Tag: Author Signings

I had so much fun at the San Fran Golden Gate Event!  I got to meet some of my favorite authors, new to me authors and chat with lots of other people who love books just as much as I do.  BUT I almost didn’t make it.  I live by Lake Tahoe and we got hit with a huge snow storm.  We got a total of 9 feet that weekend and just on Friday, when I was driving, we got 41 inches of snow.  I take back roads until I get to Hwy 50 and I never should have agreed to be one of the last cars to be let through Hwy 89.  It was near white out conditions, there was over a foot of snow on the road, the side snow markers which are 10 feet tall couldn’t be seen.  Since it’s a cliffy area, I just kept hoping I was on the actual road.  What normally takes me 15 minutes to drive took me over 90 minutes.  I’ve driven in countless storms, but nothing like that.  After that Hwy 50 was a piece of cake, even though it had some white out conditions and of course there was lots of snow.  So here are some pictures of when the road conditions were good on Hwy 50 and the last picture is me crawling back home on Sunday. 

So on to the signing!  I went with my friend from back home, Astin.  We had an absolute blast!  So here are the authors we got to meet and visit with:

Rachel Van Dyken (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

This is the second time I have gotten to meet Rachel Van Dyken and she is the kindest person ever.  After the signing, my friend Astin and I were sitting in the lobby planning out what to do for the rest of the evening.  And then Rachel and her assistant, Kathy, came and sat with us.  The four of us visited for over an hour and talked about everything from kids to exercise to book recommendations etc.  It was amazing!

Lauren Stewart (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

This is also my second time meeting Lauren Stewart and she is the most down to earth person.  Later on, after the signing, she and some of the other authors were hanging out by the bar and invited Astin and I to join them.  We visited for a couple hours and talked about everything from kids, to the emotional journey of owning a pet to living in California and so much more.  It was the most incredible time!

Charleigh Rose (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

I was doing so good, and then I met Charleigh Rose.  I was pretty much a bumbling mess lol. 

K.K. Allen (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

K.K. Allen was one of the authors that we got to hang out with at the bar, after the signing.  She was so much fun! 

Katy Regnery (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

T. Gephart (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

Amy Harmon (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

Jana Aston (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

Torrie Robles (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

Sierra Simone (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

J. Bengtsson (Website l Amazon l Goodreads)

After the signing, we also got to hang out at the bar with Stephanie St. Klaire and R.C. Boldt!  Fun isn’t a big enough word to describe our time with all of those ladies!  And during the signing we also met Audrey Carlan, Lauren Blakely, Leddy Harper, Meredith Wild, Rebecca Hunter, Vivian Wood, Helen Hardt  (The signing was giving away paperback copies of Lily and the Duke.  It sounds so good, I can’t wait to read it!) and Amo Jones (While we were waiting to get into the signing, we were chatting with the group of girls in front of us.  They kept raving about her books, so Astin and I went on Amazon and bought one of her trilogies right there.)

Here is all of the swag I got.  Some of the things I’ve never even seen before at a signing.  Like K.K. Allen’s shot glasses and Charleigh Rose’s candles.  Sooooo pretty!

And here is the bag I got for all of the attending author’s signatures!  I absolutely love it and this is my life every single night lol.  The bags design is by Brittney over at Her Bookish Things, and it’s from her Society6 store.

And here’s my physical book haul….I wish I had a picture of my ebooks too, I have soooooooooo many from the attending authors!

 

 

 

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A post shared by Star-Crossed Book Blog (@starcrossedbookblog) on Feb 20, 2019 at 11:41am PST

It was the best day ever!  Not only was the signing amazing but we were so thankful we got to hang out with a lot of the authors afterwards too.  I’ll definitely cherish my memories from that day forever. ♥

You guys.  I had the most amazing experience at RT!  My childhood friend, Astin, and I only attended Saturday’s events, but it was a whirlwind of a day.  We got to meet so many amazing authors and even made some new friends.  ♥

First off was the Giant Book Fair.  It was 3.5 hours long and it wasn’t near enough time for us to meet everyone we wanted to.  We each brought huge stacks of books to be signed and we did get that accomplished.  But there were still so many authors we wanted to meet.  Here are the books I brought….

