Hooray for Laurie Halse Anderson!

I had the great pleasure of meeting the fantastic Laurie Halse Anderson on Thursday night in Brookline! She gave a fantastic talk to a pretty crowded room (though it was kind of small, to be honest)—she is such a lively and animated speaker. At one point, when she was talking about how much she loves writing the Vet Volunteers series, she really got into reenacting what the little puppies on the ER table looked like while being hit with the defibrillator. Awesome.

She also gave a very illuminating description on how she researched and wrote Forge, the book she is now promoting. She did the traditional research of looking up primary resources and things like that, but she also did the hands-on stuff too, like walking in the snow like the soldiers did, without boots or a jacket—ouch. Plus, she shared about her early life, including her not-so-perfect home life and hating school until she went to a community college outside of Syracuse, where she grew up.

It was great to listen to her and to actually meet her at the end. She took the time to talk to everyone and didn't rush us out of there (though the librarians looked like they wanted her to a little bit). It might have taken a long time, but I was in line with some very nice, friendly people, including Nikki from Wicked Awesome Books. Finally, just before 9, I got to the front of the line. And she remembered me from my blog post about Speak! It was pretty exciting, I have to tell you. Unfortunately I was dumb and forgot my camera, so I have no awesome pictures of the actual event to show you. Next time I will not fail you all.

Anyway, I got three books signed for me (hooray!): nice hardcover copies of Chains and Forge, plus my copy of Speak.

AND, see those two other books at the bottom there? I ALSO got a couple of books for you all to take a stab at winning! I have a signed edition of Wintergirls and Chains, waiting to be claimed. However, I think I am going to wait until I reach 100 followers to do a giveaway like that. I might add a few more along the way, but let's see how long it takes me to get to that goal. Feel free to help me along the way. :)