October the 22nd: So today I drove an hour and a half to have someone make marks in ink in a book

[wanderingdreamr]

Sounds like something I would do doesn't it? Well I've finally done it anyway, finally seen an author I've actually read in person (not that the list of authors I had seen for school and had read/not read was much longer, think that list may actually be only at two...) and it went about how I expected. Well, none of us expected the crazy traffic to get there (apparently the bookstore's exit was the same one for the state fair, yes and this is technically within the state's capital's limits, it's the South) so I had to sneak into the bookstore almost half an hour late and wouldn't have found a seat if a nice employee told me where a few empty seats are (I guess when you come into a steampunk book signing wearing a modern Victorian jacket, plaid skirt, and cloche hat it's easy to guess you're not someone who just wandered in). The author in question was Scott Westerfeld promoting his new book Behemoth (I'd accidentally gotten sucked into rereading the previous book, Leviathan in the past few days, now how am I supposed to finish Inkdeath by the time it's due Sunday?!?) so it was just him talking up there (his wife, Justine Larbalestier was supposed to be there as well but apparently she had gotten sick). Interesting to hear him talk although, hearing him talk reminded me of how I think so I guess I think more like an author or artist than a commercial photographer? Well that's just odd, and after he was done talking (still wish I had been there for all of it) and the questions (didn't have any to ask, well, if I could figure out a way to ask why the hydrogen in this universe smelled of bitter almonds which is actually what cyanide smells like I would've) it was signing and then time to go. Little annoyed that the bookstore didn't use the ticketing system they said they were going to (otherwise I could've saved myself the $20 I spent on Behemoth, believe me I would've bought it soon anyway but since I know the libraries will get it soon anyway plus the fact I couldn't use a discount made me squirm as I was picking it up). Just got his signature in the books (Leviathan and Uglies and I am totally secure enough in my femininity to say I read Uglies only for the hoverboards/dsytopian future, who needs a silly romance when you have that?), didn't really say much either since, well, didn't have much to say. When it all comes down to it I'm just hearing a person whose works I've read talk and then getting physical proof that it happened, not something I get a lot out of anyway. Oh well, at least I can gloat to friends now, and maybe if it was one of my idols (like Diana Wynne Jones or Tamora Pierce*) I would still be freaking out over it but it's just an interesting diversion at this point.

And that was really everything that happened today and I really need to get sleep now for everything that's happening tomorrow, errrrr, today, craaapppp not again...

*Who I almost did see when she came to SC but the original weekend was this huge ice storm (and I couldn't make it anyway) and the time they rescheduled it for was during Animazement and, by being a three day party that takes a years worth of planning and friends I don't see in the intervening time, that kinda trumps it.