Little W and I have been counting down the days to DBF and it’s finally arrived!
We came up yesterday to see Adi Alsaid and Jennifer E. Smith at a pre-festival book signing, and I’m so glad we did. Their signing line (which also included Stephanie Perkins…so…) was crazy long. I did get to hear them speak though, during their panel discussion, which was right before my main event: Maggie Stiefvater. But I’ll come back to that later.
We started the day at the Audi dealership, much to W’s dismay, to let them finish up a few things with my car and to get an estimate on repairing the damages from the Publix incident. We made it over to Decatur on time, though, to see Amy Krouse Rosenthal, one of W’s favorite authors, speak in her panel.
If you’re not a mom or a teacher or librarian, you probably aren’t familiar with Rosenthal’s books, but we certainly are. Little Pea has helped us get through some “I’d rather have candy” moments in the Jones home and Little Oink has helped get a few more toys picked up than usual. She has many, many great books available and today we were here for her newest addition, Uni the Unicorn.
W got to meet her and had her sign the new book for her, as well as another of her books, Exclamation Point, for her class at school. She thought it was pretty cool, even though she didn’t say much besides, “I like Little Pea.” The end. It’s probably best that she didn’t fangirl out on her favorite author…kind of like I did later in the day…but I digress.
After waiting in the (very long) line for Amy, we headed over to the vendor tents to find lunch. And find lunch we did. Eight dollar-but-not-worth-four gyros. With no posted prices. Ah, festivals.
My mom went with us (yay!) and I’m so glad she did. She’s always loved the festival atmosphere, so she took W to the children’s area while I went to the Teen Stage.
I caught the tail end of Stephanie, Adi, Isabelle Gilles, and Stephanie Perkins panel and also Jennifer L. Armentrout’s signing, then waited for the lady of the day. While waiting, the Marching A’s or whatever the band is called (I feel like they have a different name when they’re marching through the Mart) came through to play a little halftime show. I imagine they’d probably just left DragonCon.
Then she arrived; the wonderful author of my favorite series and my favorite standalone.
Two things you may not know (or care) about Maggie Stiefvater:
1) She sounds EXACTLY like my friend Heather when she’s speaking. I could’ve closed my mind and I would’ve immediately thought it was Heather on stage.
2) She’s a comedienne.
She even made a joke about people mispronouncing her name (It’s Steve-Otter, in case you’re wandering).
Now, I really, really, really, wanted to sit and hang onto her every word, but I also had a 7-year old who would be hot and ready to go home soon, so I had to do the family thing and scoot out a few minutes after Maggie started fielding questions. I went to hop in line, hoping to be close to the front so I could get the signing done and get W and my mom and go.
Well…I still ended up waiting for almost and hour and a half. In the sun. Yes, I have burns. But for Maggie, I will scorch. W…not so much. She found a misting fountain to sit atop.
In the meantime, I got a few more signatures on the Big Books bag for our Labor Day giveaway!
Eventually, I got to Maggie and well, let’s just say, I made a total fool of myself. She signed my copy of Sinner (I’m lame and totally left all of my other books at home), one of the awesome book wraps that she drew, and I also snagged a pair of Sinner sunglasses. I may or may not have told her that it was a dream come true to meet her. It was like meeting Madonna. Only better. Because Maggie wrote The Scorpio Races.
Check back tomorrow night for a wrap-up of our visit to the Decatur Book Festival and look for the Big Books signed bag giveaway starting on Monday!
Did you go to the Festival today? What was your main event? Let me know!
Read Up!
Reading Up with the Joneses 