I think I should’ve been posing on the other side of the table. Oops. Thanks to Penguin staff member Felicity for photographing – you’re a gem 🙂 Yes, kids, I am wearing hobo gloves, but these are from Germany, which makes me Euro hobo-chic 😉 Even covered in lint balls and cat fur. Please excuse my lack of make-up, and lack of product in my hair – my ‘do looks much better today.
Monday 14th September 2009: Knox Civic Centre hosted Richelle Mead’s first official Australian readers event, and I proved why I am not fit for public consumption 😉 I offered my copy of Eternal Lover up for signing – the same book that I’d won in a contest and was already personalised by the lovely Jackie Kessler. (Richelle contributed to that anthology, so she didn’t just sign another author’s book. That would be weird. Even by my standards 😉 )
I’m not good at small talk (I’m good at rambling blog posts, but that’s the power of gobshite passed down to me via Irish ancestors), and I think I mentioned that Jackie is awesome. And that I’m looking forward to reading Hunger (to be published under the name Jackie Morse Kessler). And the thank-you note I left was written on a Jackie Kessler sticky-note. Written with a Jackie Kessler pen.
So I probably came across as a mega-weird Jackie Kessler fangirl. Let’s clear things up: Jackie is indeed awesome. Awesome enough to allow internationals like me to enter her contests to win books and post them out here. Along with the finest author swag I’ve come across. Seriously, this The Road to Hell pen is fabulous. And the sticky-notes came in handy at ARRC09, because I thought it would be decent etiquette to pass out thank-you notes to some authors for attending. Thus why I also gave Richelle a thank-you note.
And I’ve only read one of Jackie’s novels, plus a novella that was in an anthology (A Red Hot Valentine’s Day – I haven’t read Eternal Lover yet). While they are good reads, and Jackie is a darl, I wouldn’t say I’m a fangirl. It’s not nice to weird-out internationals 😉
For the record, of Richelle’s books I’ve read Succubus Blues and Vampire Academy, with the others waiting on my shelf to be read. Why I didn’t bring them to be signed? Authors can’t be expected to remember all their readers, so I figured no one else had a copy of Eternal Lover already signed by one of the contributors.
lolcatz photographed Richelle and I whilst Felicity did, so that photo may emerge on the Internets. I don’t think he photographed every reader. Anyway, as I was packing up to go I asked him if this was his first visit to Australia. It was. I said “have a good one”, whilst giving a thumbs-up. Don’t ask me why. I’m not one to draw attention to my fingers. And I’m not usually one to talk to strangers, either.
Thanks to Richelle, Felicity and lolcatz for being polite creatures, and tolerating dear Tezzy.
As far as I know, the next author event I plan to attend is WorldCon 2010, which will take place in Melbourne. Have heard that Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant and Laura Anne Gilman will be attending, and my copy of Staying Dead needs signing and personalising… 😉
P.S. Woke up this morning to hear Richelle on Nova 100, chatting with Hughesy, Kate & Ed. The whole interview is available in audio, if you look below the “From the Show” heading. And there’s a 1-minute video excerpt. The caption refers to female vampires “flowering” every 28 days, but I really think Kate’s question referred to vampires ingesting menstrual blood, as well as regular blood from people’s necks. I don’t think vampires themselves actually menstruate. But maybe I misunderstood. Australians generally aren’t good at subtlety (we’re straight-talking, like Family Guy‘s Ollie the weatherman), so when we try it, things get weird…even weirder than our straight-talking 😉 Bless Kate and her chutzpah for asking! 🙂
Tez Says 