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Book Bonanza 2023: The Good, The Bad, and The Best Moments | Bonus Ep 2
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This week we recap our time at Book Bonanza 2023. Taking place in Grapevine, Texas over the course of two days, we go over our favorite moments from the book signing, reveal all the authors we got to meet, and discuss that crazy wristband situation. Great for anyone who is curious into how book signings work and may want to attend the convention next year!
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Transcript
Catching Up and Book Bonanza Prep
00:00:15
Speaker
Honestly, it feels weird. We haven't recorded in so long, but hey you guys, welcome to Bring Your Own and catch all bookish most of the time podcast. I'm Brandy. I'm Kendra. And I'm Kayla. And today we are just doing like a little mini catch up. Our regular season ended
00:00:35
Speaker
a couple of weeks ago, but we have still been living our lives. So we just wanted to catch up with y'all, check in and talk about book bonanza because we all just got back less than a week ago from book bonanza. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. You guys got to come to my home state, the great state of Texas. Sorry, it was so humid.
00:00:58
Speaker
Those are just the vibes. But according to Kimmy, who was at Book Bonanza with us, Dallas is usually not that humid, but San Antonio, where I'm from, is that humid. So I was still in the whole
Current Reads and Drinks
00:01:09
Speaker
time. You're like, festival. Yeah. That's what I grew up with. We're just going to go through our weekend about what we did. And we were together the whole time. So just catching up on our little weekend. But before we do that, what are you guys reading? What are you guys drinking? I'll go first. I'm drinking a leftover lemonade from McAllister's Deli.
00:01:27
Speaker
which I don't know if y'all have that in Missouri yeah yeah you're always not like so surprised when we have something I mean yeah so we have Macalesters in Missouri um that makes me happy y'all deserve something um so yeah I'm drinking a little realy made from that yesterday and then um I'm currently reading will they or won't they by Eva Wilder I have like 20 percent left it's
00:01:56
Speaker
so good but yesterday Kayla was trying to like make me like fucking pick a favorite she was like oh but like how does it like compare to how to fake it in Hollywood I wasn't making it I didn't ask you that I just said it's better than how to fake it in Hollywood that's all you're like setting me up and I was like why are you putting two bad bitches against each other like they're both too great to me two great books that handle their tropes really really well um and there are some other things I would say but
00:02:24
Speaker
I love it. I love them. Abe Wilder's just a really good writer. I love her little universe that she's created. And I love seeing like cameos from How to Bake It in Hollywood. And it's just really hot and horny.
Book Discussions and Debates
00:02:39
Speaker
And guys, I'm at my parents' house. So I'm just like sitting here like shaking. Yeah, like trying to like, you're like, imagine if you were reading Reckless at your parents' house. Oh, I would. Oh, my God.
00:02:54
Speaker
i know i can't do it um but yeah this one is like whoa um it's just like so subtle too and it's like throughout and it's just nice and she writes in third person able walder and i think she's like an author that actually i don't mind that i think she really owns it it's a good style for her um but enough about me what about you guys um i'm drinking a mcdonald dyke coke um and then
00:03:24
Speaker
As far as reading, I'm very slowly reading, like I don't know what it is, but like I can't focus on any eyeball reading right now, but I'm very slowly making my way through off to the races, but I'll see Silver, so I have started the Cold Rush Ranch series, so I'm gonna say that one. I'm only like 30% in. And then I'm also about like 60-ish percent into The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth O'Rourke.
00:03:52
Speaker
which I'm really enjoying. I'm enjoying this one much more than the first one. I didn't really like the first one that much. I was kind of bored, but this one is a lot more fun. I was like, I don't care. Yeah, that first one. Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah, it was more, it was just like, I actually thought that the tension between the two characters, or at least their banter was really fun. But like the rest of it, I just like didn't care. She's so good at banter. And then the chemistry just like gets better with the next two. I like I still love the fourth book. But like, that's the second and third are definitely my favorites in the series. So I'm excited that you're enjoying that one more. Yeah. And then Kendra, you know, I've read Well There Won't They? I read The Ark and now Kendra's reading it. Brandy, I think you will like this one much more.
00:04:38
Speaker
Kendra's like, ew. What is with the mug? I just think she will just enjoy it more because like, we felt similarly to How to Fake a Hollywood. So I think she'll like this one. That's all. That's all. What pisses me off is I'm like, Kayla, you did not like How to Fake a Hollywood. No, I liked it. I liked it. Like just own it. You didn't like it. That's okay. It was fine. It was fine. That was great. Anyways.
00:05:01
Speaker
I mean, truthfully, I think you're I think you're a little bit right that if I hadn't listened to it, and if Randy hadn't listened to it, then maybe we would have we would have liked him more because that's the case for some books. Why was it Teddy Hamilton with his twinkie ass voice? Like I would hate it that book too. Are you kidding me?
Tropes and Character Flaws
00:05:18
Speaker
Anyways, whoa, I don't hate Teddy Hamilton as much as you do. But
00:05:24
Speaker
he just because it's like you know you sound a certain way why are you doing city boys do country boys like if he even was from the country
00:05:33
Speaker
You got me. He set me up. He was like, I want to ruin Kayla and Kendra's friendship. Here's the only thing I will say about that book is that nobody, nobody is allowed to name this book or like the trope a single dad. You're not allowed to use that. When did I, when did I say that? I'm not talking about you specifically. I'm just talking in general, like people are like, oh my God, single dad. No, it's not. Stop it. It is not. To be fair.
00:05:59
Speaker
Ethan is an alcoholic. I wouldn't want him around those kids. Like he cannot take care of those kids. Oh my god. Like, anyway, anyway. That's what I'm reading, Randy. What are you reading? I am currently, I'm still reading An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera, which I actually don't think I was reading last time. I think Kendra was reading it last time we recorded.
00:06:24
Speaker
I was reading the first book. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. So I am enjoying it. I'm not a historical girly. Like I was just really intrigued by this specific book. I'm just not a huge historical romance girly. So I am struggling a little bit with the stakes. Just because like the whole plot is like she needs to acquire this piece of land to build a railroad and what
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I'm teetering for that one. I'm whether I'm gonna finish it or not. But that one, the writing is great. It's just me. It's a me problem. It's not a book problem. And then I'm re-listening to Dead Man Walking by Gianna Darling, which is Priest and Bia's book. I physically read it the first time, so I'm listening to it on audio.
00:07:09
Speaker
And it's pretty good. Like, I'm glad I didn't listen to it the first time for me specifically, because I think the guy who's voicing Priest sounds a little too clean cut, but that's okay. Interesting. I liked him. I mean, he's a good narrator. I just like had such a... You talk about this a lot, Kendra. You already have a voice in your head. Yeah, so... But anyways, I'm enjoying it a lot. And I will talk more about it when we talk about Book Bonanza. But it really was like being at Book Bonanza and getting my new books and meeting Jana Darling and being around Selena all weekend. I was like, I have to reread.
00:07:40
Speaker
No, I'm about to reread Good Gone Bad, like I have to.
Author Interactions and Surprises
00:07:43
Speaker
Oh my god. I love it so much. I'm gonna do it physically this time instead of listening to the audio. Kayla's like, ugh, this fucking theory. Oh my god. She was sick. Can't keep it. That is so funny. No, Kayla posted a reel today of like her favorite books of 2023. And I was like, interesting, Good Gone Bad did not make the cut.
00:08:03
Speaker
The top five, the top, that's a lot. Five out of 78, 79 books that I've read so far this year. So let's chill out. It's in at least, it's in at least the top 15 at least. 15? Maybe, I don't, maybe probably 10. It's probably like number 10.
00:08:23
Speaker
like that's crazy. As um like a podcast we all posted are like mid-year wrap-ups and Selena goes into the comments of mine and goes oh how can the show fall in love? I've heard those last year Selena. I defended you actually I wrote and on the podcast instagram I said she read them last year. I was I all caps I was like I read them last year um I just love them all so much I'm just so happy to be back in this universe Lulu's pissing me the
00:08:51
Speaker
fuck off in this book. I forgot how annoying she is in this book, but... Don't be smug about it, Kayla. If Brandy wouldn't reread Welcome to the Dark Side, she would be like, oh my god, they're being the best girl. I literally, I texted Kendra and Selena this the other day, like literally every time I'm re-listening to parts of Welcome to the Dark Side, I'm like, I love them so much. They're perfect. They're made for each other. They're everything. In every other book, I'm like, can you guys, like, those two have such a god complex in everybody else's book. I'm like, Susan, like,
00:09:22
Speaker
go fuck. My friend Hannah, because I was telling Hannah about like, I won't talk more about this about our experience with Gianna Darling at Book Bonanza and just like how sick and twisted Gianna Darling is. And Hannah told me that people always ask for like another Zuzu Moo book. And Gianna is like, well, I don't know if y'all want that because if I do it, they're just like not going to be happy. So if y'all really want that, then I'll give it to you. Oh, Gianna!
