Maggie Stiefvater Event in Fredericksburg, VA

Unfortunately, this isn't a picture post due to my not having the time to take pictures. Well, ok, I guess I had time, but... well, you'll see.

So after my failed trip up to Charlottesville to see Maggie on Dec. 5 (since Maggie canceled due to the snow), I worked out my finances and everything and decided I could go to her signing in Fredericksburg on Dec. 12. My roommate and her bf wanted to come along with me since they thought it would be a fun road trip and her bf had never been to a book signing before, so he was excited about it. Anyway, we left around 10:30 and got to Fredericksburg a little after 1. We stopped at Chipotle for lunch (I didn't eat as I do not like Chipotle and even if I did, I didn't have the money for it) then drove over to the Borders, which by the way, was EXTREMELY hard to get to from Chipotle despite being in the SAME SHOPPING CENTER.

I have to tell you that that shopping center was the most poorly constructed shopping center I have ever encountered. It seems like nothing interconnects whatsoever and there's a random LAKE in the center of it all. So it took us like 20 minutes to get from Chipotle to Borders even though they are probably 10 minutes walking distance from each other. But we made it to Borders and looked around for Maggie and we found her in the center of the store. Unfortunately, we had missed her talk and reading, though hardly anyone else came by the rest of her signing time so we just sat in the chairs and chatted with her.

She showed off her different covers and talked about why foreign publishers change the covers (roomie's bf asked about that), as well as talked about her UK tour (she sounded like a rock star when saying "When I was in the UK on my tour...") and how English schoolchildren really wanted her to draw wolves wearing ties for them and her love of Chipotle (which she deemed made her sound like a commercial). I also caught a glimpse of an ARC of Linger which she had given to someone else. It looked so pretty in person!!

Maggie spent a lot of time signing my book. Not because she wrote a long letter to me or anything, but rather because she drew a picture for me. I still need to upload it and have someone more technologically savvy help me make it my new header for this blog. It is seriously an amazing and funny drawing. I loved it.

At the end of the signing, my roomie mentioned that we were heading off to Toys R Us to look for Zhu Zhu Pets (which are apparently all the rage for young kids this holiday season) and this man overheard us and he said that they had just gotten a shipment in and were doling them out one customer at a time, so we (no joke) thanked the man and RAN out of the bookstore and sped over (as best as we could, what with the bad design of the place) to Toys R Us where we got three Zhu Zhu Pets for my roomie's niece. I was barely able to say bye to Maggie. I had planned on getting a quick photo with her before we left, but there ended up being no time what with the call of the Zhu Zhu Pets. But that's alright; I had a photo with her just two months ago at her Ballad launch, so it's all good.

Thanks for a wonderful signing experience, Maggie!! :) You rock!