Casey’s Literary Rants

Casey Literary RantsIn which I rant about RT part 2

I know I promised this would be posted a couple of weeks ago but Life and Debbie, the one lazy hurricane that moved at only five miles an hour, kept me from fullfilling that promise. For that, I apologize. To make it up to you, you can now laugh at all my crazy antics back at RT. Trust me, I went wild. *grin*

Friday

Friday morning dawned bright and early and the very first thing I did was interview Kelley Armstrong. Okay, so it wasn’t technically the VERY first thing; I did brush my teeth and change out of my pjs and everything else on my list of Things I Have To Do To Get Ready To Meet Kelley Armstrong. It’s not an extensive list, but it’s full of very important things. Like reminding myself how to breathe. And reminding myself it is Not Professional to fangirl scream during an interview.

So, we went down to the Press Room and I pretended to be calm, cool and collected. We did the interview without me spazzing out or turning into a puddle of fangirl goop. The door had barely closed behind Kelley after the interview before I flung myself across the room at Jackie and let loose the fangirl scream I had been holding in since we walked through the door. I just interviewed Kelley bleeping Armstrong. And I didn’t sound like a complete idiot. GO ME! Jackie, lovely woman that she is, caught me, laughed at me and then started preparing for her interviews.

First, she interviewed Gordon and Ilona Andrews. Even though we’d already met, I still had to refrain myself from fangirl screaming. We learned some very awesome things during the interview, none of which I’m going to share. Because I’m evil like that. *grin* Right after the interview, I asked Gordon a question about a typo I found in Magic Burns – in the middle of the word responsibility (about halfway through the book) is the pi symbol. I was curious if it was put there on purpose or if it was just a really awesome typo. He said it was just a really awesome typo that he’d never seen before.

Jackie’s second interview was with Jeaniene Frost. But before we could start the interview someone else needed the room for a couple of minutes, so we all stepped outside and somehow Jeaniene ended up standing next to me. I immediately started making oh-my-god-LOOK-Jeaniene-freaking-Frost-is-standing-next-to-ME-ME-ME-she’s-standing-next-to-me-do-you-SEE-this?!?! hand gestures to Jackie. Not only did she laugh at me, she said she was going to tattle on me. Which she did, as soon as we walked back into the room. Jeaniene did exactly what Jackie had been doing all week and laughed at me. But that’s okay, because 1) she’s Jeaniene Frost, she can do whatever the hell she wants and 2) better laughter than a restraining order.

After the interview I was even more jealous of Jackie and her ARC of Once Burned. I mean, if there was ever a time to be jealous it was right after listening to Jeaniene talk about how she wrote it. Despite that, in the middle of the crowded hallway, in front of everyone, I fell to my knees, clasped my hands together and BEGGED Jackie to marry me. ‘Cause everyone knows that if you’re married then you have to share all your possessions. Even signed ARCs. *grin*

Jackie didn’t seem to agree with me, though, and only laughed at my proposal. And about a month later, she loaned me her signed ARC of Once Burned. See? She really does love me! Even if she won’t marry me.

Nothing to terribly exciting happened after that. We stalked authors, chatted with friends, tried to find cheap food to eat in the hotel that obviously believed that everyone has gargantuan amounts of money to spend.

At the Avon party that night, I was standing in line to see Robin Hobb when I overheard the woman behind me telling her friend that she HAD TO read Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series. I spun around so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. Before they could begin to glare at me for interrupting their conversation, I fangirl screamed, “I LOVE LOVE LOVE GIN!” The woman and I started fangirl screaming about our mutual love of all things Gin, Owen and Jennifer Estep while jumping up and down. She mentioned how she couldn’t wait until Widow’s Web came out and I just nodded, figuring it would be best not to tell her how I always get ARCs of Jennifer’s books months before they ever come out. She may have killed me, much the way I wanted to kill Jackie to get her copy of Once Burned.

