"Did you ever know that you're my hero?"

One thing that surprised me right off the bat was how HILARIOUS these two ladies are together. Talk about comedic timing and improvising. I laughed loads listening to them.

At one point Shannon pulled out a l-o-n-g (I wish you could see how far it reached) line of laminated rejection letters. She mentioned this obscure magazine in a small town in Idaho who rejected her. Well, of course the small town was my town. Holly spoke up and said that two of the audience members (my mom and I) were from said town. Shannon asked us if we'd heard of the magazine, and we shook our heads, Nope!

They closed with a musical number. I was one of the backup dancers. Here I am, laughing really, really hard:

I didn't get in line right away, because I wanted to stay towards the end so I could talk longer. When I did eventually get in line though, I heard my mom talking to two ladies behind me. I turned and saw the book The Opposite of Invisible, which I haven't read but had heard about through the Class of 2k8. Something that I'd vaguely heard them say made me ask one of the ladies, "Do you know the author of that book?" "I am the author," she replied. So, that was way cool! Here then is Liz Gallagher and me:I had A Great and Terrible Beauty signed by Libba. I was able to talk to her for a good bit, which was a blast as she is completely funny, intelligent, and even shared some of her writing process with me.

Here we are. Libba is holding a box of Swedish Fish.

Then I moved on to Shannon Hale. I set my books down on the table in front of her, and told her who I was. She said, "SHUT. UP."
Oh my goodness. She knew who I was. I mean, yeah, I interviewed her last fall, but she's so famous I just didn't think. . . .
She turned to Libba and said, "Do you know who this is?!" Upon which Libba offered me the aforementioned box of Swedish Fish, in an attempt to "get on my good side."

Shannon gave me lots of hugs. She said lots of lovely, kind things to me. She is the most wonderful person I have ever met.

She even asked if she could get a picture with me. I said, "Yes please!"
We attempted several pictures before she said, "You know what, I'm gonna pick you up!" So she did.
Here I am with my hero:
I was in complete heaven. I had a blissful blast talking to her.

Afterward, as Shannon finished signing some books, I barged over to where Libba was sitting at a table eating sushi. I asked if I could sit and talk to her, and of course she said yes, sweet and foxy lady that she is. Jackie joined us, too. Again, Libba was such fun to talk to, especially when she brought up creating characters and how that's the great thing about acting (she has a theater background!) and writing. I even made her laugh at one point, which was cool since she's so funny. As soon as she was free, Shannon came and joined us:


The evening didn't go at all like I thought it would in my head. It went so much better than my wildest dreams! I didn't think it was possible, but Shannon is a million times more a hero to me now then she already was. And look--she posted a couple pics of us on her blog!