More Author Insight: Fangirl / Fanboy Moments

Have you ever had a fangirl/fanboy moment over another author? If you’ve never had one, who could inspire it?

"I have an enormous amount of respect for the work authors do, and while I tend to be a laid-back person, inside I'm always fangirling a little when I get to meet a new author. As for an author who could really draw that out and make me dance around like crazy? JK Rowling for sure, along with Suzanne Collins. I'd humiliate myself in front of them." - Aimee Carter, author of The Goddess Test. 

"Yep. Got into the elevator with Charlaine Harris at a conference:" - Leanna Renee Hieber, author of Darker Still and  The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess.


Me (looking at Charlaine Harris, Confirming on her name badge that she was indeed Charlaine Harris): 'Oh. OMG. You're Charlaine Harris. I am having a moment.'

Charlaine: (smiles kindly and speaks graciously) 'That's all right, it happens.'

"I drove nearly three hours to Denton, Texas, in order to see Libba Bray speak. I got so excited during her presentation that I ran up to the microphone to ask a question. (I did wait a few seconds to see if any of the teens in the audience wanted to go first!) Afterwards I stood in line to have my hardcover copy of A Great and Terrible Beauty signed. Libba was a class act -- she took the time to chat with each person in line, and she graciously stood up so I could have my photo taken with her. What a lovely role model!" - Sonia Gensler, author of The Revenant. 

 

"When I love someone’s writing, I don’t want to know them personally – or in any way other than by reading and re-reading them.  That said, I could easily be charmed out of my wits by a writer (whom I admire) reading or having read me.  There’s beauty and there’s charm.  Beauty is a writer I notice.  Charm is a writer who notices me." - Randy Russell, author of Dead Rules.

"I’m really good at hiding my inner fangirl. When I first started writing I didn’t know who anyone was, so it helped me get to know people I met without freaking. I’ve met Libba Bray which was sort of awe-inspiring. And I think I might just geek-out over Carrie Ryan if I meet her." - Suzanne Young, author of A Need So Beautiful.

"One time I saw John Green. I waved at him. He waved back. I ran off." - Miranda Kennealy, author of Catching Jordan.

"I've actually met a lot of my writer heroes over the last few years and there is always an initial internal moment of fangirl squee. But, without exception, once I started talking to them, they were just people. Awesome, awe-inspiring, superhuman, faboo people SQUEE!! But, y'know, just people." - Lesley Livingston, author of Tempestuous. 

"I once wrote Neil Gaiman a totally gushy fangirl email when I was in a really manic mood. In retrospect, I’m so glad I signed my real name instead of my pen name. Now, even if I meet him someday, he will never know it was me and I won’t be forced to hide under a table." - Amy Plum, author of Die for Me. 

"I totally fangirled Gayle Forman just a few weeks ago. She wrote the book that rocked my world (Where She Went) so I drove two hours to where she was signing. And it was totally worth it. I also had a major squee moment with Cassie Clare recently. I got up to the front of her signing line and was all self conscious about telling her I wrote too, but I did. She asked what I wrote and I said 'Personal Demons.' She said, 'You’re Lisa Desrochers!' and I almost fell over. Apparently, she had it on her Kindle to read on tour =)" - Lisa Desrochers, author of Original Sin. 

"Last October, Cyn Balog and I went to see Michelle Zink and Jessica Verday during one of their stops for the Ghosts and Graves tour. I am a HUGE Prophecy of the Sisters fan, and have been dying to read more of Jessica's works, so the opportunity to meet them had me giddy! When we walked in, Michelle recognized us right away, came over and hugged us. Really, it was an honor."   - Jennifer Murgia, author of Lemniscate.

"Oh yeah. Plenty. Those moments are followed by me chewing on my own liver out of jealousy, which, I assume, is how my fellow authors gauge their personal success. In all seriousness: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Dante’s Inferno, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, Tobias Woolf’s This Boy’s Life, Louis Sacher’s Milkweed, Anne Tyler’s Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, James Joyce’s Dubliners and especially 'The Dead,' Peter Matthiessen’s At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Thom Jones’ 'The Pugilist at Rest,' William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Ecclesiastes, Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd’s Runaway Bunny, so many others and so many works that have left me stunned into stillness and silence and awe." - Steve Watkins, author of What Comes After.

"I went to the SCWBI conference a few years ago and there were some really impressive authors there! Agents and editors too! I was pretty impressed with seeing Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian) but was too shy to go meet him and get my picture taken with him. I’m going to BEA this year and want a chance to get see Sarah Dessen and Libba Bray! Oh and David Levithan. Again. I’ll probably be too tongue tied to do anything other than look at them!" - Janet Gurtler, author of I'm Not Her. 

Come back Tuesday to find out if any of the authors have ever thought about giving up on publishing.

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