Sunday, October 18, 2015

Books by the Banks (Where I got to meet Rainbow Rowell and other YA authors!)


For the second year in a row, I have been fortunate enough to attend Books by the Banks, an author event held in Cincinnati, OH. Last year, I was still at school so I only had a little over 30 minutes to travel to Cincinnati for the event. Since I graduated and moved to the Columbus area, I had to drive 2 hours this year. Thanks goodness I have the best sister ever who came with me! It was a lot more fun having someone else there to keep me company :)


Last year, the lovely Emily Giffin was the hot-shot author to attend and I completely fangirled over meeting her. This year, the big author that was attending was…..Rainbow Rowell!!!


This year was so much more crowded than last year. I think that many more people are Rainbow fans and there was a lot more promotion for the event this year. When I arrived around 10:05 (it started at 10), there was a HUGE line to get in and a HUGE line to get books signed by Rainbow. It took about 45 minutes before I finally got to see Rainbow and I was freaking out the whole time. I met some great Rainbow fans and was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who was super nervous to meet her. I had her sign all five of the books I own from her and she was super sweet! She had an adorable phone necklace on (nod to Landline) and I told her about how I loved her books, how I had a blog where I have reviewed her books, and how my students have read her books. I pretty much just rambled on while she was pretty much the most amazing person ever. This was probably one of the best moments of my life. 

After I met Rainbow, I went to a speed dating event with 9 YA authors that was so much fun! I got to talk to Jennifer McGowan, Mindy McGinnins, Sara Raasch, David Arnold (who casually mention how he was really good friends with Andrew Smith), and some other great authors. When I saw Jennifer McGowan, she actually remembered me from last year! How cool is that? Then, when I was talking to authors at their tables after the speed dating event, I said hi to Melissa Landers and she had remembered me from last year, too! I was pretty excited. Oh, and Melissa explained her upcoming book to me as Overboard (the movie with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn) meets Firefly and I am FOR SURE going to read that when it comes out! 


After chatting with some YA authors, I met the lovely ladies who wrote Doon and they were so sweet! I obsessed over Carey's Star Wars shirt and talked a little bit about their series with them. I had ordered a copy of Doon online but it still hasn't arrived, so I went ahead and bought a copy of the second book Destined for Doon and had that one signed. It was so much fun meeting these two and I can't wait to read their books!


I limited myself to only one more book and bought Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid. I completely forgot that Adi was going to be at the signing and left my copy of Never Always Sometimes at school since I have it in my classroom library. I have wanted to read Let's Get Lost ever since it came out, so I decided to pick up a copy! Adi was pretty cool and I'm glad I have his first book to read! 

If you can't tell, I had a blast at Books by the Banks this year. I met amazing authors and got to re-meet some favorites as well. There's no better feeling than an author remembering who you are! I know some people may think authors are no big deal, but they're like celebrities to me and I still cannot believe I got to meet so many amazing people. Especially Rainbow! She gave a talk around 1pm and she was so funny, down to earth, and just real. I am so excited to read Carry On and see what else she has in store for us! 

And that's another Books by the Banks in the bag! I can't even imagine how amazing next year will be after two amazing years in a row. I guess I'll have to wait and see! 

2 comments:

  1. Sounds brilliant! I'd love to meet Sarah Raasch, I've chatted to her a bit on Twitter and she seems genuinely lovely. I really want to get to some of these sort of events in the UK, but I always seemed to get tied up with some big work project when one comes up and can't get there. One day though...

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  2. I'm so glad you had fun, Jessica!! It seems like just an amazing event! AND OMG MELISSA LANDERS NEW BOOK SOUNDS AMAZING!!! Can it come out already?! And Rainbow Rowell!!! I've only read Fangirl by her (I know, I know I need to change that) but I really really need to get Carry On!!!

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