Perhaps a minute after we stopped screaming, a man carrying a camera not unlike one used by news crews, and a plump older woman appeared next to us. Instead of being with the news, though, they were from Avon and filming the party for a promotional video. “We saw you fangirl screaming from across the room,” the woman said, after introductions were made. “We were wondering if we could film you for Avon?”

Since I am not used to men with cameras magically appearing out of nowhere and wanting to film me fangirl screaming, I was shocked into silence. Luckily, the woman I had fangirled with, wasn’t shocked into silence. “Uh, we weren’t fangirling over an Avon author,” she mumbled. I nodded in agreement.

“That’s fine,” the woman said. So, after we met Robin Hobb, they took us off to the side and filmed us fangirling.

It…it was horrible. I’m not used to being told to fangirl on demand! If they had brought some poor, unsuspecting author in front of me, then I totally would have gone Fangirl Crazy. But all they did was ask us questions like, “Who is your favorite Avon author?” and “What’s your favorite Avon book?” At first my answers were vague, with “Uh, I like them all.” and “Um, most of them.” But then I looked down at my hands and realized I was holding Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost, so I held that up and fangirled over it.

Jackie found the video a few weeks ago but I haven’t been able to watch it because of technical difficulties. But you can watch it with me and all of my awkward fangirling. Unless they went all papaprazzi and filmed the two of us fangirl screaming over Jennifer Estep. If they wanted epic fangirl screaming, they should have followed me throughout RT, but ninja style. Hiding in the background while I ran around and screamed all week.

Nothing too exciting happened after that. I mean, Jackie and I did stalk authors throughout the hotel and in the bar, then we stood around and talked with them like normal people (yes, I can be normal…-ish).

Saturday

On Saturday, I decided to wear my nerd shirt: it has Darth Vadar’s face (well, his helmet) and above that it says, “Who’s your Daddy?” Totally awesome, right? Yeah. Shiloh Walker was the first person who said she loved it (’cause, you know, we were roommates :D).

Jackie, Nicola and I waited in line for two hours for the giant book signing, which started at 11am. If you think that’s bad, there were people in line in front of us who had been there since 5:30am. I love meeting authors, duh, but even I draw the limit at getting up before the sun. When we finally got inside, the first author I met was Rachel Caine and got her to sign my copy of Black Dawn. (She told me that she didn’t even have copies of Black Dawn yet, so we got to squee over how pretty it was.) Then I saw Kelley Armstrong again and then I met J. R. Ward.

Yeah, I met the Warden. I talked to her too. My knees were shaking, my palms were sweaty and I was on the verge of hyperventilating but I talked to J. R. freaking Ward! She even told me she liked my shirt. I may have fainted momentarily when she said that.

Of course, after meeting J. R. Ward, I had to meet Anne Rice. Which I did. I wanted to talk to her about her interview on the Colbert Report (which happened about a week before RT) but when I got to the front of the line, I was in too much awe to say much of anything at all. I mean, she’s Anne mothereffing Rice. More than a legend. And I touched her shoulder. I think that means some of her awesomeness rubbed off on me.

Wandering up and down the aisles when I spotted Hannah Jayne. I was about to fangirl over her when I noticed she had a copy of The Last Echo by (the one and only) Kimberly Derting. We fangirled over her together and then decided that we should stalk Kim together because two people stalking together makes it more interesting.

Of course, after that, I hunted down Kimberly Derting. Remember when I fangirl screamed all over her on Wednesday? Well, I asked then if I could get one of the few bottles of The Last Echo nail polish (by saying the super secret saying that she had posted on her blog previously). She didn’t have any then but she stuck one bottle in her purse to make sure that I got it in case she ran out.

I love that woman. I really, truly, absolutely do. I’ve run out of adjectives to describe my love for her. But that’s not all, not only did she give me the nail polish, she gave me one for my younger sister. Okay, that’s mostly because I bought her last copy of The Last Echo and had her sign it for my younger sister who is slightly more obsessed with her than I am. (I know it’s hard to believe, but it is true.)

