I will never be able to stop singing the praises of Allison Tran, The Mission Viejo Library, and Alex and A Whale of a Tale Bookstore. I continue to have some of the most amazing times at this library, meeting some of the coolest authors. I’ve met Meg Cabot, Cassandra Clare (twice), Lauren Oliver and Eoin Colfer at this place.

And yesterday, I had a fantastic time at the Mission Viejo Library once again, for the Summer Lovin’ Tour.

The six authors I was honored to meet today were all super, super awesome.

First off, Morgan Matson. I have already met her twice in the last few weeks, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the Ontario Teen Book Fest. It was awesome meeting her again because she totally remembered me and stood up and gave me a big hug, and I fangirled super hard at that because I think authors are rock stars. And an author that I love and completely look up to remembering who I am was seriously amazing. I definitely got a kick out of it.

I really loved how they approached their presentation. You kind of get the same things over and over, the more you go to author events and you can see authors kind of becoming aware of that, and switching things up a little bit. These ladies totally did that and made me crack up. They played the game “Two Truths, One Lie“, where they told the audience three things about themselves. Two would be true, and one would be a lie and they would have people in the audience guess which ones were true and which one was false. It was really fun, and it got the authors talking and made everyone feel really relaxed about asking questions and all that.

We learned that Suzanne Young once was a first mate on a dinner cruise, Shannon Messenger sat in the wrong seat at an Academy Awards nominee presentation and Sarah Ockler wanted to become a famous author by completely rewriting the story of E.T. when she was six years old, amongst other cool stories :)

And it was really great to have all these authors together, giving writing advice and talking about books, and balancing their regular lives with their writing lives. It was inspiring and reassuring as well. Morgan Matson said her first book wasn’t published until she was 28. Kimberly Derting was nearly 42. Sarah Ockler was in her thirties and the other authors, while they wouldn’t give their exact age, said that it took some time. They were so encouraging in the way they spoke about not giving up on writing but they were also so realistic at the same time, telling us about the balance between life and writing, family and writing, friends and other jobs and school and writing. Sarah Ockler said that you have to really want it to make it happen, and Jessi Kirby, Suzanne Young, and Kimberly Derting all talked about managing husbands and kids and writing.

They also were all super fun, and funny as well. They have been touring together for about a week and they’ve built a sort of repertoire together and it came across a lot during their presentation. They made jokes about writing and deadlines and books with kissing and boys, and it was all so great. They also all had really terrible aim when it came to giving out candy to the people who dared guess in the Two Truths, One Lie game.

I definitely enjoyed talking to them after the presentation as well. Even though I was only able to purchase some of their books (I swear, I need a second job just for books!), they were giving out signed swag, like the postcard below, which is SUPER cool and is going to go up on my wall.

I like that it had all of their signatures on there, and quotes from each of their books. Really cool swag to give out. A few of them had postcards and bookmarks that were signed as well, which was REALLY cool. I’m having a HUGE giveaway from my blog’s first birthday this Thursday, so come back to check out how you can win some of the cool stuff they gave out :)

And they all signed my poster as well, my writing advice poster. Do you guys remember that? Maybe not, well, last week when I went to the Ontario Teen Book Fest, where there were 13 cool YA authors, I came up with the idea to make a poster for writers to sign. I wrote “You are a writer!” in the middle (because I do sometimes forget, and fail to believe it) and I’ve had all the authors I’ve met in the last couple weeks sign it with words of encouragement or advice. I thought I would have some trouble with it, but all the authors I’ve met have been SO into it, and have loved the idea, and the six authors at this event were just the same!

You can see all the cool things writers have written on my poster in the writing advice section.

I was also able to talk to them for a bit and they were all so encouraging and told me to keep writing and keep reading and to not give up. Kimberly said that the hardest part was knowing when to give up on a particular story but not to give up on actually writing. She said she worked on a story for over a decade and it just didn’t work but as soon as she gave up on it and moved on to something else, it fell into place.

I am always so incredibly grateful to meet these authors. One, and I’ve said it before, authors are rock stars to me and I am always super awed in their presence. Its like…when a little boy meets a firefighter for the first time, and he’s in so much awe because that’s his dream. Well, I’m 25 years old and my dream is-and has been since I was 13-to be a published author. So when I meet these men and women, I am just in awe of these talented people doing the job that I dream of doing one day. Two, as a writer, its awesome to be able to talk to these authors. They are always so encouraging and give really good advice, and they give me inspiration and belief and reassurance that I CAN do this.

And even though they’ve never read a word of what I’ve written ever, their encouraging words still mean the world to me. Because they tell me that they can’t wait to see what I do and that I AM a writer and that I can do it, and to never give up. And it really means a lot, especially coming from these authors that I admire so much. Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed with my school work, and my job, my friends and family, my boyfriend, this blog and writing my novel, I just think, I can’t do this.

But these women (and men) are doing it with husbands and families, kids, and even sometimes full time jobs (props to you, Jessi Kirby) and its just fantastic. Its very inspiring.

From left to right: Morgan Matson, Jessi Kirby, myself and Kimberly Derting

From left to right: Suzanne Young, myself, Sarah Ockler and Shannon Messenger.

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I am so happy that I was able to meet these wonderful authors this past weekend and to be able to talk to them, and it was really cool being able to see Morgan and have her remember me :) I hope one today to count myself among super awesome authors like this.

Thanks to all the authors for taking the time to talk to me, to sign my writing advice/encouragement poster, for giving me cool swag for the blog and for just being all around fantastic. 

And thanks to Allison and Alex again for putting on another unforgettable and fun event. Trust me, ladies, you won’t ever be able to get rid of me :)

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Don’t forget to check back later this week for some awesome things!

Blogger Spotlight later today on Megan from The Nerdy Girlie

The Tuesday Top Ten tomorrow!

An Interview with Jessica Brody is coming your way!

And of course, the Book of the Week and Fandom Friday as well! So many exciting things!

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