A year gone by...

I am never a girl lacking for words, and yet words cannot describe my 2010. It's been an extremely long time since I felt like I was really in my element because most of the friends I see day to day don't share my passion for stories, both reading them and writing them. This year I was among so many avid readers and well-read intellectuals that I felt truly myself for the first time since early high school.

I'm not sure how I am going to recap the awesomeness that was this year in one post. I don't think I can do it justice because I've attended dozens of outstanding events and met so many amazing people, many of whom have become good friends and have been overwhelmingly positive influences on my life. So to all the bloggers, authors and book lovers I met this year - Thank you! You are truly a special breed.

I don't mean to forget anyone in this post, but I know I will, so forgive me now. I will do my best to cover it all though! Cut for an obscene amount of photos...

I kicked off the year by going to Julie Kagawa's signing for the Iron King in Kentucky in February where I also met Chelsea from The Page Flipper, Kristi from The Story Siren, and authors Kelly Creagh and Jessica Leader.

Me, Julie, Jessica, Kelly, Chelsea and Kristi.

In March, I met Amy Brecount White, author of Forget Her Nots, at her launch in Washington, D.C. She is positively lovely. I saw her again that same month at the Virginia Festival of the Book where I also met David MacInnis Gill, Jennifer Hubbard, P.J. Hoover, Barrie Summy, and Irene Latham. Barrie was also the first person who ever got super-excited on meeting me and practically screamed she read my blog, which left me beyond flattered. I also got to meet Kim Harrison!

Amy and I.

Jennifer, James of Book Chic Club(who I'd already met, but adore),
Amy, Me and David.

Barrie, P.J. and I.

With Kim Harrison.

Monica from Bibliphilic Book Blog and I took a roadtrip in April to see Maria V. Snyder in Pennsylvania. She took the time out to sign far too many books and talk with us about books, writing and any other randomness we could come up with.

Monica, Maria, and I.

Melissa Marr came to Fountain Bookstore in Richmond for a signing in May and I got to meet her for the first time. I adore her Wicked Lovely series so it was an absolute pleasure to meet her. I've seen her several times since and she's always up for a chat which I think is wonderful, especially for someone so busy. This is also the event where I met Meaghan from A Bookworm's Haven who has become one of my blogger BFFs.

With Melissa Marr at Fountain.

Weeks later I was in NYC for Book Expo America and I met more people than it would be kosher to name here, and I definitely won't post all the pictures because they would be endless. But I met Lauren Oliver in line for the bathroom, of all places, at Teen Author Carnival. I also met  Heidi R. Kling, Michelle Zink, Sarah Ockler, Judith Graves, Kody Keplinger, Sarah Darer Littman, and Jeri Smith-Ready, all of whom after incredibly nice. Afterwards I had dinner with a huge group of bloggers.

Sarah of Sarah's Random Musings and Pam of Bookalicious.

Jess of Find the Time to Read, Monica of Bibliophilic Book Blog, and Drea of Book Blather.

A rare photo of Alea from Pop Culture Junkie. She agreed to take just one.

BEA started a few days later and I didn't get many photos. I certainly didn't get to snap ones with a lot of people I met like the fabulous Violet Haberdasher, Dia Reeves, Chelsea Campbell, Anastasia Hopcus, Jaclyn Dolamore,  and Sophie Jordan, who graciously tolerated me on a shuttle bus back from the convention. I'm sure there are more so I'm sorry if I'm forgetting you. I also met lots of bloggers. Some I found rather randomly were Steph Su, Shanyn from Chick Loves Lit, Heather from Darkly Reading, Vania of Reverie Book Reviews, Cat from Beyond Books, and Angela of Dark Faerie Tales who screamed my name while I was waiting to register and  nearly gave me a heart attack.  



Nicole of Word for Teens, Bree Despain and me.

 

With Laurie Halse Anderson.



Nicole and Erica of The Book Cellar.

With Holly Cupala at Books of Wonder.

Less than a month later it was off to ALA for another week of literary insanity. I saw lots of the same people and quite a few I had yet to meet. So, more photos!

With Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, authors of Beautiful Creatures,
 who I saw again on the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour.

Authors Holly Hoxter and Karen Kincy. Two of the nicest girls ever.

 

The next excursion was to Kelly Creagh's Nevermore launch party. So it was back to Kentucky where I had a blast hanging out with everyone there. My car hated me at this point, but luckily I had better company on the drive because Monica came with. This is also where I met Stacey from Page Turners Blog, who is a cool girl and a dear friend.

Stacey, me, Kelly, and Monica.

Then there was Smart Chicks which took me to Ohio. Dayton and Cincinnati to be precise. It was well worth the nearly nine hour drive because it was well run and the authors were absolutely hillarious. I got the opportunity to meet not only the authors on the tour, but two that I'd been talking to online for a while at that point, Kristina McBride and Mara Purnhagen. Sadly, Mara somehow managed to avoid all cameras and I have no pictures of her but she was positively delightful.

Jackson Pearce, Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Alyson Noel, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Kristi, Kristina McBride and Me.

Chelsea, Carrie (sorry if the spelling is wrong), Linda Gerber, Bri from Bri Meets Books,
Jenny (Linda's friend), Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag, and me.



With Koriann AKA @FoodIsAwesome.

Deanna Raybourn, historical fiction author, came to Richmond in early October. Low and behold, she lives close by! Who knew? But she was delightful to talk with and is just a wealth of knowledge.

Julie Kagawa came to Richmond later that month for a signing and lots of bloggers showed up. I'd met them before this event, but since they are all in one place I thought I'd consolidate and use one photo instead of a dozen.

Rachel, Andrea of Aine's Realm, James, Me, Monica, Julie Kagawa,
Louise of Between the Covers, and, at last, Meaghan.

In November, I met adult Cherie Priest, author of Dreadnought, and a day later I met Darren Shan, author of Cirque du Freak, Demonata and The Thin Executioner  at Fountain Bookstore. Both were outrageously funny and I have to say that Darren is one of the best readers I have ever heard. And no, it's not the accent.

With Cherie Priest, who excels at speaking over car alarms.

With Darren Shan. This photo was prefaced with "Do you fancy being strangled?"

To finish out the year I roadtripped to Pennsylvania with Meaghan to met Jennifer Murgia and Cyn Balog. Despite some communication failure, GPS antics, and a missed lunch date, we had an awesome time. Both Jennifer and Cyn are very down to earth and easy to talk to. I'm glad I got to meet them before the year was out.

With Jennifer Murgia and Cyn Balog.

Thanks to everyone I met this year for being just plain awesome! I can't wait to see what next year brings.