a stop semi-near me. If you can count traveling 10+ hours to be near. But it was so fantastic! And I'm so glad that this got to be my first event! Who'd think that talking to people would be so nerve-wracking and hard?!
DeleteYAYAYAYAYAY SO FUN! It looks like you had a wonderful time. I so want one of those posters! Unfortunately none of the tour spots were anywhere near me (like, not even close by states!). Which is surprising because usually D.C. is a spot (not that I can ever manage to get to D.C. - but I'd make a way for these two ladies!). Anyway, next time bring your ARCs! :D
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Did you sign up for the preorder swag? Is that the same poster? I can't believe there wasn't one close to you! That's crazy! I would have traveled farther to go to this event, totally! Now that I know how this kind of thing works, I will be bringing books from home, but considering how large my stack of Alex Bracken books is, she'll have to come back by the midwest a couple more times because I have A LOT! Haha! And hopefully it will be more if there is gonna be a movie anytime soon!
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