Susan Dennard and Alexandra Bracken are two of my favorite authors, and I have wanted to meet them for awhile now. They haven’t visited California for any signings before, so when I found out they were heading to San Jose on the PassTruthTour, I knew I had to go. Luckily enough, the date that the event was held fell on a Saturday during a three day weekend and it worked into my schedule. On Friday afternoon, I took a four hour train ride home. The next day, my mom and I boarded a plane for San Jose.
We arrived early at Hicklebee’s to pick up my preorder copies of Truthwitch and Passenger. The store is amazing! All around, there a little relics from different book series, which made the store very unique and personal!
Even cooler, every author that has visited Hicklebee’s has signed their walls. It’s pretty impressive how many signatures they have. They even have JK Rowling’s signature. Yes, THE JK Rowling. How amazing is that!? I wish there was a store like this closer to where I live.
After I picked up my copies and received a signing number, my mom and I wandered around the area and went to dinner. When six o’clock rolled around, we made our way back to the store and grabbed seats. Susan and Alex arrived early and mingled around the store to talk to fans. I was able to talk with Susan one-on-one for what seemed like at least five minutes. We talked everything from the Witchlanders, Truthwitch, Something Strange & Deadly to college, careers, life, and our moms. It turns out that Susan’s mom took her on a trip to see one of her favorite authors when she was about my age. I know it made my mom’s day when Susan thanked her and retold the story to her. Moms really are the best.
It then came time for the Q&A portion of the evening. Susan and Alex jumped right into answering questions from the audience, which was great. They talked about their start in fan fiction, world-building, favorite books, and more. I asked how it was different writing a new novel after already publishing several other books in different genres. Alex said that she put pressure on herself that people wouldn’t like Passenger because it is so different from The Darkest Minds. She said that it’s okay to just like one of the series, or both, or even neither of them. Susan started getting emotional (sorry, Sooz!) while she answered because she is just so grateful for the support from everyone, especially the Witchlanders. Her crying definitely made many others (including myself) tear up as well. Personally, I was so excited and proud when I saw that Truthwitch debuted as number four on the New York Times Bestseller List. Another huge congratulations to Susan and to Alex who debuted at number one!
The signing came after the Q&A, and I loved how both Susan and Alex made time to talk to each fan while signing books. They were both so sweet and kind and caring, and I had a lovely time talking with them. Overall, the event was wonderful, and I was so glad that I was able to go. If you ever have a chance to go see one or both of them, go! I had such a great time, and I hope that I can see them one day again. A huge thank you to Susan Dennard, Alexandra Bracken, and Hicklebee’s for the amazing event.
That’s Awesome!
Thanks! It was so much fun! 🙂
OMG what an amazing event! I would kill to attend one of the stops of this book tour. Granted I’ve met both ladies before already but I would love to get finished copies of both their new books signed. Thanks for sharing your recap, Jordan!
It really was amazing! I hope you had a wonderful time when you met them! 😀
What an amazing experience — so cool that they were friendly and enjoyed meeting their readers.
It was most definitely a wonderful experience! 🙂
Omg that is SO COOL you met them!! And they seem so so nice?! Squee. I read Something Strange and Deadly a while back so I’m totally keen for Truthwitch and I haven’t read anything by Alexandra Bracken yet BUT I NEED TO CLEARLY. I love it when authors are uber nice. It basically doubles my need to read their book. 😉
Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!
Yes, they were both the sweetest!!! Also, Truthwitch is AH-MAZING, and you definitely need to read it if you’re a SS&D fan! I haven’t read Passenger yet, but I LOVED Alex’s The Darkest Minds series! 🙂
Thanks for recapping the event! I don’t get to go to signings very often because, as you said, most authors don’t come out to California very often. It sounds like it was an awesome time. I loved seeing all of your goodies from the event. I can’t wait to read TRUTHWITCH soon 🙂
Hopefully you’ll get the chance to go to one soon! LA often has events, so if it’s not too far of a drive for you, there might be one there you can attend! I know for sure that it has Yallwest, which a ton of authors were at last year! Concerning the goodies…there may just be a giveaway on my twitter for some swag coming up soon *wink wink* so stayed tuned! And I LOVED Truthwitch so much! You’ll have to let me know what you think once you read it! 🙂
OMG THIS IS SO AMAZING! They are both so cute and really seem like lovely people! I hope that they will do a tour in the UK soon, I would die xD I just finished reading Truthwitch and it was SMASHING! 🙂 Great post! (This is also my first time here, I really like your blog!)
Why welcome & thank you for visiting! 😀 And yes! They were both so sweet and wonderful, and I really hope you’ll be able to meet them one day! Also, I LOVED Truthwitch—it was fantastic!