Me In-between Two Extraordinary Writers.

Maureen, Me, Stephanie

So. For some weird—the gods must be against us—reason, we never have YA book signings in the Bay Area. Why is that? We have a population of about nine million. Surely there are enough kids around that might be interested in meeting an author? Or reading a book? But no, I endure email after email, post after post, picture after picture of my crit partners and their numerous, copious amounts of book signings in Utah.

Therefore, I was pleased. Very pleased to rub in that we were finally going to have a book signing in the Bay Area. And YA. And, not just any YA authors, but STEPHANIE PERKINS and MAUREEN JOHNSON.

So. I braved the early rains and drove to a little indie bookstore in the hills of Oakland. Seriously, this bookstore was the size of a postage stamp. And adorable. We got front row seats, because there was, literally, only one row of seats.

Stephanie and Maureen were hilarious, smart, informative and hilarious. Did I mention they were funny? Maureen had a prepared rant about Ghost Hunters that was spot on. I loved hearing about their inspirations, their research, their struggles and their support in the writing community. I was happy to see many youth there as well (Not just weird middle-aged women).

I hope this is the beginning of a trend and we’ll see more YA authors out here doing signings. Cause I’ll go to all of them. Every. Single. One. Thanks to their publishers or book sellers or whomever made it possible to get them here.

Maureen and Stephanie being smart.

When’s the last time you went to a book signing?

Now I'm off to read this and this. Oh yeah, and write. Of course.