Signing Recap- Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I was so happy to be able to attend Marissa Meyer's signing in Chapel Hill, NC on January 6. There was a slight hiccup when I accidentally missed my turnoff for the interstate, but then another junction came up a few miles down the road, which put me just an exit ahead of where I had to get off! I stopped at McDonald's for dinner, then went off in search of Flyleaf Books, which was in a small plaza with a couple other places. But seriously, Flyleaf Books is a HUGE place- they even have a separate room for signing events (half of which is taken up by the used books section). Before taking my seat (I was like half an hour early), I read through the extra material in the paperback of Bossypants by Tina Fey which made me chuckle, and browsed the YA section.

Then I headed in and took a seat near the front and continued reading Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan while more people trickled in. I also took a picture of the speaking area because I had a feeling I'd be too scared to take a picture once Marissa was up there. I always feel awkward taking pictures of authors when they're reading or doing a QnA- does anyone else feel that way? Anyway, one of the booksellers came in and gave a great introduction and then Marissa was at the podium. She talked a bit about how Cinder came about, read a couple pages (she asked us to pick a number before page 150 and she would read starting from that point), then did a QnA. There were some great questions. By the way, the whole time Marissa was talking, I kept thinking she was like a cross between Sarah Rees Brennan and Molly Shannon- looks and personality-wise.

Once she was done with the QnA, people lined up to get their books signed. I waited a few minutes then got in line. Marissa was really nice and I gave her my business card to help introduce myself and she was like "I know you! You've been tweeting about this event!" We talked a bit about how I've come down to Chapel Hill/Raleigh quite a few times for book events and how this is such a great book community. There's a lot of great indie bookstores down there.

Afterward, I browsed throughout the whole store and while in the Used Books section, I overheard Marissa talking with some other people about how she needs a better phrase to write when signing for boys. She currently had "May all your ever afters come true!" (or something like that) which she thought was a bit too feminine. I later tweeted her with "May you grow cyborg arms with weapons and be happy." because there had been a young boy who had asked if any of the cyborgs in the book had weapons. So it seems fitting. Anyway, just a lovely event and I'm so glad I went!