Saturday Discussion: Author Events

This week, my little sister Jessica from The Midnight Bookworm and I want to talk about author events. More specifically, I want to talk about what they do and how I feel about them. To give you a little hint to how I'm going to answer that, I'll tell you that I'm actually in South Carolina (an 8 hour car ride) right now at Yallfest!

So you're going to know right away that my I'm absolutely for author events! I've got some dang good reasons too. Let's talk a little about them and since I love lists, I'm going to provide you with one!

1) Getting to meet an author face to face- This is the absolute best. For me it's because they are what I'm aspiring to be and it's great to know that even the biggest names are really just down to earth people that are just as passionate to share their imagination with you as you are enthusiastic about them. With the internet, it's very easy to chat up an author on Twitter or get to build a bit of a relationship through an author interview so it's awesome to get to talk to them in person!

2) Hearing the stories- I love sitting down and finally seeing how an author is in person. I like to look at what they wear and how they act. And I love hearing them talk about their road to publication and answering questions from the audience.

3) Reading passages- This is my favorite thing about author events. I REALLY enjoy hearing an author read from their novel because that voice they are doing IS the character you feel in love with. When they put an infliction here, that's how they heard the character saying it. There is nothing sweeter for me!

4) Getting books signed- I've got a story I'll share later in the post but needless to say, it is awesome to have signed editions of your favorite novels!

5) Meeting other fans/book bloggers- I like being in a space knowing that everyone else is there because they appreciate this one (or several) author(s) as much as I do. Great bonding moments!

6) Making the author happy- They've worked hours typing away at a computer bringing the story I've read by them to life. Anyway I can give back to them, I definitely want to and I know that coming out and supporting them at their events does this!

There are a bunch of things to fall in love with when it comes to author events. I had no idea how incredibly cool it would be until I want to my first one. I was in college and the Romantic Times Convention (it's called something like that) was in Orlando, Florida about an hour away from where I was. After taking a peek at the list and recognizing some names, I decided I wanted to go. So a few of us piled into a car and drove there.

Then I came face to face with my first author ever, Ms Mari Mancusi. She was so happy I came to specifically to meet her because I loved her novel Gamer Girl. She went to sign the book and asked me my name. I didn't even think about the fact that books can be personalized to a person! Holy moly, that made them invaluable to me! Then I got to meet Stacey Jay and Melissa Marr. As you can imagine, it was a pretty epic day.

Since then, I've gone to almost every event I can attend and I've gotten this here book blog to talk about it. Every new event is a fond memory and I love being able to meet some of the people that have shared amazing worlds with me. To this day, my highlight is meeting Libba Bray, Meg Cabot and Maggie Stiefvater all in one room. I've been a fan of Libba Brays since before I knew what YA was and to finally meet her was a whirlwind!

You should hop over and check out what my little sis Jessica has to say on author events!

What about you? Do you love them or hate them? Anyone had any negative experiences? Or how about really positive ones? Please tell me in the comment section below or in your own post!