00:09:47
Speaker
That was like, I was talking, or I saw this reel that Danielle Jensen, who was at Book Bananza, but I didn't get to see, she wrote the Bridge Kingdom series, and she always said the exact same thing. She's like, the whole point of a romance book is that they're not happy and they're working through it. She's like, I'm not gonna write another book for these characters, for Laura and Erin, because they're gonna be upset. She's like, I want them to be happy. I'm like, that's crazy. So true, but you know what? Some kind of perfect. Proving them all wrong.
00:10:16
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. Speaking of, we should jump in so we can start talking about our experience with all these authors that
Book Bonanza Registration Chaos
00:10:21
Speaker
we're talking about. That's good. Yeah.
00:10:24
Speaker
Thursday. Kayla, do you want to talk about your experience with Arrival before we do that? My Arrival? Yeah. Oh, well, okay. So Book Bonanza, technically, like the events didn't start until Friday, but you arrive on Thursday so that you can register and like, you know, do whatever. They also had like an author meet up Thursday night, but there wasn't really a lot of authors that we were interested in seeing. So I
00:10:49
Speaker
I initially was going to arrive Thursday night, you guys, but I kind of panicked that I was going to miss registration. And then we were trying to plan through all the wristband hoopla, which you will hear all about later. And I was really, really nervous that I wasn't going to be able to register Thursday. And I could have done it on Friday, but again, wristband hoopla, so I didn't want to have to deal with it then. So I changed my flight to way, way, way early in the morning at 5.30. So I arrive in Texas at like 7 a.m.
00:11:18
Speaker
And I can't check into our hotel until 3. I also didn't take PTO because I wasn't able to that late since I, again, wasn't going to need to because I was going to arrive Thursday night. So I sat in the hotel lobby for like five, six hours. So Kinder came and sat with me for another few more hours.
00:11:39
Speaker
until we waited to go get Brandy and then Selena came to join us and and then we all we all went and registered and the registration process was pretty quick and simple at first when we initially arrived in the hallway like where the convention center was there was like a really long line it was kind of like a
00:11:59
Speaker
I don't want to call it a fake line, but it made it look like it was a lot worse than it was because they had tons and tons of lines open for a description. That part was so organized, which is why it's so bonkers and the wristbands were so horrendous. But before we start talking about wristbands,
00:12:14
Speaker
when we went to go to registration, none of us were bringing books because we were like, why would we bring books? Like it's registration. I manifested the shit out of this. I was like, I turned around and I grabbed the editions of Presenter. She went back into the hotel room. I'm literally like in the hallway and I was like, I need to go back inside because I was like, I'm just gonna grab them. Like, what if I run into Sierra Simone? I don't know if I talked about it on the podcast at all, but I got to do the art for some editions of Presenter and Saint by Sierra Simone for a special edition box that Logan did with Eternal Embers.
00:12:44
Speaker
And I love them so much. Obviously they mean so much to me. So I went in and grabbed them. And then when we were eating dinner after we registered, who walks into the restaurant? Sierra Simone. So I, she got, she signed there. She's so fucking nice. I was like shaking the entire time. We got to give her our friendship brace that we made for her. It was so cool. He was like in the middle of a conversation as we were all at dinner. And like, she literally told whoever she was talking to, like, all right, bye. Cause she's still a brandy and like,
00:13:12
Speaker
he lined across the table to like talk to Brandy and her and like was truly probably like one of the chillest authors that we met all week. Like she made you feel really at home with her. Like she was your friend as you were talking with her. So yeah.
00:13:26
Speaker
We were sitting in the restaurant, like I, where I was sitting, Brandy was sitting at the same site as me. And like you can look out and you look out into the hotel where these doors were open and she comes through those doors and Brandy's like, seriously, seriously. And I was like, holy shit. I said it like way too loud because you probably heard me.
00:13:43
Speaker
um and then because we just like weren't expecting that because like when we were registering you see like other like authors like getting their tables ready and the conventions are just like walking by like we saw like I think we saw Anna we saw Abby Jimenez just walked by like just people walking by but no she just like walked into the restaurant that we were sitting at and so it was just like it was so cool it was so cool prior to us seeing sierra in that restaurant
00:14:08
Speaker
This restaurant was like the, like the hot place to be, I guess, if you ever wanted food, because the book manager takes place at the Gaylord Texan, which is like this huge resort. It has like so much stuff. So we walked into this restaurant and also our book manager group, shout out to them. It was, so us three, and then plus our friend Selena at Booker's cell, Amelia, who now I'm blanking on her at name. Amelia Ruth Reads. Yes. And then Kimmy at Kimmy's books was with us as well. And then Cash at Cash's Kindle.
00:14:35
Speaker
Um, and so that was like our group for the weekend. So we all wanted to get dinner after registration and we walk into the restaurant and just sitting there is Kennedy Ryan. What was so crazy is that like she recognized Kimmy and she recognized me and I was, she was like, Kendra, right? And I was like, yeah, I was like nervous cause like,
00:14:56
Speaker
Obviously, I made a video like a few years ago talking about my experience with Longshot. And so ever since then, I've never I've never tagged her and not done anything. That's what I'm trying to say. Like I was shocked that she knew who I was because I'm like, I've never purposely tagged her in anything. So the fact that she knew me, I was like, whoa, that's crazy. And then we ran into Sierra. That place was just like
00:15:14
Speaker
We'll imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was such a cool experience. And we were just walking around. Amelia arrived later than everybody else. So we were just chilling, waiting for her to register. And then out of the doors was Lauren Asher. We were upstairs on a different level. And we were just sitting at a table. And Kendra was like, we should go downstairs. Because that's where we saw a bunch of authors before. We were like, yeah, sure.
00:15:38
Speaker
So we go downstairs, not 30 seconds later, Lauren Asher walks out. Yeah, now is my first time like ever meeting her in person, which was so crazy, because I've been in her DMs for like, over a year. And she's just like the sweetest, like she looks like a Disney princess, like she's just so like, you just want to hug her. She's so cute. And she was so nice. And we just gave each other like a really big hug. And then
00:16:00
Speaker
She was the only author I really needed to see this weekend. Everyone else, I was like, if I don't see him, okay? So the fact that I saw her the day that we registered made me really, really happy.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, she was so excited to see Kendra too. She did one of those things where we were like, oh my god, hi, Lauren. And she waved and went hi. And then it clicked, it registered who she was saying hi to. She was like, oh my god. And she was so excited to see Kendra, gave her a big hug. Yeah, it was so nice. We also saw in that same, again, that same instance, we walked by. We kind of caught them off guard, but we saw just a tiger ridge as well.
00:16:33
Speaker
just like walking by I walked by I looked to my right and one of them is there I can't again I don't know the difference between the two of them that sounds so bad but when I was walking and I was like and any other one it was also just kind of kind of crazy we saw like almost everybody and like the first day
00:16:50
Speaker
Kimmy isn't shy whatsoever, which is what I love about her. She can go up to Idi and everyone, start a conversation. She was like, hey, guys, to the twins. They were trying to leave. And it was just so, I love Kimmy. It was great. But yeah, we got to see our twins. We saw them multiple times, too. Yeah. Yeah, we did. Up their ass the entire weekend. We're fake as fuck. We said it, too. Before we went, we were like, catch us just up the twins' ass all weekend. And we were. We were.
00:17:19
Speaker
So that was like Thursday, we went back, we wanted to go to bed really early because we knew that the wristbands were Friday morning, which like we were stressed out about the most about this whole wristband experience from the whole thing. And we should, we were right to be stressed because it's a fucking shit show. Yeah. Let's explain why we needed wristbands first. So people that don't know.
00:17:39
Speaker
So there are authors at Book Bonanza who they know are going to create big lines.
Wristband Challenges
00:17:45
Speaker
And in order to avoid these big lines, blocking other booths and just creating like, you know, people wasting their time just waiting in one line the entire time, they do this thing with wristbands. All the wristbands have numbers. So if you're a wristbanded author, you can't get in their line unless you have a wristband for them and they call certain numbers. So at first it was like one through 10.