We took pictures with the authors who signed our books and also who’s books we’ve read.  I’m sure I was a huge, smiling, rambling mess.  In case you haven’t picked up any of these author’s books yet, which we can’t recommend enough, I linked each author to their Goodreads, Amazon and Website.

Lorraine Heath (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Rachel Van Dyken (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Astin & C.L. Wilson (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Jill Shalvis (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Kimberly Bell (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Mary Ting (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Jennie Marts (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

Jennae Vale (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

JoAnn Sky (Goodreads l Amazon l Website)

We also met some of the cover models………

Astin and I both yelled REN (HA that’s a Jennifer L. Armentrout character reference!).  We’re with Dillion Lalor and Justin Edwards.

And Stuart Reardon

We also met so many other authors, here’s just a few……

Avery Flynn was absolutely hilarious and had Astin and I cracking up!  I definitely need to pick up one of her books! 

Sonali Dev was the sweetest person ever and she’s another author I’m looking forward to reading! 

Tina DeSalvo had the most amazing sweater!  It had holes on the sides and it felt like it was meant for hugging.  We got to receive the hugest hugs ever and I made sure her books are on my TBR! 

Ginger Scott was so much fun to talk to but Astin and I totally embarrassed ourselves in front of her.  *Deep breath* Astin and I were talking about how much we loved a side character in one of her books, A Boy Like You.  Astin and I kept going back and forth over what one of the character’s initials were.  We weren’t even close and Ginger Scott had to tell us his correct initials.  Oh we felt so bad *hides face*!  We swear we love him!

We also got to talk to Sylvia Day, Shaila Patel, Anne Bishop, Anne Eliot, Rebekah R. Ganiere, Dakota Willink, Brenda Novak, Elizabeth Hoyt, Shayla Black, Victoria Dahl, Rebecca Zanetti, Jasmine Guillory, Lexi Blake, J. Kenner  and so many others.  And we came home with a huge tote bag filled with swag that we’ll treasure forever! ♥

After the Giant Book Fair we got to run out to my vehicle to put all of our books and swag in.  We grabbed a sandwich to go and then sat in line for the next event which was Berkley’s Talk Wordy To Me Party.  At the party we got to chose a few authors who’s books we’d receive for free and also have signed by them.  We had NO clue that would happen.  So amazing!  Also, at that party they had the yummiest dessert bar and lemonade.  I don’t even want to say how many brownies and cookies I ate, but the part cookie part brownie?!  That one definitely had my heart! 

We then went to Audible’s event.  It was filled with lots of fun games and cocktails.  We left with a fabulous t-shirt and this picture which we will treasure forever.  We met a Highlander!

And after all of that we attended the FAN-tastic Day Party.  Soooooooo, like above, call us clueless, but we had NO idea that you got free books at RT for just attending the Saturday events.  We also didn’t know that a lot of them would be signed while you got to talk to the authors.  We were shocked and beyond grateful!  It was so overwhelming how giving these events were.  We had so much fun talking with the authors and also getting a lot of fabulous books!

I got to meet all of these authors and have the books signed. ♥

These are other books I received. ♥

So all in all…..we had truly no clue what we were getting ourselves into.  It was an amazing fun-filled day and I’m so thankful we got to attend!  RT Booklovers Convention was an absolute blast and Astin and I kept saying ‘oh my gosh this is better than Christmas’!

PS I received a copy of Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf at RT and then I received a fabulous box from Entangled Teen with the same ARC.  So I’m giveaway a copy of the book on our Instagram and Twitter.  It ends tomorrow and you can find it here on Instagram and here on Twitter.

OH MY GOSH!  The San Fran Golden Gate Author Event was SO much fun!  I got to meet Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux Series, The Covenant Series, Wait for You Series & more), Karina Halle (The Artists Trilogy, Experiment in Terror Series and most recently Racing the Sun), Jay Crownover (The Marked Men Novels & The Point Novels) and so many more authors!  I met up with an old friend, who now lives in the city, so that way we could fangirl together.  We grew up down the street from one another, but had drifted apart over the years.  Thank goodness for Goodreads, because it brought us back together again and we realized that we were BFF in regards to our book list!  Same favorite authors?  Check!  Same favorite books?  Check!

