Another Signing

It is no secret that I am a fan of Janette Rallison and her LDS romance pen name Sierra St. James. There is only one I have not read and am only missing a few before my collection is complete.



Tuesday night was her book launch for Slayers, under the pen name for her fantasy books, C.J. Hill. I had bought Slayers the night before and was reading before I left for the event. That was a bad idea, it was really hard to put the book down so I could go. But I am glad I went, I got to find out my Slayer super power! And Janette was entertaining and charming as ever!

Books & More Books

Last night was Scott Westerfeld's signing at Changing Hands for the last book in his Leviathan series Goliath. I have really, really enjoyed this series and have loved the audiobooks and really recommend them. Alan Cumming just does a perfect Scottish accent (I am being cheeky he is Scottish) but does the other accents really well too. Deryn is Scottish and says such wonderful things like "barking spiders" and calls people "bum rags". You can get a little taste of the audiobook in this video of Scott & Alan talking about the last book.

I haven't ever made a list of favorite female characters in literature but if I did Deyrn Sharp would be on it. She dresses up as a boy so she can fly and goes to war. One of my favorite complements was when a friend told me in Lord of the Rings I would be Éowyn, because I would dress up like a boy and go to war.

Leviathan is an illustrated series like books from the time would have been. He showed examples one of them being Persuasion by Jane Austen (bonus points for Scott) just like my Pride & Prejudice.

He talked about how illustrators had a lot of power for example...




He asked who this was a photo of, everyone of course answered Sherlock Holmes. He explained never in the text will you find mention of Sherlock wearing a hunting cap and in fact he despised the country & would never and worn one but the illustrator lived in the country and changed the way we see Sherlock.




Scott explained how the camera put a lot of illustrators out of work. He wished he could go back in time and tell whoever drew the camera "Don't draw it dude it will eat your job."
It was a good time I got my book signed and I was able to pick up a couple other books as well.

I almost asked Scott to sign my Lola not that he has anything to do with it but Stephanie is on tour right now with Maurine Johnson and they had all been at some conference, I am just jealous of everyone who got to attend.

C.J. Hill is really Janette Rallison and her signing/launch party is tonight at Changing Hands as well. I really want to go but we will see if I can swing going to Tempe two nights in a row.
I have STACKS of books to read by my bed and I just keep requesting books from the Library WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I think I just like to have options who knows what I am going to want to read.

Looks Like A Beautiful Day

Saturday Mimi & I were talking about how cute Debbie was and I said "I don't know how I got so lucky to have Debbie as my sister." And many times after Mimi does something awesome for me I think "everyone needs a Mimi". Without Mimi & Debbie this stuff you are about to read would not have happened.

Saturday was also the Project Book Babe benefit event that Mimi, Debbie & I volunteered at. We started off the day by having lunch with our friend Tamir and then heading over to the event. Where I sold raffle tickets, Mimi signed people in and Debbie got to hang out with Shannon Hale, as her helper. Once Mimi & I got everyone signed in and the raffle tickets sold we went backstage with Debbie to help out with passing out the raffle items. When backstage Debbie had Shannon's camera and was snapping shots for her. One of my favorite moments was when all the authors were off stage in a huddle Debbie was getting photos and got down trying to get a shot and Shannon said "Debbie just lay down and get the shot" so Debbie laid down in the middle of all these authors and took pictures of them. Edit here is the picture off Shannon Hales blog.I was sad I didn't have my camera at that time to take the picture of Debbie. During the raffle Mimi & I got to be out on stage with all the authors helping with checking the winning tickets and stuff. Then they had the live auction which was just insane!!! They had us stand in front and make sure we did not miss any of the bidders.
Items Auctioned:
Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse prom dress: $5500

Advanced Readers Copy of Twilight: $1500

Epilogue to Forever Dawn: $ 5100

Eclipse Draft: $2600

The Host Draft: $1100

Lunch with Stephenie Meyer: $6500 each - The actually had a draw so two winners each paid this.

The Host Skateboard: $ 1500 - The Host Skateboard was designed by Hobo Skate Company whose co-founder is my friends husband, they are both awesome...I am super excited for them!!!