00:18:06
Speaker
20 through 50, whatever you know. So like if your number is on that, if your wristband has that number you can go get in line, which is another whole thing. But
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, so we were like, we were like, oh yeah, the twins will probably be on there and like maybe Gianna Darling, maybe Abby Jimenez. No, every single author we wanted to see and the only two narrators we wanted to see were all wristbanded. It was a list of probably like maybe 30, 30 to 40 authors, I would say. And yeah, like, I think I had like, like my really wants to see, I think I had like,
00:18:40
Speaker
eight authors that I really really wanted to see the rest were like cool whatever I don't really care um or like I didn't have physical books for and um oh yeah all of them even the ones that I didn't even care that much to see but I would have been cool to see were wristbanded so it was just like we saw that list and that night we all of us in a group chat were like freaking out it was not a good time
00:19:02
Speaker
So then Friday morning, they made it very clear you cannot start lining up before 7. And we're like, OK, but what does that mean? We're going to be there. So we got there at 5.45-ish, because we took a shuttle and it only leaves every half an hour. So we wanted to get there before, or at 6. So we took the 5.30 shuttle. We got there at 5.45. And we're some of the first people there.
00:19:28
Speaker
Not only did they say you can't line up till seven, they refused to give the location as well. As if the wristbands weren't going to be given out in the convention center, which that was a given. But they refused to tell you where the legacy was going to start. So that was a whole other thing as well.
00:19:46
Speaker
so we showed up and there's like already volunteers outside being like you can't line up like don't line up because if you line up they're gonna say that the line's not real and we're like okay but like there's just like crowds of people it was just so frustrating so then it's getting closer to seven closer to seven closer to seven and there's like i'm not kidding like hundreds and hundreds of people just in a big huge blob and we're getting more and more anxious because we're like how are they going to make this into a line like this isn't
00:20:12
Speaker
good. There's literally no form of line anywhere. And I swear to God, at seven, they were just like, okay, line up. Well, also, also at seven, they opened up registration again. And that's what caused that big shift to like the other side of the room. And like they didn't make that clear enough. And also you have these volunteers who are like kind of soft spoken, trying to speak to like 1000 people in this one like open area. So like people couldn't hear
00:20:40
Speaker
I'm like, why didn't they have a bullhorn, like a microphone, something to direct? And I'm just still shook that they were like, you can't form a line. Are you kidding me? And here's the crazy thing is that everyone was comfortable with forming a line. Like we would have followed directions, like if they just started it, like no one was like,
00:20:58
Speaker
at least from my point of view and ours, like no one was like, right. Like if the line was started, people just would have taken their spot in line. Yeah. The lack of one that caused all of the problems. Right. The, the glob that we were like all in when we were waiting before seven, Kendra was like talking about when those doors open for registration, everybody just kind of assumed that that was where
Audiobook Panels and Author Meetings
00:21:19
Speaker
the line was starting. And so this big whole glob all at once immediately started like rushing to the other side. Like people in like,
00:21:27
Speaker
wheelchairs and scooters on crutches like getting shoved around and it was just not safe and it was They like blame the readers and I'm like you can't host an event with 2,700 people and not know how to form a whatever anyways like that part They finally at 8 she started walking around being like you're in the line you're in the line you're in the line and so we just kind of like
00:21:51
Speaker
got into the line eventually. We grabbed our group and were like, come with me. I literally was like, get in here. I was like, get behind me. So we just grabbed it. And thankfully, there were some really sweet girls right in front of us. They were like, yeah, follow us, follow us. So that's how I got. I was kind of line leading. I don't like who I am in those situations, you guys. I'm thankful. I just feel like I can't even give people a strategy. And I'm hoping they don't do it this way next year. I hope they just let people form a line. Whoever gets there first, they just let them form the line.
00:22:21
Speaker
But we just got lucky, like where we were in that mob and everything. And then once you get into the registration, I'm not very sure, into the convention center where like all the tables are. So each author that was wristband, it had a volunteer at their table handing out the wristbands. So all you see is like hundreds of readers, like over a thousand people running in this convention center trying to get like a wristband. And like, you know that Nicki Minaj song that's like popular? Yeah, like,
00:22:51
Speaker
imagine that but like people trying to get wristbands and luckily like we all got the wristbands that like we wanted um that's only because we again we got lucky for where we were in that line because we were like some i would say probably within the first 100
00:23:07
Speaker
people, 200 people into the convention center. We knew where we were going. Yeah, some people didn't get anything crazy. We made our game plan because we knew we wanted to wait in most of the lines together, the three of us. So we were like, okay, we're going straight to Lauren Asher and then straight to KBR. Kendra and I had Gianna Darling pre-order.
00:23:27
Speaker
We just had a game plan for where we're gonna go. And then once we got all the ones we knew we wanted to stand in line together for, so that we had numbers similar to each other, we were like, okay, break. And then like, I went to Elizabeth O'Rourke and Kayla went to Chloe Lisa and like, whatever, like, there was, it was a system. And like I said, like, I don't think that system would have worked if we weren't in there so early. Because even getting in as early as we did, like we came out and we were comparing our wristbands and like cash and
00:23:52
Speaker
Selena and Amelia didn't get Sophie Lark. I'm like, that's crazy. And like, we had already met Sophie Lark in Vegas, Kendra and I had. So I like just gave my wristband. Kendra and I got like some of the last two wristbands. Yeah, me too. Because we got her on the way out. And so we gave those to Amelia and Selena.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yeah, so they got to see him. So after we did the wristbands, we just went back to the hotels to get ready and get cute for the panels and stuff like that. And there were very few panels that we were super interested in seeing. We caught the very tail end of one of the narrator ones, which as we've talked about so many times, we are all definitely audiobook early. I was shocked at our stats. Our stats are so fucking similar for format read. All of us have listened to almost 50 audiobooks this year, if not more.
00:24:43
Speaker
So, that one was really fun. Aidan Snow was on it and Zachary Weber, those were the only two I knew from that panel. Was Ada excellent on that? No, she was in the crowd. No, because, okay, so, A.P. Erickson's real name is Erin Spencer, and she owns an audiobook production company, or she runs it. I don't know if she owns it, but that's why she's always around at those things, but rarely participating, because she's, she also writes, she's also an author, she had an author booth.
00:25:09
Speaker
I think Erin Mallon was the female that I knew on that panel, but that's Brandi's nemesis. I like Erin Mallon. Okay. Yeah. I thought somebody's name was Erin Mallon. Logan P. is Erin Mallon. Oh, okay. Gotcha. So yeah, that was fun. I haven't been bringing anything from that panel, like, if I'm being so... So we were there for about, like, 10 minutes before I went in, so there wasn't much. We couldn't hear anything either. We were in the way back. Yeah, we got shushed.
00:25:36
Speaker
Oh, we did. I forgot. I forgot. Oh, and when we walked into that panel, Kristin and Becca Ritchie were sitting in the back too. Again. They were following you. They were. They knew. They were like, we heard your fucking episode. But yeah, so then we just kind of chilled. We ended up getting in line pretty early just because we wanted to get into the convention center. Because all the authors we wanted to see were expanded, we weren't too worried about where we were going to be in line. But we just grabbed our little lunch and sat in line anyways.
00:26:02
Speaker
They went by really quickly too. That's another thing that pisses me off because like they formed that line so beautifully for the signing to get in like they have like the ropes that help like navigate people and I'm like why didn't they just have that set up this morning for the wristbands and also this line
00:26:19
Speaker
I wish someone had a tracker to see how far back it went in distance, but it went all the way to the hotel lobby, and the convention was all the way on the other side. So that's how many people ended up waiting in line to get into the signing, which day two, we were in the back of that line. So it was kind of cool to see the difference from being in the front to being in the back.
00:26:40
Speaker
And thankfully that one just moved really smoothly. Like they were just like letting, that's the thing is like, that's what it was pissing me off when they were blaming the people who they were like, if you guys are gonna act like rowdy children, we're never gonna get inside. I was like, girl, this isn't us. Like if you form a fucking line, look how well we're all sitting in this fucking line and nobody's shoving each other. Anyways, I hate being talked to like I'm a child when I'm a grown ass woman. But the first day we were pretty early in the line. So we got inside and that was just like so,
00:27:08
Speaker
like we were just busy that whole first day like we immediately the three of us went to Kristin and Becca Richie. Because yeah we were pretty early for their wristbands I was like number nine. Yeah I was like at 32 or something like that which was that part did annoy me a little bit is like some of the wristbanded um some of the wristband volunteers like shook up the wristbands on purpose to like randomize I was like that defeats the whole purpose
00:27:32
Speaker
But that's okay. It ended up being totally fine. 99% of the volunteers were so, so, so nice and so helpful. And they were just like excited readers who are just like happy to be there too. So we got to the Chris and Becca Richie line and our numbers were kind of off and she was like, Oh, yeah, just get in there. And she was just like, so
00:27:50
Speaker
nice.
