In March, I went to Austin for a second year to attend Austin Book Fest and had some fun adventures that I need to share with you! You might recall that last year this is where I met Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher for the first time, forgot how to speak English, and met some of the bestest group of friends ever. I got to meet up with my book friends again and meet some more amazing authors, as well as spend time with Colleen which is like a dream come true. Have you ever been to a book signing? Well, I am here to tell you that it can be the craziest thing you will ever experience. There were 1200 bookworms at this signing and at times it felt like it. Yes, that is right….you saw that number correct. 1200. Book signings can be so much fun. First off, you meet other people who like the same authors that you do and this creates instant friends, no matter where you all live. Plus, if you are an author, like me, you get to meet other authors, talk with them and get some fantastic connections in this weird world of publishing. It was quite the adventure, let me tell you. And I had the best group of friends around to traverse it with as you will find out.
Now, at ABF this year, I had the pleasure of sharing a room with four other book nerds: my Seester, BFFE, Calliebear (who went with us last year) and my #soulmate. This is a new person I need to introduce you guys too, actually. She is one of my book friends who I swear we were meant to be friends. We have so much in common it is scary, hence the name #soulmate. Four of us met up at Dallas airport and then picked up Seester to drive up to Sulpher Springs to the Bookworm Box that night to hang out with Colleen Hoover. How has this become my life? This is something I frequently thought throughout the weekend as lots of things happened to me that I have no idea how they actually occurred. I was going to get to see the Bookworm Box in person which was something I was looking forward to so much. I even got to see my books on the shelves in the store, which was amazing. Completely beyond words. The first night involved squees of joy, hugs, laughter, pizza, dancing around the store, interrupting Colleen’s live broadcast and cramming 5 girls into a tiny hotel room. I might have almost killed my #soulmate as I tried to go to the bathroom and almost fell on top of her on the roll away bed. But luckily, we all survived. There was hotel hallway shenanigans and we might have been those loud obnoxious people in a hotel room at 11pm and for that we apologize but really we could not control our laughter as BFFE and I looked so gorgeous for bed complete with Breathe Right strips and my hair rolled up in socks to curl.
Friday, the five of us traveled to Austin. Let me say that was a fun road trip filled with singing, eating everything we could find, laughter and reading. It got a little weird when #soulmate turned to ask me what I was reading. I looked at her and said “A sex scene from your book.” #awkward. We laughed a good deal over it though. We checked into our bigger room in Austin that also included a roll away bed but one I would not kill #soulmate in when I went to the bathroom. We met up with all the rest of our book friends and so much laughter and fun occurred. We even threw a surprise baby shower for one of them that night. This group of girls are some of the best people I have ever met. I even ended up in author Mia Sheridan’s suite drinking wine with her and her husband and wondering again how this was my life. There was a lot of shenanigans I can assure you.
Saturday came the signing and believe it or not, book nerds started lining up at 5:30 am for a signing that started at noon. And we thought our group getting down there at 7 am was early!! Knowing there were 1200 people in line made us all get up early and be obnoxious together for hours. Seester and I even took the opportunity to walk through the line and handed out our bookmarks to people. Hey! Free advertising!! Finally, we got to go inside and the chaos of a book signing ensued. We had studied the floor plan earlier so we could make a game plan but that soon all went to shit as the room became over crowded and Seester and I couldn’t people much longer. A group of our book friends and us decided to take a break and ate lunch for an hour because it was insane and then headed back in once the crowd had thinned. The authors even offered to stay longer than the signing lasted which says something about them. I can’t even imagine how bad their hands had to hurt and their smiles must have felt plastered on as they had to take picture after picture and sign a million books. I met some amazing authors and met some more book friends this year. And my group….well….let’s just say I found my pack of weirdos. BS girls…we are totally a gang.
If you ever get a chance to go to a book signing, then do it. Even if you only know one author…do it. You will discover new authors for you to read, make new friends and hopefully find your clan of weirdos like I have. It will be an experience you will never forget. You might even get to hang out with one of your idols like I did with Colleen Hoover. Now excuse me while I go add more pictures to my secret shrine of her in my closet.
Oh yeah. I didn’t die today. I did get to experience a book signing with the best group of friends I have ever met on the internet and discovered that I want to be a better writer but I didn’t die. I am Fat Girl missing Austin Book Fest and my BS girls Running. The experiment continues….