I was wandering around the grand signing when I saw Sara Humphreys. Obviously, I had to go over and fangirl scream at her. The words, “Oh my god I’m a HUGE fan!” were barely out of my mouth before she jumped out of her seat and hugged me!!!! Then she whipped out her camera, shoved it at someone waiting in line for another author and got her to take our picture before instantly posting said picture on Facebook and friend requesting me at the same time.

I was stunned. Flabbergasted. Shocked. Stupified. The entire time at RT, I had fangirled over authors and Sara Humphreys was the first to basically fangirl me back. Don’t get me wrong, each and every single author I fangirled was extremely nice and I would love to meet all of them all over again. But Sara’s reaction to me was priceless. I now REALLY FREAKING LOVE THIS WOMAN! (Yeah, that’s right Jackie. You now have competition. What are you going to do about it?)

I promised Jenna Black that I would be her personal slave if she wanted just so she would have time to write more about Adam and Dom. Okay, so I also want more Morgan too, but I need Adam and Dom. NEED them! (Jenna, if you’re reading this, my offer still stands. I would do ANYTHING for Adam and Dom. Well, I probably wouldn’t eat bugs, a la Fear Factor style, but I will clean your house.)

I met Stacey Kade and seriously fangirled over Alona and Will. Some girl walked up right behind me and said she’d never read the books but liked the covers. I told her she HAD to read the books.

I saw Jennifer Lynn Barnes again and she let me touch her only copy of Taken By Storm. I seriously tried to give myself a super power where I could absorb all the contents of a book just by touching it. Unfortunately, I failed.  But the cover felt amazing and I know when I eventually get around to reading it, it’s going to be just as amazing as the rest of the series.

Do you guys remember my whoops-I-got-in-the-wrong-elevator moment with Larissa Ione Wednesday morning? Well, I hadn’t seen her since then, so I tracked her down to finally get my book signed. And she remembered me!

At the end of the giant book signing, I met this absolutely wonderful totally unknown author named Charlaine Harris. I mean, she must have been unknown because no one was in line to meet her. *grin* But just like every other author, she was super sweet.

Saturday afternoon, Jackie, Nicola, Shiloh and I were all eating real Chicago style pizza (the best pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life, in case you were wondering) when Kimberly Derting walked by. She saw me, smiled and waved! It wasn’t one of those obligated smile/waves people do to be polite when they see someone they recognize. That moment proved beyond anything else that happened that my life was finally complete. I mean, I’d only met her three days before and now here she was, smiling and waving at me.

Plus, now this makes stalking her so much easier. I don’t have to become a ninja and hide in the shadows. Now I can walk around normally, and she’ll just smile and wave at me and I’ll fangirl squee with happiness.

***

That concludes my ranting about RT. It’s taken me a while to get it all written but it was worth it, right? Did you guys laugh until you peed? I did. Laughing at yourself will cure you of any self-doubt.

I have even more exciting news: it’s going to happen again in August at Authors After Dark! SQUEEE!!

P.S. Jess Haines, I haven’t forgotten. You gave me permission to fangirl all over you at AAD which means I am going to scream and fling myself at you. You might want to start preparing yourself. ;)

About Casey 203 Articles
Casey is the founder of Heart Full of Ink, Director at Reading Until Dawn Con, and a full time cheese addict. She's been ranting and reviewing for Literary Escapism since 2010, and is part of the trio #3Bloggers1Series podcast. When she's not reading, looking for new books, or stalking authors online (waiting for more books), she can be found binge watching Netflix. But really, her life is all about DEM BOOKS!

4 Comments

  1. LMAO!!!!!!! Awesome post!!! I’m so jealous… I want *you* to marry me, so we can share all the awesome!

    And…. is that Sara?!?! OMG… you’re so awesome, it’s sickening :)

  2. @Sara – *runs around in circles screaming* I LOVE YOU!

    @Erin – Thank you! :D And hahahahaha! You don’t have to marry me to share all my awesomeness, I share it freely with everyone in all my rants. *grin*

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