Impactful Author Experiences
00:27:52
Speaker
So we saw Chris and Becca Richie, I literally dropped my iPad twice. Because I was I was literally shaking both because like the adrenaline of like this is like we're getting in there, we're seeing everything start. And also just because like, those books did like fully changed my life, like they changed the trajectory of like
00:28:11
Speaker
our friendship, I feel like. Yeah, we were like telling them that, which was so cool because like I went up first to their table because my number was first and they like have such a like, they work so in sync, which I guess makes sense because they're twins. So like, one would sign they like had it like down to a system. And I was like, Hey, like, do you mind? Like, my two best friends are back there. Like, we really love this series. And can they like all take a picture with us? And they're like, Yeah, totally. So cool. And then
00:28:37
Speaker
It was great. I forget they asked me a question, but like now I'm blanking, but at their table and we joked that it's because they knew Kimmy and Kayla were going to be there. They had kissed the sky. What do you call those things? Like on so you get a badge that has like your name on it. And so people were collecting like, I'll call them ribbons, like sticky ribbons. And like you would layer them. And so a lot of authors had ribbons. And so some people made it like a competition to like get as many as they could. So you saw people walking with like full trains.
00:29:05
Speaker
I only got like a few I feel like they had one that said kiss this guy, which was really cute and they had a pin as well. And they were only selling like the like us but so we were just like, Oh, damn, that's crazy. Really cool. Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, but like, Kayla and I got to go up together because the volunteer at their station was just so nice. We were like, can we just like go? We did that for most authors, like the three of us or two of us would just like go up together. So they got to sign both of our book journals because Kayla had one for Tangled Like Us and Sinful Like Us.
00:29:42
Speaker
No, it was both of them together. It's not what it's called though. Simple? Yeah, Tangled and Simple. Okay, yeah. And they were so, so nice. They were like, this is so cool. And Kayla had one of the little cats on her page and they were like, oh my god, Jean's cat. They were honestly so nice. And then I think I must have blacked out too because Kayla, you must have asked them who their favorite characters were because I typed them. I literally don't remember that at all. Maybe I probably did. I just don't remember anything that was said.
00:30:11
Speaker
I think you must have asked characters because I tagged them on Instagram. And I was like, it was so nice meeting them. They were so nice that I'll forgive them for saying that Raising Kabbal away were their favorites or like Lilo was neither of their favorite couples. And they tagged them. I did. And they commented because I was I was saying like, it was so great meeting them. Like I was so nervous. But it was it was a nice post. So I tagged them and they commented and they said, we say that Rike and Connor are our favorites because we could never take Lo from Lily like Lilo is our favorite.
00:30:40
Speaker
I was like, Oh, yeah. But they are so nice. And yeah, it was just like a really close experience. And like we were giggling to ourselves the whole time that we were like taking pictures because we were like, we did four hours like talking about their books in previous episodes.
00:30:59
Speaker
they signed all 12 of the books that I bought for them because I bought the entire Addicted series and then I brought my Willow Garrison books too. So that just made me happy. Yeah I brought five my four favorite from the series and then my bad rep do it and then they signed my book journal page as well. Yeah and like they weren't doing character signatures which was like
00:31:24
Speaker
I think I was bummed about it before I met them. But then one time I met them and I saw how busy and chaotic it was, I was fine, especially because they wrote little things in the book that coincide it with the book. So I think after all, I was like, this is real, which I'm like, okay, I'll take it. And their mom and aunt were in line and they were just so nice too, their mom.
00:31:50
Speaker
had like a little journal that she was asking everybody to sign for them that they didn't even know that was getting signed. So yeah, that was so cool. And that was really fun. So then after that, I don't remember the specific order of like everywhere we went, but that same day, my highlights, I guess we can talk about highlights from day one, maybe one of my highlights is meeting Giana Darling. Yes. And we all went up together, which I thought was
00:32:12
Speaker
So fun. Yeah. So she signed like a couple of our book journal pages. And she like loved the little bracelets that we made for her. And she's just she was so nice. And she's so beautiful, like so stunning. And just like, like funny, like we got up there and we're like, Oh my god, like she like looked at my good gone bad book journal. She's like, Oh my god. So there was like something painful on my book. And she was like, Oh, and I was like, girl, like you're causing us a lot of pain.
00:32:41
Speaker
And she just thought that was hilarious. Yeah, so she came straight from her wedding. She just got married. And you can just tell that she was riding that high and was in love with her husband who was there to help her out. And he walked back to her table as we were up there with her. And she was like, hi, baby. I was like, oh, God, the girl's so in love.
00:33:01
Speaker
um oh yeah yeah so as we're like talking because brandy and i both pre-ordered the entire fallen men series um the special edition covers i have all the girls on them and like we maybe said this earlier but we spent so much fucking money on those books
00:33:18
Speaker
but totally worth it because like now they're some of my favorite books that I own like they're gorgeous stunning and I really hard cover yeah and the interiors are different from the original so like I just I don't know just made me so happy like to have those um so like as she's like signing all of our books and stuff we were telling her that like good gone bad is our favorite and she was telling us that um that's HR and Dan are like a very underrated couple which like we all agree like
00:33:47
Speaker
Everyone, no one talks about them, but we love them. I stan them. And so Kayla was like, yeah, Brandi and Kendra knew that I would love Good Gone Bad because like, I really liked Dom's and books. And Gianna, bro, I felt like she was waiting to talk about this. She was like, yeah. So fun fact, Dan is inspired by my husband. We went, huh? We went, you're, what? You're getting like the implications of that. I'm like,
00:34:17
Speaker
knowing what Tanner is doing to HR in those books and for her to say that he's inspired by her husband. You lucky lucky lucky like that's crazy. I get it. Nobody loves her like him. Yeah, for those of you who have read Good Gone Bad, that's like
00:34:40
Speaker
That's crazy, yeah. She's just so, like you said, Brandy, like so sweet, so talkative too, like made you feel right at home. It was a really good experience with her. I've cracked on her books a lot, but she was so, so, so nice. Very great experience meeting her 100%. And then of course, like meeting Lauren was like another, like seeing her again, because we got to chat with her a little bit the night before, but like actually going to her table was so cool. Yeah, her table, like I feel like she
00:35:08
Speaker
like was might've been nervous that like no one's gonna be like, I don't know, like her table was just so popping all day. And this was her first convention ever. So I think that like made her really happy because I'm like, yeah, girl, you're like, you're big as fuck. Like, you're huge. Also shout out, she just became a USA Today best selling author. Because the USA Today list is finally back to working. It got shut down for a while because they laid off the person who ran it. So dumb.
00:35:35
Speaker
yeah now like a lot of authors are finally going to be able to get on like best selling lists which makes me so happy um but anyways yeah we went to her table her table was fucking packed like so many people there waiting in line for her also like just the cutest little table and like her boyfriend was there helping her and he was like so on it he was like okay what's your invoice because um kayla and i pre-ordered swag from her he was okay like
00:35:59
Speaker
let me go get it for you. Oh, do you want it before the signing after the signing? I was like, oh, like, it's okay. Like, whenever you can, like, what? Which one you want personalized. He, like, had his sticky pad out and he was like, okay, which one you want personalized? Like, had a beautiful system. And then, like, we saw her and we gave her all of our friendship bracelets. And she, I think every author just loved getting, like, the friendship bracelets to see, like, what little things that, like, we put on them. And I had two Noah Slade ones on me because you guys know that's, like, my man.
00:36:28
Speaker
And she was like, Well, I'm going to take the Noah Slade one because I know he's your favorite. And luckily she took the one that was nicer, but I was like, Okay, yeah, you can take that one. I'll take the other one. And then we like all take pictures with our bracelets. It's one on our Instagram, like very cute, like with all of our like extended
00:36:45
Speaker
By the end of the day, her whole arm was covered in bracelets. I gave her a plant lady one because now she's trying to be like Iris and has plants in her house. And then I let her pick, I have like six bracelets Lauren Asher themed and she picked
00:37:06
Speaker
She actually picked my favorite one. She picked the Chloe and Santee one. And if she had a good eye, she was like, I'm going to take the... Yeah, it had little butterflies on it, like purple butterflies, obviously purple for Radim. And then she's like, I'm going to take this one because my grandma used to call me a little butterfly or something. I was like, oh, that's so cute. So she was so nice. Yeah, it was great. And we were talking about just love redesign, which is like all of one of our anticipated reads coming out later this year. And she's telling us how excited she is for the audio book. And we were like, well,
00:37:35
Speaker
Girl, it really is like, we'll help you out with redeem. She's trying to find like the narrator. So it was just really and also her swag. I said this on Instagram already. And on tik tok, the best swag that I got the entire it was so cool. Yeah. And then like, yeah, in the night we ran into her at a party and she was telling us how she like taught herself procreate.