Upon arriving at the hotel, I have to admit there was a moment when I didn’t know what to say or think.  I went into complete sputtering fangirl mode!  While we were waiting in line to get into the event, Jennifer L. Armentrout and Drew Leighty walked through the lobby.  A simple enough act, but I was too excited to do anything lol.  Thank goodness I got my act together by the time we got to meet her!  We stood in line for almost an hour and a half and it was SO worth it! (That’s me in the white shirt and camel colored purse 🙂 )

*picture from DebbieReadandBlogs*

Jennifer L. Armentrout was so friendly!  She was easy to talk to and made me feel comfortable right away!  And the best part?  She spent a while talking to us.  She didn’t just sign books, take pictures and then we left.  Nope, we actually got to spend time visiting with Jennifer and Drew.  She filled us in about the Hatfields and McCoys in West Virginia, answered some of our questions about Apollycon, and then we even chatted about the show Moonshiners.    And we were stoked to find out that Drew complete agreed with us in regards to Kayne’s music-since he was performing in SF that night.  His new music just can’t compare to his old tracks!  So random, but those conversations were so much fun!

We also got to meet Karina Halle and she scared the living daylights out of me lol.  I told her that a scene in The Artists Trilogy had freaked me out so much that I woke up my husband who was sleeping – whoopsy.  When she found out where I was in the third book, Bold Tricks, Karina gave me the doom and gloom warning that I hadn’t seen anything yet.  That there was a scene coming up that was going to make me squirm and probably freak out even worse.  ACK!  Karina Halle was super friendly and we even chatted a little bit about painting our nails.

And then we met Jay Crownover.  Can I say that she is a badass?  Because she is!  She told us stories about her previous work experience in the bars and how it helped mold the characters and situations that she writes about.  She got to watch the guys in front and behind the bar hit on girls plus all of the drama that unfolded.  She saw so much.  She loved Astin and my story about reuniting over books!  It was her favorite story of the day!!

There were so many other authors that we spoke to whose books we haven’t read yet.  Sawyer Bennett, Mary Ting, Lauren Stewart and Dani Hart are definitely on my to-read list after we had fun chatting with them!

Sawyer Bennett told us about the amazing experience she had while shooting the covers of the books in her house.  How she had a mostly naked female cupping her breasts bending over with a guy unbuttoning his pants and lowering himself behind her lol.  Add in that some of the men were walking around her house shirtless…..well I was fanning myself while listening to her stories.

Mary Ting was HILARIOUS!  She was easy to talk to and I loved that she was sipping wine during the event!  And Lauren Stewart and Dani Hart were so sweet and friendly!  It was such a great group of authors to visit with!

Overall, I ended up with lots of swag, an ARC of JLA’s next NA book Forever with You (SCREAMS WHILE JUMPING UP AND DOWN!!!!!) and all my books happily signed.  I can’t wait to go to my next signing!

This last Sunday I had the opportunity to meet some of the most influential and well-known authors of our time-The 3 NY times best selling authors traveled to Indiana to answer some of their biggest fans’ questions and to sign their beloved novels we so cherish and love. I, for one, was ecstatic for the opportunity to talk (errrr stutter) to these amazing women who have shaped many young women’s (and some men’s) lives. Colleen Hoover (Ugly Love, most recently), Jamie McGuire (best known for Beautiful Disaster, newest release is Beautiful Oblivion), and Abbi Glines (One More Chance, Fallen too Far) all came to the little state of Indiana and I knew that I wouldn’t miss it for the world. They were kind, sweet, charming, and altogether hilarious, and I am so pleased to have met them. Below I am going to post some pictures of my time there, and if I can figure out how to post videos, I will post their full Q & A session when I can get some help from my fellow blogging friends….hope you enjoy the pictures!!

-Chelsea

Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover, Abbi Glines, Me

I swear we all freaked out as if there were rock stars on this bus-but in a way, they are 🙂

Standing next to my favorite book, like, this whole year 😛 

Just a funny picture-They gave Jamie the small chair, lol, and Abbi was scared of her tall one-Lose/Lose, if you ask me

Okay, I won’t bombard you with more-if I figure out the Q & A vids, I will post them as soon as I can!! 🙂