Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Incarnate Launch Party Recap

You guys, I had the most awesome Saturday last weekend. It did start off with having to get up early which was not fun but after that, it was great. My roommate, her boyfriend, and a friend of ours came with me on the trip. We stopped at a winery my roommate loved which was only 2 miles out of the way. It was called the Hill Top Berry Farm and we did a wine tasting (my roommate's bf didn't though). I've only had a few sips of alcohol over the course of my life and not really enjoyed it, but with these wines, they're more fruity and they also have a lot of meads (made with honey) so I decided to give it a shot. It was not as bad as I thought, but I could definitely taste the alcohol and that wasn't enjoyable. We got to sample 10 different wines for just $3 and they provided a ginger snap with one of them. We were only there for about a half hour but it was fun. The people working there were really nice; the lady who orchestrated the tasting was the owner's daughter. It was just a nice, local, family-owned winery.
Anyway, you're not here for that, so let's move on. We got to Harrisonburg about an hour or so before the signing and had lunch, then went to the store. We actually showed up a few minutes late- Jodi had already done her reading and had been answering a few questions. There were a lot of people there, which was exciting, but there were also some young children there, which was a bit perplexing. My roommate asked if this was a children's book and I said no, it's 12+. But whatever, they were there and full of questions. Also full of questions was Jodi's agent Lauren MacLeod who is amazingly adorable.

Once the questions were done, the big signing started! I got into line while my friends munched on cookies and cupcakes off in the corner. While in line, I chatted with Joli from Actin' Up With Books and Angela from Reading Angel. It's always fun to meet bloggers at events, though I am very shy so it's hard to get me out of my shell. I got up to the front of the line and hugged Jodi 2.5 times (once for me, once for Emma, and then a side hug for the obligatory picture). We chatted for a few minutes while she signed my book; Jodi is such a sweetheart and I loved her knit hat that she wore.
After that, I did some munching on cupcakes and cookies and won a little butterfly knit because my plate had an Incarnate sticker on the bottom of it. Since there were a lot of snacks left over, Jodi told people to please take as much as they wanted, so of course we grabbed a few of each. I didn't take a picture of the whole setup but imagine what's in the picture I took of our haul times a bajillion and you can imagine how much was there. Or you can just check out Jodi's recap that has a picture of it before people devoured them. Also check out these other recaps: Fictional Distraction and The Musings of Almybnenr.

9 comments:

  1. That is such a cute picture of you and Jodi! Glad you had a good time!

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  2. It was a wonderful time and it was great to meet you there too!

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  3. It sounds like you had such a good time, I would love to go to events like this but nothing happens anywhere near me, the cakes look amazing!! Yum Yum!
    I hate wine, I'm not very good with many different kinds of alcohol, I only really like vodka mixes.

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  4. I don't like alcohol either and don't drink it at all now. Certainly simplifies things!

    Since you go to a lot of book events, here's a question for you: what features do you most like to see at a book event? What's the most interesting/fun?

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    1. I'm usually open to anything and have lots of fun no matter what happens. But I do love QnA sessions, and readings are okay but not my fave (though Lisa McMann read excerpts from two upcoming books rather than the recent one so that was fun). For launches, snacks and drinks are always good. People also like prizes too- I've seen bracelets, knitted stuff, USB drives with deleted scenes and trailers, fun swag items, a mix CD, etc.

      But honestly, the most fun part is getting to meet the author and have the book signed.

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  5. I had no idea so many book bloggers were there! That is very exciting! Really loved your write up and your picture turned out great! :)

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  6. Very cool, James! Again, I'm sorry we didn't officially meet. I did see you, but I had no idea who you were, but it turned out alright because now I follow your blog. :) It was definitely a lot of fun and thanks for the shout out link!

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