00:37:57
Speaker
to like create some of the like stickers and stuff that were in the merch. There's one. Yeah, well, she did some of them. So it was like her working with like a lot of other people. But like, you know, the one of Iris like flicking people off with like her nails, it looks so good. Yeah, I feel like she did that one like a few others, but she had like character art for dirty air. And Kayla opened up her swag pack before I did. And so like she kind of like screamed.
00:38:21
Speaker
And then she showed me, and then I screamed, and it was just beautiful, because we'd never gotten character art for Dirty Air. We've seen the one for Dreamland already, which I also got this weekend. But seeing Noah and Santi and Liam and Jax all in their physical form made me so happy. And yeah, especially, I think the one that meant the most to me, obviously Noah and Maya's character art was so good. But seeing Jax and Elena, they just looked so fucking good. And Jax looked so good. That just made me so, so, so happy.
00:38:51
Speaker
Lawrence has brown skin, like brown skin boy. You're not letting anybody whitewash these characters. Yeah, I just made me so happy.
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah, and that was like another thing we were talking about this weekend too is just like when you can tell an author really cares about their work and like cares about what they're doing. It just like makes like loving them and their work so much more fun. Yeah, so we were kind of bouncing all over the place. I was really excited to meet Elizabeth O'Rourke because I just finished the devil series that Kayla is reading right now and I was just like so obsessed with the last three books. I enjoyed the first one but I listened to the first one and then just like
00:39:25
Speaker
didn't listen to the second one for a month because i was like that was just okay but i had already bought all of them so then i listened to the second one i was like um so yeah it was so good to meet her um i met melanie harlow i don't remember if you guys waited in line for melanie harlow
00:39:39
Speaker
I did not. Oh, she was so nice. I didn't have anything for her to sign. I wanted to, but I didn't have anything for her. So I wasn't going to buy anything. Ignite. She had a special edition of Ignite there that was really, I like talked to myself out of buying it because I was like, I don't need to spend more money than I'm already spending. But at one point we had a little bit of a lull and like some, like we didn't have time before.
00:40:00
Speaker
We had some time to kill before our wristbands. So we were like, let's go to the narrator hub. Which is it. Yeah, in like the dead center of the signing area, they had like a bunch of narrators, there's probably like 20 of them there. I only recognize like four or five of them. But my bestie Maxine Mitchell, Selena's arch nemesis.
00:40:21
Speaker
And that one was really fun. And then my biggest, we talked about this in the audiobook episode, but I was like shaking to meet Jason Clark. She dropped her iPad again.
00:40:36
Speaker
I know to be fair I dropped my iPad too that time I know y'all some clumsy bitches She would leave
00:40:53
Speaker
her walker from a club, her iPad. I'm like, let me get Kayla's stuff because she definitely wants someone to steal it. Like every table we would choose. It's so funny. I can't remember which author it was, but at one author's table, or somebody's table, I left my iPad and they were like, oh, wait, you want, was it Chloe? It was Chloe Lisa's table while you left it. And like, you were like, I don't know, fucking sprinting to the other side of the room. So I like, smashed your stuff. And I was like, don't worry, I got it for her. And then we kept walking.
00:41:23
Speaker
But we went up to Jason Clark and he was just like, you guys, so, so, so fucking nice. Like he's just like a sweet man. He's very, very tall. And just like, he was just so sweet.
00:41:37
Speaker
And he was like, Hi, and I was like, Hey, and I pulled up my like, welcome to the dark side page for him to sign my book journal. He was like, Oh, welcome to the dark cities. Yeah, he's like, this is so cool. Because Kayla had her book journal out too. So we both had him sign. He's like, these are so cool.
00:41:52
Speaker
And as he was signing, I was really proud of myself because I was being pretty normal after dropping my iPad. So I told him, I was like, you're my favorite narrator of all time. I'm trying really hard to be chill right now. And he put his hands on my shoulder and was like, and he was like, oh my god, thank you so much. What's your name? And I was like, Brandi. And he went, thank you so much, baby. I was like, you are so nice. Also to paint.
00:42:19
Speaker
If you know what Jason Clark's voice sounds like, like you probably have an idea of what he might look like, right? You're like, he might be ruining people's ruffies right now. But no, like big ruffy man and like a very deep voice. Well, this weekend we found out he pitches it down whenever he records because he sounds like, yeah, he sounds more like my favorite when he does the voice for Danner. Like that is like his normal pitch besides like,
00:42:49
Speaker
voice he does for like Zeus and um he's he's much more soft-spoken he's just so like he was just like we just like can't we talked about it all weekend like meeting him was just like such an incredible experience because he was just so kind and he was like this is my first one of something like this because i asked him how his day was going he's like it's really good everybody's so nice and it was just so cool and then um i took a picture of him with my book journal
00:43:14
Speaker
And then I was like, can I get a picture with you and both my friends too? Because we have a podcast, we've talked about your audio, what's on our podcast before. And he went, oh my God, what's it called? And I was like, oh, bring your own. And he was like, oh my gosh, what's it about? And I was like, it's a romance book podcast. And whatever, he was so nice, like, okay, I'm gonna follow bring your own. And I was like, ha ha ha, don't, joking around about it. And then at dinner that night, I was like, ooh, like hours after the fact, he went and followed our Instagram.
00:43:40
Speaker
We were fucking shook. Shook. And I immediately pulled up the audiobook episode because I was like, was I saying weird shit about him? The likelihood of him going and listening to it is almost zero, but I was like, God forbid. So I was sitting at the dinner table, we were eating our pasta, and I was listening to make sure that we didn't say anything fucking creepy. We didn't. Not about him at least. No. Oh my God.
00:44:05
Speaker
But also his so like, they have a book bonanza app, which like honestly could be 10 times better.
Narrator Interactions
00:44:10
Speaker
But in the app, they have all of the like narrators and authors bios and everyone else's bios written in like third person where it's like, for example, like, Oh, Lauren Asher loves XYZ ABC, right? Whatever. Yeah, for Jason Clark, his was written in first person. And he's like, I am a narrator. I live in New York, like it was just so like the sweetest
00:44:31
Speaker
like the sweetest fucking guy ever. And he had like, he was very COVID conscious. He had his mask on. Yeah, he was just such a sweet. I mean, if your whole job is your voice, I would probably be more COVID conscious of him right now. Yeah, we met Julia Whalen. We met Julia Whalen now, I feel like so many times. But when we first met her, she was like, Oh, I'm recording something. I'm just gonna keep my mask on. Like, yeah, girl, protect it.
00:44:52
Speaker
Not, not to brag you guys, but when we took that picture, like singular pictures, like Brandi took one, I took one, we all took one with Jason, whatever, on our own before group. But I was wearing a tank top that day, okay? So my shoulders were exposed. His whole arm was around my shoulder. I'm calling your husband. You know what your wife is doing at these conventions?
00:45:15
Speaker
Just saying, pro tip, wear take tops to book conventions. But so after we saw Jason Clark, I got in line. Yeah, we went to Zachary Weber. His line is a little long, so I jumped over to Aidan Snow, who is so nice. He narrates like some of my favorites as well. Yeah, and then we went over to Zachary Weber.
00:45:35
Speaker
And we walked up and he went, hello again, hello again, hello again. Because he remembered me and Kendra from Vegas. Yeah, I had not met him yet. But yeah, I gave him, we had, I had like seven books for him to sign plus my book. Yeah, I had a lot. Because I have a bajillion copies of Part of Your World, whatever. And like, thank God we went early because he started writing dumb shit in people's books like, oh, yeah. And he was only signing on day one, wasn't even like publicly announced, I feel like he just had it written on like his little name tag.
00:46:06
Speaker
Um, so God. And then he posted on Instagram that he was still in Fort Worth the second day. Uh, Kendra is, was very upset with him this past weekend. Oh, and another thing that pissed her off is because I tagged him in one of my Instagram posts and he, um, messaged me, direct messaged me and was like, yes, clean. And I said, thanks King. And then he liked that message. And so when I showed, when I showed Kendra that he messaged me, she was so mad at me. And I was like,
00:46:35
Speaker
no because i'm just like damn like we get it you love your girlfriend like you're so like he was like making out with her in the middle of the like bro you're here to work but no like he was he was like we tried it with him like we gave him friendship bracelets too and like he made me put his on oh yeah she told that to like everybody kinder i'm holding my hand up right now and like he because kayla just handed his candid the one that she gave him to
00:47:05
Speaker
Okay, I wish okay, I was trying to hold it to personal being normal. You just made a whole thing about Jason Clark touching your bare shoulders. I was trying to like be normal to and like give it to him. But he like kept doing his hands where like he wanted me to put it on. So I put who's I like I put it on him. And then we were like hyping Brandi up because we had like her special edition coverage like she designed this like
00:47:31
Speaker
He's like, Oh, like, like, Oh, gosh, I just love milking her all fucking weekend. Like, at one point, literally every fucking time would even glance at those books. She's like, Oh, my friend did the art for that. My friend did it. And we were in line to see Sierra Simone. And there was a girl behind me who like saw me because I was like prepping my books out of my cart for Sierra to sign.
00:47:52
Speaker
And she's like, Oh my God, like, where did you get that cover? And I was like, well, well, well, let me pull this girl right next to me. I'm like, this is Brandy. She has a special edition. Like it was so cool. I was blushing all weekend. Like she would not let up when we were at Zachary Weber's table because he like, he signed my book journal and he's like, you should get into design stuff. And Kendra was like, well, matter of fact. And it was just so. Trying to get you booked and busy. Like I wanted everyone to know.
00:48:19
Speaker
Going back to the narrators in general, guys, I have a confession. I've told this to these two girls here, but I'll tell the rest of the world. I'll just make myself known. After this weekend, or this past weekend, if we'll come up with that, I can't deny anymore, you guys. My favorite narrator has always been Zachary Weber. But listen, after this weekend, and I still love Zachary Weber, he's still like one of my favorites.
00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah, but now my favorite male narrator is Jason Clark. After Zach, you know how I was just saying how Jason Clark's bio was like so sweet and innocent like, Oh, like I live in New York, I narrate audiobooks, blah, blah, blah. Why was Zach's like musician? Questionable. Narrator in love. Like, bro, we get it. You love your fucking girlfriend. Like,
00:49:11
Speaker
Okay, to in his defense, if my girlfriend looked like that, I would probably also never shut up. Like, literal model and we're not creepy guys. He posts, he follows all of us on Instagram. So we all follow him back. But he posts her all the fucking time. We're not being weird. Like the fact that we know what his girl was like, is against our will. Like he can't escape her. We can't.
00:49:37
Speaker
like, oh, like every time and then cash told us that she was like behind him in line or like coming on the escalator and she was like, on the escalator the whole time he's talking to someone about his girlfriend. Like, yeah, anyway. Um, so yeah, I've switched teams. Honestly, I think I'm right. Well, you know, center still exists, you guys. Like, literally, I like whenever I think about center, I'm like, I can't think about too much. But yeah, I don't know.
00:50:04
Speaker
It was just like he was just Jason Clark was just so nice. And we saw him twice because we saw him on Friday. And then we went back on Saturday because I was like, Oh, I have another page for him to sign. May as well go say hello. Because he like remembered us and everything. Yeah. I was standing in line for Andy Arndt when you guys went back to Jason the second time because Kendra wanted him to sign her physical copy of the work side, which we got after.
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so then I, when I went back to him the second time, he's like, I ran into your friends from bring your own a little bit of goat. Like he was so nice. Like what is just a, a gentle man, like a sweet man. We asked him like, what were the books that like people were asking him to sign the most. And he said, it was like the Devany books that he's done and then welcome to the dark side. So, and then he said some books by. Bad in Indigo Ridge and Juniper Hill. Like it's crazy.
00:50:55
Speaker
Some book by Pippa Grant, who was like a big author there this weekend, but none of us have read her before. And also, even though Kinder, I know this isn't the best audiobook, but I did have him sign my page for Terms and Conditions because he does do Declan in that book. And when he was signing it, he's like, oh my gosh, I heard that Lauren was here. Where's her table? I really want to meet her. So we were like, she's over there. She's so nice. So I hope that they got to meet. I don't know if they did, but I hope that they did.
00:51:23
Speaker
He was, he was just so lovely. He was. So yeah, on Friday, we pretty much got to see like, almost everybody that we wanted to see. So like, like we said, KBR, Lauren, Gianna, I also got to meet Chloe Lisa, who is so, so, so nice.
Meeting More Authors
00:51:39
Speaker
And you were, Renee, you talk about like, Kendra like hyping you up all the time. Any time I dragged Kendra to an author's table where she like hasn't read their books, or maybe hasn't liked their books, like Chloe Lisa, she
00:51:50
Speaker
hypes you up as if I'm the biggest fan of their work that I've ever existed. She loves it so much. She's your biggest fan. Yeah, I only have read Two Rums Make Her Right. That's it. She has the physical copy. She has the audiobook. Oh my gosh. She loves it so much. Like she talks about it all the time. Like one of her, which is true. Oh my God. Like, I mean, I love that book, but I've probably not its biggest fan. So I mean, anyway, besides the point, clearly this was super nice. She signed my book journal page, which again, like when authors say like,
00:52:18
Speaker
They love it. She's so hot, too. She's so beautiful. She's gorgeous. We ran into her the night of registration with her hot husband, too, because she recognized Kimmy. Her and Kimmy are pretty close. And we were just like, ah, she's so pretty. Yeah. I ran into, well, not ran into, when you guys were in line for, oh, I don't know when it was, but there was a break. And I saw this author named Susanna Nix, who I know,
00:52:47
Speaker
I'm actually not forgetting but she used to write Alyssity Oliver and Felicity from Arrow fan fiction so she had a table set up and I like got to speak to her and I was like hi like um did you used to write Alyssity fanfic and she was like oh my god yes and then she like pointed out on her table which of the books like used to be fan fictions and then she turned into like uh traditionally published books and it was like so cool and like one of the books I had like remember reading on um AO3 and I just like thanked her so much I was like you know
00:53:17
Speaker
you helped me get through college because I was still reading a lot of Alyssa fan fiction in college and she was just so nice and she was talking about how like fan fiction like pretty much helped her like become a writer and like how beautiful the community is and that was really really nice seeing her so. Two other authors that I just remembered.
00:53:34
Speaker
I got to meet Kumi Tyler, which for me, I love her. She's so nice. We kind of initially connected from when she was reading Magnolia Parks and I was like in each other's DMs about it. And she was so nice because she, I mean, she knows that we have a podcast. And so I brought my copy of Keep Her Safe and Kendra bought a copy of Love Unexpected. Love Unexpected, the hot copy too that has like the ball in the beanie, stockies.
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And she was like, she was like, I remember seeing your guys's posts on your, on your Instagram. She's talking about our podcast book where we had like the one handed reads one. And she was like, I didn't know you guys like liked books like that. I thought we just like talked about, I know the approach. I was like, no, like girl.
00:54:15
Speaker
Well unexpected has not left my Kindle since 2020. It puts in work. So she's she's so nice. She's so beautiful. Yeah, I loved meeting her finally. And then obviously we also saw Abby Jimenez on Friday and the line leader for that one was like,
00:54:35
Speaker
She was not letting us in before our number. Yeah, she was very strict. Even though the line was even that large. And it's like, I can't even fault people for doing their jobs, but it was just like nobody was in that fucking line. Yeah, and she was like 130 and we had like 135 and 136. And we're just like, could you please like, come on. Yeah, but we got to meet her together. So that was, yeah, that was a lot of fun. And obviously like we gushed about
00:55:04
Speaker
her your world since that's like one of the other books that like brought her nice for clothes and stuff like our babies. We showed her like the annotated copies and it was really nice. And then she was like telling us about like what's on her schedule in terms of like yeah writing so she has her new book coming out next year called it's I think it's called just for the summer.
00:55:25
Speaker
And she told us the FMC's name, which has not been revealed yet, but now I'm forgetting. I forgot. I forgot what it was. It's something, but it's going to be filled with Easter eggs from her previous books. And then she's also writing a short story that will be in somebody's collection, I believe. Don't quote me on that. But that's what she was telling us. And she was just so nice. And her husband was there helping her too. And it was just so cute. And she had a cute little neon sign that said Abby Jimenez.
00:55:53
Speaker
It always warmed my heart when I saw people have an author's entire backlist. So there were people in Abby's line that had her entire backlist. Yeah, and that just made me happy. We got to see all of our must-sees on day one. And then there was a Mardi Gras party after, which was kind
Social Events and Parties
00:56:11
Speaker
of lame. But we got drunk. It was fun. Oh, did we get drunk? We went to the bar. Something's more than others. Yeah.
00:56:21
Speaker
Oh, she's silent. That's great. Yeah. You want to speak for yourself? But it was like, so fun. Honestly, like we weren't staying at the Gaylord, but we were staying at a hotel literally five minutes away. So it was just like, really chill. We were in the hotel bar just like hanging with the book besties and having a good time. And then Kayla took one two shots, Kendra got her home, accidentally spent $200 on shots. Oh, yeah.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's why that's my favorite part. Yeah, literally, the exact same thing happening in Vegas, though, Kayla, like it happens when you get like a couple drinks in here, you're like, Yeah, I'm like around like, why the fuck not? And then you're like, Oh, again, to be fair, whatever that lady gave me was not a shot. That was like four gulps. So, and you took it like a champ. I have the pictures and videos to prove it. So there was a point when she was so drunk and kibi Tyler was there.
00:57:13
Speaker
And Caleb's like, I'm not drunk. Like, you know, what every drunk person says when you're not drunk. And she's like, okay, well then tell me the name of Breonna's ex-husband and yours truly. Keep in mind.
00:57:23
Speaker
cubies help didn't even know it, which was so fucking funny. It's like we're all trying to look it up. His name is Nick. And then I said Nicholas first, I said Nicholas first, just to be clear, I didn't hear it. What was the other question? Oh, she asked you about like BJs tattoos. It was just funny to like, it was just funny. Like y'all are really good friends. That was nice. And like y'all got to like hang out and like drink together and like have fun. And it was just also fun on day one. We saw so many like outside of our group that we mentioned earlier, like so many other books, Graham book talk,
00:57:52
Speaker
people that like we just have never met in person before and we mainly hung out with them outside of the convention center in the bar. So that was fun. You know what I'll say, even if like you are not able to get a ticket to Upananza to like get into the signings or anything like that, honestly, you can just go to the Gaylord and just hang out and chill with like friends at the bar and whatever because like you're also not only are you getting out with your friends, but you're also probably going to see
00:58:18
Speaker
almost guaranteed to see a lot of authors like we had you know our friend Lomi come with us she got to meet a fantasy author that she like she got to meet some people like she got to meet a lot of people that like she didn't have a ticket she didn't have tickets she just came to hang out with us yeah it was so good so then day two was just like a lot more chill because we had already hit all of our necessary like priority like we have to go see them and like we like I forgot to mention but we waited in Sarah Simone's line like met her formally and like whatever there was just like
00:58:47
Speaker
So day two was way, way, way more chill. So we just kind of walked through leisurely. We were looking at what lines were short because after a while some were spanned authors, like their volunteers would just let anybody in. So like I did end up getting to see Sophie, Sophie Larr. Oh yeah, we also saw Sophie because business daddy was like, get in here. He's so fucking cool. And like our friend Maya was working their table and she was doing amazing. Shout out to her.
00:59:10
Speaker
um it was just like her table was so much fun too because she had music playing she had games where you like you could spin the wheel and like win a book or a merch or a book play or something so i like that because like she had a full line the entire time but i like that it was like she kept people entertained um as they were waiting so that was pretty nice yeah the only author that i like actually met that day i think other than like seeing people twice
00:59:38
Speaker
Was Laura Pavlov? Yeah Like that one I'm not even kidding Laura Pavlov was obsessed the minute Kayla walks up to the table
00:59:47
Speaker
my god like you should be like a model like a cover model like you should be on covers because Kayla was like showing her also her book journal oh this is so nice it's so nice and then she makes Kayla come around to like her side of the table and like pose with her book journal and like what's taking pictures of her and it was so cute yeah she was like I'm gonna post this on instagram she didn't but that's okay um but she was so nice she also had these beautiful I want now that I'm like back home I'm like I should have brought one
01:00:14
Speaker
Um, she had these beautiful hardcover special editions of her cotton. Oh, they were nice. They were so pretty because they were like, um, because she has like people covers and then she has like flower covers, of course, but they were the people covers, but they were like watercolor. They were so pretty. And I kind of do wish that I had gotten at least the first one because I love the first book. But anyway, yeah, she was super nice.
01:00:37
Speaker
um i went to rebecca jin shack's table and i literally like before book bonanza had just finished her wildcat series or all the books that are out in that series so far
01:00:45
Speaker
Um, and I ran into this problem a few times at book bonanza and there's like just no way around it. And that is when you like go up to an author whose books you've read, but you don't have physical copies for, but you own their books or like, you know, you went to them through the library or you have the audio books or you have the Kindle versions. Like those are the ones you have. So like when we were at the gym check, I have nothing for her to sign. Um, so I just went there to like talk to her, which was like, I don't know, like, cause I wanted to meet her and like say hi. Like I had a wildcat, like friendship race that I wanted to give her.
01:01:13
Speaker
I would sometimes just feel bad because I'm like, especially like if they were selling something. So it's just a little awkward. Like if all of us have some form of like, it just makes you like very like anxious. But I'm talking to her and I'm like, Oh, like, who's book four going to be about because she sets up book four and book three.
01:01:34
Speaker
different love interests. Ah, that's crazy. So for those of you who have read the Wildcat series, she told me, oh, it'll be Ash's book, but it will no longer be Grace. Cause she said once she started writing it, she realized that like, it just wasn't going to work. And why did you do all that setup? That's crazy. So I don't know who, I don't know who Ash is going to end up with now, but I will be seated and listening. Those books, are they good? Um, they're not bad.
01:02:03
Speaker
They're not. They're just not. But they're entertaining. And she doesn't have bad narrators either. So if you want a hockey romance series, I will just keep you entertained. Nothing life changing. Don't say Kendra told you to read this book and it was great. No. Vibes only. Pure vibes. But you know what's so funny?
01:02:27
Speaker
is in that book like all the hockey players live in like this neighborhood um that's like designed a certain way and now that i'm at my parents house for the weekend or for however long i'm like oh my god this is where the wildcat players would live like
01:02:42
Speaker
So she won, she got me. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I ran into a similar issue though, like, again, because I never got to meet Melanie Harnold. And the only book I've read by Melanie is Ignite. But I read it on my Kindle, you know, I don't listen to it, but I've not, I don't have the physical copies and I like didn't have like,
01:03:00
Speaker
Even if I didn't have a physical copy, like with Laura Pavlov, I still had her sign my book journal page, but I didn't have one made for Melanie because at the time when I read it, I wasn't making book journals. So, you know, same thing with Sophie, like I've read, you know, the entire Brutal Prince series and then the entire Kingmaker series, but I don't have the physicals, I don't have book journals to sign. So I was just like, kind of felt weird, like sometimes if I didn't have anything for them.
01:03:25
Speaker
Like we went up to Mia Sosa who wrote The Worst Best Man and The Wedding Crasher and like I felt bad too because like no one was at her table and like I didn't have physicals because I read both of those books on my phone or like I read The Wedding Crasher as an arc but I just didn't have it like with me but like I was like I love them like one of the best books but like I didn't want to like so it was just like a quick conversation and then like we left um so I did feel bad for like some of the smaller authors who just like had no one at their tables um
01:03:54
Speaker
But yeah, that's like my only thing where I wish, I don't know. I'm glad they were there, but I hope that they felt like they were having a good time. Right. Yeah. I mean, just because like at the time there was nobody there at their table doesn't mean that they didn't have good traction. It was just, yeah. Like there was even like day two was just so much slower for us personally, to where like there was one point where Kayla and I just like went to go sit at the, they had a bar, like seating area on the inside of the signing. And we just like sat there for like 30 minutes, like just chilling, like and talking and
01:04:23
Speaker
I mean, we left the signing, I think it didn't until six, but I think we left at like 4.30 or five. Because we didn't have anything, like there's just no reason for us to be hanging around because we didn't really have any. No, I did see Debney. I did meet Debney that day, I forgot. But yeah. Marla, I mean, there was like trying to box. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:43
Speaker
Um but I didn't talk to Debbie for super long but I basically just told her like because you know Sable Peak is coming out and it's about a pilot and I didn't even talk about her books. I talked about how much I love my favorite book is about a pilot. I talked about Simple Wild and I was like yeah I know Mateo's Mateo's a pilot and one of my favorite books is Simple Wild and he's a pilot. So she's like oh yeah I love that book anyway.
01:05:09
Speaker
Um, I did meet Demi Day too, I forgot. Um, that was pretty much it. We just kind of like, we sat out outside the convention center and waited for the rest of our friends. We were also pretty much done. So we just like hung out and waited for them. Yeah. And then after that, we went to like the boots and bling party, which is like cowboy theme. That one was fun. Kayla and Kendra rode the mechanical bull.
