For the second year in a row, the Tucson Festival of Books more than lived up to my expectations! On Saturday Eleanor and I spent the morning doing fun toddler-friendly stuff. (You can read more about that part of the day on my other blog).
After lunch, my sister-in-law and I attended two seminars. First was a panel on the return of high fantasy that included Robin Hobb and Naomi Novik, two of my favorite fantasy authors! Robin Hobb (on the left) seems like one of the nicest people I've ever met. Granted I only actually talked to her for about 32 seconds while she was signing a book for me, but she handled an awkward audience question very tactfully. And then Naomi Novik made the interesting suggestion that her books might shift into alternate history, which I thought was fun!
Vanessa went ahead to the next panel to save me a seat while I got books signed by Robin and Naomi. The lines weren't too bad actually, and they were both very friendly. I felt a little bad that I only took old beat-up paperbacks for signing, I should've bought nice hardbacks!
(Click to read the rest!)
The next panel included Lauren Willig, and mother-son writing team Caroline and Charles Todd, who write under his name. Lauren Willig was fun, almost exactly like I thought she would be, and listening to Charles and Caroline describe their joint writing process was fascinating. They were all gracious at the book-signing, and Lauren slipped me a tip about who Miss Gwen's love interest will be in the next book!
It was pretty much a perfect day: beautiful weather, lots of great panels, entertaining events, and fun new books purchased. There were thousands of people there, all to celebrate books!
After the Festival was over, I went out for dinner with fellow bloggers Jill of Rhapsody in Books and her husband Jim, Jill of Fizzy Thoughts, Alyce of At Home With Books, and author Liza Bakewell and her daughter. Did I think to take any pictures? No, of course not. I was too busy enjoying the good food and even better conversation! There was a brief this-feels-like-a-weird-blind-date moment, when I walked into the restaurant and had no idea who I was there to meet, but luckily Jill (the Rhapsody one) recognized me, and the awkwardness passed quickly as we all started talking about books!
To quote Mary Poppins, the day was "practically perfect in every way". I can't wait till next year!
Have you ever gone to a book festival?
Or met a favorite author or blogger in real life?
