Year in Review: 2014 Author Events

I had the pleasure of attending — and sometimes moderating — some amazing author events this year!! I’ve been pretty horrible about writing event recaps as they happen, but at the very least, I thought I’d do a review of the events I attended and/or moderated this year:

As far as I can remember (and that my photo record shows), the first author event I managed to attend in 2014 didn’t happen until April — for Laini Taylor’s Dreams of Gods & Monsters. I do remember catching up with a lot of local YA peeps, who I saw for the first time since getting married at this event! I didn’t get any great shots, but I had a blast!

Here’s another one where I failed to get any good photos, but the signing for In the Shadows by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo (that’s Laini Taylor’s husband, by the way) was fantastic — and the book was STUNNING and just wonderful.

I had a blast at the book signing for Jenny Han and Morgan Matson! I even rocked my heart-shaped sunglasses for the occasion, and these two authors are SUCH dears!

Kami Garcia was in Portland as part of Horror Con, but she invited me to come say hi and hang out with her as she signed books. It was SO great to finally meet Kami in-person, as we’ve been coordinating on features for her books on Novel Novice since early 2010 — right after Beautiful Creatures was first released, and when our site first launched.

I loved moderating a discussion with Moira Young for her final book in the Dust Lands trilogy, Raging Star. The event had a much smaller turnout than I’d hoped for, but we still had a great time chatting about her books. Also, it was just lovely to see Moira again — we first met a few years ago when she came to Portland as one of my Wordstock authors for Blood Red Road.

Just a day later, I attended the Story Crush tour with Kevin Emerson, Amanda Maciel, and Kiera Cass. Kevin even serenaded us with a song from his book Exile.

My wonderful friend, and fabulous author, Suzanne Young came back to Portland for a couple days this summer, and besides karaoking and drinking and other debauchery, I also moderated her bookstore event with Kimberly Derting.

Local author April Henry had volunteers from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue team at her event, since these teens inspired her book, The Body in the Woods.

Lisa Schroeder invited me to moderate this panel that she was part of, along with authors Debra Driza, Amy Tintera, Kasie West, and Shannon Messenger. SO many laughs during this event!! I snapped the photo of the panelists, but the photo of me is by my fabulous friend Candace.

I had double the fun moderating this event with Sarah J. Maas during her book tour for Heir of Fire. Not only is Sarah a doll (we actually met a few years ago at BEA, before her first book came out) — but her publicist Lizzy from Bloomsbury is so much fun!!! Lizzy is getting married this spring, and having a book-themed wedding — so having recently gotten hitched myself, she and I had a blast talking about books & weddings, while the throngs of Sarah’s fans got their books signed.

On a side note, Sarah’s event took place right around Banned Books Week, and Powell’s had this great display up:

My husband & I dressed up as pirates for the launch party for Heidi Schulz’s Hook’s Revenge (which took place, conveniently, on Talk Like a Pirate Day). I failed to get any photos WITH Heidi, but here’s a selfie & a book snapshot I took at the event:

Though not an official event, I did meet up with Seattle-based authors Justina Chen (Blind Spot for Boys) and Lorie Ann Grover (Hit) when they stopped by Portland. We grabbed drinks, chatted about books and swag, and excuses for wearing poofy dresses. Love these ladies! Somehow we failed to actually get a picture of the THREE of us together, instead there’s me with their book swag:

Frank Portman serenaded us during his pre-publication tour for King Dork Approximately. Be sure to check out the fun interview I did with Frank during this event, too!

Had a ridiculous amount of fun moderating an event with Becca Fitzpatrick (Black Ice) and Christina Lauren (Sublime)! I’ve known Becca for a few years, and it’s always great seeing her again — and I actually started working with Christina & Lauren this year through my business, so it was fun to finally meet them in person: