A list of authors I have met, so I don't forget

-Diana Pavlac Glyer, author of The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. I met her at LionCon in 2008, where she presented about her book and its topic. She told us that CSL basically rewrote parts of "The Lay of Leithian" because he didn't like how JRRT had done it, contributing significantly to the version we know today.

-the Fug Girls, who signed my copy of Spoiled. I've read their blog for years and am a member of Fug Nation, so Heather signed my book with "Hola, lover." á la her JLo parody posts. I heard them on a YA panel and met them at their signing at the 2012 LA Times Festival of Books.

-Pam Muñoz Ryan, who signed my copy of Esperanza Rising and the copy of The Dreamer that I bought after her talk at the 2013 Annual Frances Clarke Sayers Lecture at UCLA. I told her how I loved ER growing up but I don't think she heard me. My sister came with me because it's also one of her favorite books growing up, and she brought her Spanish copy of ER for PMR to sign. She was like, huh, there's a Spanish version? which I thought was weird because it's a book about a Mexican girl? Of course there is? There are Spanish versions of pretty much all books?

-Peter Sís, who signed my copy of The Dreamer at at ALA Annual Conference 2014 and said he really liked PMR, that she was such a nice lady. I told him how I loved his illustrations in The Whipping Boy, one of my favorite books growing up, but he was in signing mode and didn't really pay attention.

-Marissa Moss, author of the Amelia's Notebook books, which I loved so much growing up. I told her that as I chatted with her a bit at her Creston Books booth at ALAAC 2014 (it is the publishing company she owns!). She is super nice. I entered to win an Amelia doll and I think an Amelia books set, but I didn't win :/

-Kate DiCamillo, author of usually animal-centric books that I love. I actually had no idea she was going to be at ALA Annual 2014, but lo and behold she was next to Peter Sís. If I had known I would have brought my copy of The Tale of Despereaux for her to sign, but as it was I think I bought a copy of The Magician's Elephant and she signed it. I don't see it in my LibraryThing so I'm going to have to do some searching.

-Margarita Engle, who wrote a couple of award-winning books, one of which I read for a children's literature class. I met her at ALAAC 2015 where she signed a copy of Enchanted Air, her poem-memoir about feeling divided between her two worlds of LA and Cuba, and I'm mad because I didn't realize who she was until I read the back of that book. The booth worker didn't tell me who she was and if I'd realized I would have been able to chat with her about her books (I read and loved this one) and being Cuban! Ughhh

-Gigi Pandian, who signed her book Quicksand for me at ALAAC 2015. I hadn't heard of her but her book looked interesting.

-This doesn't count as "meeting" per se, but once a few years ago I was at a Christian concert, volunteering with World Vision. We were to don orange vests and go with child sponsorship flyers to the front of the auditorium/stage while the heartrending video about sponsoring children through WV played, crouch down in front of the first row so we wouldn't block their view of the video, then hand out the flyers after the video and the WV representative's remarks. I went to the base of the stage with the other volunteers and knelt on the floor, avoiding looking up at the people we were in front of since this was awkward already. When the video ended I straightened up, and I found I had been kneeling at the feet of Rick Warren.

When it comes to meeting celebrities and especially authors, I am very much of the Troy Barnes school of thought, which is why I never want to meet Neil Gaiman, as I would hyperventilate and pass out and that would be embarrassing for everybody.

LA Times Festival of Books 2012

Just got back from it. I had a great time! I got a free mini mocha McFrappe (McDonald's answer to the Frappuccino or however you spell that), a chocolate brownie Clif bar and fruit gummy thing, a sample of avocado-pineapple smoothie (consistency is like applesauce but it tastes like calmer, less acidic pineapple),  a pretty little copy of the Quran, some bookmarks, a purple tote bag, a plastic visor with the USC Keck Medical Center logo, and an I READ button. I wrote what I'm reading on the big canvas poster the LA Times has where you can do that (that's where I got the button), and my nerdy heart was warmed when I saw others had written DFTBA and I BELIEVE IN SHERLOCK HOLMES! :') The only thing I'm sad about is that John Green was only there on Saturday, yesterday, so I wasn't able to see/hear/meet him. I bought a bigger button with the LATFOB logo (this year's has a dinosaur) and saw Julie Andrews (!) from a ways away and heard her read from her children's book. I also went to a panel at the YA stage and heard The Fug Girls and a couple other YA authors read from their books and talk about the writing process. Then I bought Spoiled and had it signed by the Fug Girls themselves! I was so psyched to meet them; I've been reading their blog for years and feel like I know them. They were very nice and just as bubbly as I'd imagined them. Now I have to head back to school, but I'm glad I got a chance to go!