Have you ever met an author in person?

[AnonymousGoogle]

I've met a Tracy Deebs (Doomed), D.J. Machale (Pendragon), and Gretchen McNiel.

All of the three authors were really nice, and I got my books signed (which is always awesome)! ^.^

[debbiebee]

I was utterly privileged to know WG (Max) Sebald, as he was a lecturer at UEA when I was a postgraduate student there. A gentle, ironic, modest man, a genius and an original, and he left us far too soon.

[Melanie_Page]

Yes, I went to Uni with Kim Wilkins (A.K.A Kimberley Freeman), and my head of department in my first teaching job was M.K. Hume who wrote the Arthur/ Merlin trilogies Dragon's Child, Warrior of the West, Clash of Kings, etc. Hume, in particular, is a fabulous role model for writers.

[C S Harper]

Yes. I have met J.K. Rowling in person. She seemed to be a very pleasant person. I also met Stephen King during his Revival tour.

[birdandthebear]

I met John Waters at his spoken word tour (he did a signing after the show) it was wonderful to meet such a charismatic man in person!

[sweetly_twisted]

I've met a few. My favorite was Laurell K. Hamilton. She's not favorite writer, but I do enjoy her work; she was, however, the most fun to listen to of all the ones I've met.

[Grouchiegirl119]

Yes, Kurt Vonnegut and Christopher Paolini. Would like to meet more.

[Norma_Rudolph]

At writer's conferences I have met many. To name a few: Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, James Dashner, Anne Perry . . . there are more but those are probably the best known. They are all nice people and none of them did anything to make me think less of them.

[Duende Knocking]

I met Phillip Pullman when The Amber Spyglass came out. I was just a kid then, and after he signed my book I waited until everyone else in the line left before going back to talk to him. Brought my old tattered copy of The Golden Compass with me and had him sign everything. We ended up talking maybe 15 minutes. Really nice guy.

TA Barron (he wrote a kids' series about Merlin in the 90s) was in the area when I was around the same age. I got to talk to him for a bit, too. I also met Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child in high school. One of them (I forget which) drew me a picture of Agent Pendergast.

Haven't met any authors in about ten years now, but the ones I met as a kid left a pretty big impression on me.

[Artistteacher29]

I went to a Nora Roberts book signing when I was in college. I was hands down the youngest person there!

[Gloriannes]

I love this new FB culture, I have several of my favorite authors as friends on FB. Granted they are not the big names like J.K. and S, King. But still it's nice to chat and post from time to time with people so real. I still love reading every book they put out.

[Lady1934]

I never met a well-known author, but edited two books, one for a female engineer at the Air Base where I worked (she has now published several books and writes a weekly column for a local newsmagazine. The other was for a gentleman who wrote a book on horseshoeing. I am now wintering in a small TN community which has quite a few Indie authors. I've met Troy Smith and Koko Nervelli as well as several others in the area

[lauravbwrites]

I've met a few famous authors in my time, thanks to FryeFest. For one week every year, our fair city plays host to a number of authors from around the world, and here are some I've had the privilege of meeting:

Margaret Atwood

I attended one of her lectures and, as she signed my copy of Alias Grace, I had a chance to chat with her... She's smart and sassy, with a razor-sharp wit. And, my god, she was hilarious!

When I told her that I was a writer myself, she recommended some resources (including her own Negotiating With The Dead, which I loved) and told me never to give up.

Doug Harris

I got to talking with him at a FryeFest meet-and-greet event. He's a Montreal-based author, whose breakout novel You Comma Idiot caught my eye, while I was working at a local bookshop, and we chatted a bit about the title and the submissions process. We were in the elevator, on our way up to his hotel room (the event was in the lobby of said hotel), and he's like, "nothing weird's gonna happen up here, I swear".

He was heading home to Montreal the next day, to teach a workshop on query-writing. So, when we got to the room, he actually gave me a copy of the query letter that landed him the book deal~ I still have it. And, of course, he signed my copy of the book, advising me to never give up on my writing dreams. The man is a class act, I say!

Donna Morrissey

I used to be a member of the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick, which occasionally hosted writing workshops in my area. Donna hosted a few of them, the first of which I attended was on finding your voice.

When it came time to share the short pieces we'd written in class, I read mine first and, upon hearing it, she said: "Laura, that's your voice right there. And I hope to hell that the rest of your novel is written like that, too, or else you're gonna have to rewrite every single goddamn line". So I went home that night, and started editing.

Our paths crossed again a short while later. Donna had returned to Moncton for a reading of her book, Sylvanus Now, and was looking for a local writer to open the event for her with some of his/her own work. I got an email from the then-director of the WFNB, asking me if I would do the honours. It was a no-brainer: I said yes. And, on the night of the reading, she signed my copy of the book before I read my piece: a revised chapter of my novel, that I had edited, based on her advice. It went really well, and no one in that room was prouder of me than she was.

[Dbhst81]

I went to a book signing a few years ago for Candace Bushnell. She wasn't overly polite to those of us waiting in line, however, there was another author there (Meg Cabot??) and she was incredibly friendly, polite. I bought her book just because she was so pleasant. I loved her book and always find myself looking for her newest books.

[Astro]

I met Carol Ann Duffy when I was 15. She was such an inspiration and I fell a little bit in love.