Monday, March 1, 2010

Books Make Me Happy (Win a book)

I started out the weekend being utterly sad I couldn't make it on my planned girls-trip out of town to attend a fabulous murder mystery party. (Everyone, besides me, in my family got sick earlier this week.) However after remembering I'd had another invitation to another fabulous party I quickly realized the weekend could still be awesome.

Saturday I hung out at the Utah Book Blogger/Author social that Natasha from Maw Books put together. Oh my goodness. What a party!!

It's always amazing to me when a group of people, with similar interest, gather together and an immediate, tangible connection is formed. Book people are great people folks!

I sat at a table with other bloggers Jenni Elyse, Catie, and some wonderful authors Bree Despain, Sydney Salter, Emily Wing Smith, Brodi Ashton and Ann Bowen. We were laughing so hard and so loud I'm pretty sure the other folks in the establishment were hoping we'd hurry with our dinners and leave. Sadly for them (fantastically fun for us) we were there for three hours.

After dinner we had a book exchange. Numbers were drawn randomly and the books were assigned numbers. Mine was called first and I won Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen). Shannon Hale came over and told me, despite a few scenes to be careful of, it is a marvelous book.

James Dashner came over to crack a few jokes about all us ladies being silly. And with a wave of his hand included whomever else wanted to be included. I was terribly flattered when he remembered my name.

I chatted for a while with picture book author, Kristyn Crow about a fantastic event coming up later this year. I'm definitely going to have more details coming soon. I'm so excited I've been biting my nails all day (ok not literally but it's just that exciting!).

I meant to stop by Josi Kilpack's table but was a little shy to go say hi. Turns out I guess I am still a bit nervous. I've enjoyed following her books progresses on twitter.

Friend Jenni won Jeleta Clegg's book and she was so kind to come over and visit with us and also sign the book. It sounds fascintating and I can't wait to hear what Jenni thinks of it.

After meeting Jean Reagen I remember seeing her picture and book on a blog tour this year.

I didnt get to visit much with Ann Cannon but I'm taking my kids to the library this week so we can see a few of her books!

Rachelle Rogers Knight was kind enough to give everyone one of her literary journals. She told me she loves to read award winning books and thought it'd be fun to put this together. In fact, knowing how much my readers like to win things, she even gave me a brand spakin new book to give to one of you! (All you gotta do to win is comment.)

Of course the folks I'm gonna have to get to know in cyberspace since there just wasn't enough time to visit longer: Sueysays (It's all about books), michellewitte, One Literature Nut, Karey Shane, Kim (Good Clean Reads)

Thanks Natasha for a wonderful, uplifting evening!

13 comments:

Olivia Carter said...

I swear woman! Could you make me any more jealous! Sounds like a BLAST!

Suey said...

Very fun to meet you! Love your blog.

Tess said...

Hi, Debbie. Kristyn told me you might be able to help w/ the raffle at ABFEK charity. If so, we'll be working together. So very nice to *virtually* meet you :D

I can be reached at tesshilmo(at)comcast(dot)net

or tesshilmo.blogspot.com

great pictures ... what fun!

Barbaloot said...

How fun! I'm all kinds of jealous that you got to meet Shannon Hale. I love her books.

Kristie said...

What a cool idea, a way to help people to recommend books to others! I love it. And maybe this would be the kind of thing I should give my siblings that are still in school, k-12. It would help the writing skills, so they could do better in college.
Sounds like you had a blast, even though the family was sick!

Jenni Elyse said...

It was so much fun! I'm really excited to read Jaletta's book. I hope I get to it this year, lol. ;)

Great recap on the evening! I can't wait to help with Kristyn's event! :)

Violet said...

You girls have way too much fun! What a wonderful blogger/author event! Glad you had a great time! :)

Brodi Ashton said...

I second everyone else- it was a blast! I'm so glad we were at the same table. Apparently we were very loud.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I wish I could have gone but it's been a mad house in my life around here. =[ Glad you had a great time and congrats on the book!

Kim said...

It was so nice to meet you. We all were pretty jealous that you guys were having so much fun at your table.

Your blog looks awesome. I will definitely be back.

Jaleta Clegg said...

I'm so glad I made it. You are a great group of bloggers. The evening was a blast. Please invite me to the next one!

Christy said...

Wow, that sounds like it was a great place to be. Maybe next year...

Greg and Kimberly ... said...

You were soooo missed down here, but I'm glad you got to do something besides nurse sickies.
This looks like so much fun, and look at all of those authors in your picture! Jealous. Can I say I knew you before you became a cyberspace hottie? Wait, that sounds bad.....