After the auction they had a special reception for those who bought the 300 dollar tickets. Where they got books from all the authors and then went around and got to get them personally signed. We helped out by writing people's names down so they didn't have to keep spelling out their names. Edit See Debbie and I tearing paper to write down names on. Brandon Mull & Shannon Hale...picture from Project Book Babe flickrOnce things started dying down I went out to my car and got my camera & my Shannon Hale books. While getting my books signed I got to talk to Shannon and man she is so super nice and funny. I also got to talk to another of my favorite authors Janette Rallison, I had already got her to sign my books at one of her signings. Man I know how to pick authors because seriously both Janette & Shannon are SO NICE and funny. Debbie decided that we needed to get a picture with Shannon, Janette and Stephenie. Thankfully it is much easier to have Shannon ask Stephenie to take a picture with us. We helped clean up and load some boxes before leaving. While walking out to the car I saw one of the bands that performed Adam Watts Band and realized I never got one of the signed CD's they were giving away so I had Debbie go ask if they had anymore. He did but he wanted to know if I wanted it signed. When they asked I paused because I didn't want to make them sign it but then realized if I said no would be rude and my pause was rude, so with much as enthusiasm as I could muster I say something like yeah that would be great. But since I don't have much practice at being fake you could totally hear how fake my enthusiasm was. But Adam just laughed and said you can't say no you will hurt my feelings. Well we were all laughing but I did get them to sign it and they were all again very nice and had us all (all being Mimi, Debbie, Tamir & I) laughing. So I got to meet musicians, authors, and help raise money for breast cancer, it was my kind of day!
All the authors from the panel, Shannon making everyone laugh as usual.

Mimi took this picture with out saying one two three or anything...Is it just me or is Stephenie looking at Debbie and smiling.. I love this picture even if I am sticking my booty out so Shannon could put her arm around me.

Here is the one with the one two three and a little less booty.



Here are my books Shannon signed can you read what she wrote? I LOVE THEM!!!
For Austenland she wrote Mr. Darcy thinks you are Hot!!! (how did she know)

Oh and we came home and found out that Debbie had been on the news...Check it out here...In the video Debbie is sitting next to the book babe, in the front row taking pictures for Shannon.

And if you did not see Shannon Hales blog you need to go here and see. The first picture of Debbie and I am Debbie's cute sister Connie. - seriously so nice.

Connie's 2008 Book Awards

These are books I read in 2008 not that necessarily came out in 2008.

The book that made me want a sequel the most:

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

I may have actually started hitting the book repeatedly on my bed as I realized it was the end of book one. I would recommend this book to anyone.

The book(s) with the best male characters who love music:

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin

Will made the best mix CD's!!!

And

Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen

"Music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment." Owen - Just Listen





Can I just say that I have read three of Sarah's books...she writes the best guys, I love Wes, Owen & Dexter.

The book that created a new fear for me:

Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman

**Spoiler Alert** In the book one of the character starts getting attacked by birds hundreds of birds no matter where he goes. Well while I was reading about the birds attacking I am sitting in my aunts house in Utah in front of their window. When I notice a couple birds on the telephone wire I look up again in a minuet and there are like 10 more birds and they just kept coming and coming. It freaked me out a little bit. Then on the way home from Utah we stopped in Flagstaff to pick up some of Debbie & Russ' stuff. It had been raining all day it was wet outside and still drizzling a bit while I was moving stuff to the truck this crow or some loud bird kept cawing loudly. Birds are not out when it is raining. Yep freaked me out a little bit more. Then while Debbie and I are driving the truck home (the truck which window does not roll up the whole way) a bird flies like it trying to fly through the little crack in the window. Seriously no joke it flew right at me. And all this happened with in two days. So yes I now have a sort of fear of birds.

The book with the ending I waited the longest for:

Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

I just have to say that I LOVE Jacob's book, even the titles for the chapters had me laughing. There was a lot more humor in Breaking Dawn, I mean Bella even quoted The Simpson's, it was great. The banter between Rosalie & Jacob had me laughing out loud. And when Jacob kicked her in the stomach in his human form...it was awesome. I love Jacob. I can't not mention Emmett's "Go Gators! About time someone scored around here." I laughed so long over that, maybe it was the lack of sleep or maybe the drugs.

The book with the cutest endings:

How To Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend, by Janette Rallison

Janette Rallison wrote a book I loved when I was 15. This past year I discovered she had a lot more books out and I have almost read all of them. But this book has been my favorite so far. Her books are clean, fun reads, seriously you will laugh out loud. I brought one of her other books "It's A Mall World After All" on a trip to Utah, it had everyone in the car laughing out loud.

And

The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen

Cutest might not be the best word but it is really really good.

The books that caused me the most emotional distress:

The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones, City of Ashes, & City of Glass) by, Cassandra Clare

This is going to sound bad, but when I first read City of Bones I actually had to put the book down and could not pick it up for almost a month. You find out some distressing news in the book and every time I thought about picking the book back up it made me feel sick. But thankfully I finished and read City of Ashes. City of Ashes is so good, completely sold me on the series and gave me yet another fictional crush (oh Jace). I am also just going to add City of Glass in the mix even if I read it in 2009 and technically does not come out till March. I love all the books and they all caused me emotional distress. If you are wondering how I already read City of Glass I mentioned it already in a blog. But we made a video and took second in a contest and won an Advanced Readers Copy.