Book bloggers + Julia Hoban = AWESOME!

Okay, I admit I'm a wee bit nervous about this blog post, because Kristi (The Story Siren) knocked the summary of the event out of the water.

On Saturday, I went to an awesome author signing. Julia Hoban, author of Willow, was signing copies of her book at Barnes & Noble in Valparaiso, Indiana on Saturday.

I heard about it from Kristi and then it grew into a party of four. I ended up staying after work and sleeping over at Andrea's (The Book Blather) apartment and then she drove us to Valparaiso. We stayed up for a few hours chatting books (I mean DUH.. what else would we talk about?).

Then, I passed out on her couch and we headed out the following morning at 11 am to get there. It took us about an hour to get there, which was filled with more book chat.



We arrive at Barnes and Noble around 12 pm and we walk in. We, of course, check out where Julia is signing and promptly beeline for the teen section. Neither of us has a clue what Erica (The Book Cellar) looks like so we whisper "Is that her" when we pass some tall teen girl and then keep walking, not wanting to question the wrong person. And who do I see standing there? Kristi! Then Erica comes up (yep, that tall girl we almost talked to...) and we're a party of four awesome bloggers.

We chat Kristi and Erica up, and when we ask Kristi about lunch, she tells us she's meeting Julia for food at Panera! Kristi promptly calls her and says it's alright if all four of us go!

So, we walk over to Panera - which is right next to the bookstore and we all nervously await Julia's arrival - all that we know is she is wearing a hat and gloves. I was trying my best not to look as nervous as I felt, but I could tell Kristi and Erica were full of nervousness - Kristi outright said it. :)

But, lunch was AMAZING! Julia was so sweet and wonderful, I couldn't believe it. I mean not that I was expecting a horrible person, but she was just amazing, really.

Then, the signing just got better. Julia started off by talking about how book bloggers made her book so successful and promptly introduced all four of us to the rest of the 20 or so people there. We were all slack-jaw shocked! I mean, we really couldn't comment. In fact, all four of us barely could remember the questions we were going to ask during her talk/reading. Luckily, an older librarian dude asked tons of questions and was quite hilarious. Everyone was impressed with us as well after the signing and asked us more questions about blogging and books and asked for our websites!

I mean, none of us saw it coming - Julia really is amazing. I ended up buying 3 books - one for myself, my to-be sister-in-law, and to giveaway. (I started the book last night and am loving it!)

I even received an email this morning from her with another thank-you. Isn't she a sweetie? I'm author-struck and can only really compare this to Brad Pitt asking me out for coffee just to talk about books (which would NEVER happen.. ahaha). We did have some yummy coffee and cheesecake and talked with Julia even MORE after the signing.


It was one of the best experiences of my life. I really hope I bump into Julia again. Oh, and THEN all four of us bloggers went to dinner at Chilis and talked for about an hour or so more. I don't think I got home until 9:30 pm.

I just love days that are that fabulous.