Decatur Book Festival Recap + GIVEAWAY!

DBF Recap

What?  Is that me with Meg Cabot?  It is, so let's jump right in.  After hitting up the library book sale my husband and I headed over to the Baptist church to hear Meg Cabot.  She was hilarious!  I loved listening to her talk and even my husband, who I dragged with me to the festival in the hopes he would carry my heavy backpack, was giggling along.  Afterwords we headed outside and got my books signed.  I told Meg I was a little starstruck and then blathered on about Goodreads or something.  She politely smiled and signed my books.

After that signing, it was time to hoof it over to the Decatur library where I slid into my seat just as Margot Livesey started talking about The Flight of Gemma Hardy.  This is a book I've been wanting to read for a long time.  I've taken it out of the library twice but have never had a chance to read it before it was due (pathetic excuse, I know) so when I saw Margot was coming to the festival, I bought myself a copy and had it signed.  She reminded me so much of my high school English teacher, which I assured her was a good thing.  I didn't get a pic from this event, I forgot because we were in a hurry to make it over to....

Um yeah, David Levithan.  He's kind of a big deal.  His talk about his writing was very interesting, since he touched on the topics of gender and sexuality and such.  His main focus was his new book, Every Day, which is about a soul named A who wakes up every day in a different body, so A doesn't have a gender.  I have an ARC of that book, which I had him sign, but I unfortunately have not had a chance to read it yet.  I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson last year and loved it, so I have high hopes for Every Day.

So the David Levithan event was outdoors and the weather was appalling.  It was in the low 90s but the dew point was over 70 and the sun was really beating down.  My next event was in the same outdoor spot, I was absolutely melting!  

But why wouldn't you stick around to hear Kendare Blake talk about Anna Dressed in Blood?  She was a hoot to listen to and we learned all about her love of cheese and turtle saving.  I was sad to learn, however, that Girl of Nightmares is the last we'll see of Anna and friends.  Le sigh.  Those are my signed books on the table and I'm holding up some schamncy iPhone covers, which you can win in my giveaway below! 

(So I was just collecting my random swag for said giveaway and actually read what Kendare Blake wrote in my book.  I was telling her about how my husband thought her book sounded interesting until she mentioned the magical cat.  We chatted about how husband doesn't like magical cats in his books.  So this is what she wrote - "For Sandra and the guy who is not into cats."  I just showed my husband and he said, "Now I have to read it!")

My husband abandoned me at this point in the day, something about having to go to work to make money to pay for my book habit or something, so I wandered over to the Baptist church again and met up with the friendly group of Nesties (my online book club) who had travelled from lands afar for the festival.  There were pictures taken but I don't have those at the moment.  Erin Morgenstern's talk was very interesting and her signing line was huge!  I think she's a little in awe about how popular her book became.

Sunday, the weather was pretty much the same and even though I prayed for rain to cool things off, none came.  I had plans to stay for the whole day, but I couldn't hack it.  I only went and saw Barry Lyga talk about how we, too, can be serial killers and get away with it.  I got my book signed and then booked it (har har) out of there.  I got myself an iced Pumpkin Spice Latte, came home, put my feet up, and read.  What a great way to end a bookish weekend.

And now for a giveaway!

The only book I picked up at the library book sale is a seemingly new copy of Entwined by Heather Dixon.  I loved this book and since I didn't find anything there for me, I picked this up FOR YOU!  So, you can win a hardcover copy of Entwined as well as a ton of DBF swag including bookmarks, iPhone covers, sample chapters, and the like.  Enter with the Rafflecopter below.  Ages 13+, US only.  

Win this stuff!  And some other stuff I accidentally left out of the picture.

a Rafflecopter giveaway