01:05:30
Speaker
I was holding on for like my dear life onto that wall. I texted the video to my friends and one of them was like you're not a real Texan since you were holding on with both hands. I was not about to fall and smack that like inflatable heck no but honestly it was like I I
01:05:54
Speaker
did so like you know you're yeah hanging out with both hands i didn't want to fall but i did want to try so like there were a couple times where i did like put my hand up and at least at least i got one picture to prove it there's one picture that where i do look like a real mechanical girl now you really grant code it yeah but um it was fun it was fun and then like one of my favorite memories from the whole weekend was the fact that we like we kind of went home early that night because people were hungover and like
01:06:23
Speaker
We did our drink, like the majority of our drinking Friday nights and then Saturday night we turned in pretty early as a crew and we just like were sitting and talking and giggling like the rest of the night in our hotel room with that crew that we were talking about like the three of us and Amelia and Lomi stayed over that night and Kimmy and it was just like I don't it was just so fun like all of us crammed in that little hotel room just like talking and hanging out like
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, even like when we were like, truly, that was my favorite part too, we're like, we would all like go somewhere as a group, like no one was ever by themselves, like maybe for like a little bit out of like a signing if you needed to go to like one author. But like outside of that, like we were always together and
01:07:05
Speaker
there was just moments where we would just be constantly talking about books and
Weekend Highlights and Challenges
01:07:10
Speaker
etc. and there was always someone in the group who had a different opinion about said book and it was just so fucking funny like at one point this is on like day one of the signing we're all sitting down or it was like after I don't know at one point we're all sitting outside the convention center on the floor and we started talking about Mariana Zapata and like from Lukov
01:07:27
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, I just know that Lukoff has like a really smelly house. Brandi and Lomi, or like whoever was it, or Brandi and Kimi, I think, looked at me like I was crazy. But I was like, guys, like, all the animals have a housekeeper. He has a dog walker. Like I just, oh my God. And then we started talking about followed at one point and Amelia and Selena were like, watch what you fucking say. They were like, let's not talk shit. So fucking funny. Or we found out that Cash, if you're listening, Cash doesn't like,
01:07:56
Speaker
chestnut springs and that one that was a big cash she said she stopped after heartless you guys yeah everybody go bully her
01:08:07
Speaker
Just kidding, don't. In our group chat that we made for like planning and it's still living now, recently somebody said like, Oh, sorry, Selena, because we were talking shit about something. And she goes, Oh, I've just learned. Oh, we were talking shit about powerless from the Chestnut Spring series. And Selena was like, I've just learned that you guys hate everything I love. So my life is so much easier.
01:08:30
Speaker
Yeah it was like I feel like it just brought us all like closer together and it was just so much fun and like we got to like I became friends with Amelia who was with us and we got to celebrate her 21st birthday like because it was like a few weeks ago um and so we got her like cupcakes and candles and that was just like it was a little moment in between all the chaos that like really stood out to me and like made me really happy um like I think I would have had fun if I went by myself but like this was truly just like such a highlight of my like
01:08:58
Speaker
book journey and our friendship within it. It's very special. I mean, not only, obviously we have our roomie crew, I guess you can call them, which again was Selena, Amelia, Kimi, I'll count Lomi in there, Cash, even though she wasn't technically in our room, but she was with us the whole weekend.
01:09:18
Speaker
So we had our roomie crew, but there were also so many other people. Again, it's worth it. Even if you don't have to dig it, it's worth it to go and to see all your other book friends. Because we hung out with Maya a lot, Maya with Spice. We saw Pauline, the books I've loved, who is so nice. Just amazing. I love her so much. And she looks stunning the entire weekend. Seriously, even at 5 AM, she was when we were in line for wristbands. I was like, how did you get up and do this? Because I was looking at trash. We just rolled out of bed.
01:09:47
Speaker
and it went to wristbands. But anyway, so yeah, there were so many of our friends. Yeah, Ashley. Oh yeah, we got to meet Ashley. Oh, we also got Stella's handle code. Yeah. And it was so funny because I was like, yeah, on our last podcast episode, I made a really inappropriate comment about one of your candles and I told her how I wanted the Sean Bell one to smell like his, I'm in my parents house, I'm not going to say that word.
01:10:15
Speaker
his comment. Yes. And she just like started laughing. It was like so nice. And it was cool to see everyone so.
01:10:24
Speaker
Oh, Megan. Megan was running around. Oh, yeah. And her boyfriend. Yeah, he was a little just like all the men there. He was toasting the first day, which is so funny. He went golfing in the morning on the first day of the sighting and then he showed up to the signing drunk and Megan was just dragging him everywhere. It was so cute. He was like Instagram boyfriending so hard. Like it was so sweet. Megan was so fucking nice. And then we ran it like Nina and Valentine, who are the publicists at Valentine PR, like they were so nice and just like
01:10:54
Speaker
yeah it was just like honestly such a positive experience besides the wristband part of it like everything else was so great there was one guy like when I was oh my god there is a big lizard on the window scared the crap out of me anyways Texas things um there was a guy in line for registration and he was there for his pregnant wife who like couldn't come anymore because she was like getting close to her due date and he was like yeah I'm just here for her so like that was
01:11:23
Speaker
Yeah, that was really sweet. I hope he got all of them signed for her. But I'm like, that's commitment. And like, it was like really interesting to see like all the girls who like brought their boyfriends and they're just like, walking around and like, it was just they're the ones like carrying like the book carts and stuff. And would y'all bring your yeah, would y'all bring your partners to know hate it?
01:11:43
Speaker
I mean Daniel would like totally like I'm sure Jared would too like if I asked him to go and I was like I want you to come with me like please like Daniel would be like of course and he'd like be supportive or whatever but like no I wouldn't want him to be.
01:11:58
Speaker
If your boyfriend can come, but like, why would you want to? Yeah, they get they get mad at me if I like take a phone call from not actually, but they clown on me so hard if I ever take like a phone call from Jared. I am so not like, Oh my god, I miss you more. I'm like, Daniel is like one less check.
01:12:21
Speaker
And also like, I don't want to, I don't want to discredit because from anyone's like negative experiences, obviously, like those stories have been coming out. We just like legitimately, there's just so many people there to where like, we weren't privy to any of that. But that doesn't mean that it happened. So I know for sure that the craziest booth was HD Carlton's booth. And none of us are HD Carlton girly. So none of us were over there at all.
01:12:46
Speaker
Well, I think she was not just like Gianna though, but we just didn't go to her line. I didn't even see. Yeah. There was an issue with hers was like all of her pre-order books got cancelled. Yeah, that's crazy. So instead of having all of the pre-orders, which now she's gonna have to ship out or just rethunder whatever, instead she only had the super, super, super exclusive special edition covers of the cat and mouse duet that have Zeta on the cover, which are going, I'm not kidding you guys. Before this event, they were going for $1,200 on Mercari.
01:13:16
Speaker
So people obviously were just like being psychos to try and get those like shoving and stealing and whatever. That was definitely like, I've heard the worst part, which H.D. Carlton after the first day was like, you guys, like, please, like this could not happen again tomorrow. I felt bad for her. That's crazy. Yeah. But overall, then if you were to rate your book Bonanza experience, scale of one through 10. Honestly, like an eight, like besides the wristband situation, it would have been like the perfect
01:13:48
Speaker
It's crazy how after we all got our wristbands and we were sitting there like outside of the convention center in the hallway we were like okay I'm better now. Yeah I mean at one point I like had to like walk out of the crowd before we went in at one point because I was like about to cry because it was just like stressful and just like too many people and whatever and then immediately after we were done I'm like okay I feel better exactly like Kayla said.
01:14:11
Speaker
reminded me of how we felt with Daisy hates to how like cranky we were about that book not being able to come out on time and then once we got up we were like okay it's crazy how easily like easily uh satisfied we are so easy um is there an author that you guys
01:14:33
Speaker
would want to come next year that would persuade you to come. Elsie Silver. Yeah, Elsie for all of us. Kaye Tucker. Kayla and I joke about it. If Kaye Tucker was there, we wouldn't have left her table. She went the year before. She went the year not this year. I was so sad. We would have gotten all the simple wild secrets out of her. Oh my gosh. But yeah, I hope she does come back next year or goes to a signing that one of us can attend.
01:14:56
Speaker
I wish Christina Lauren was here. They're gonna be at steamy lit, which sucks, like I'm bummed that I can't go.
01:15:05
Speaker
I would personally like to see more like romanticy authors there. There were a few, there were like a handful, there weren't very many, but I would love to see more of them there. Like I think Carissa Bronbent would do so well in a place like that. I think Rebecca Yaros is probably, that would be a little too crazy maybe to have her there. But yeah, I would love to see how I would like to see there.
01:15:34
Speaker
I also wish that like, and this is just from like the narrator point of view and like even authors, like I wish that there were more authors of color there. Like I think there was already like a nice handful, but I think they definitely could have done better, especially when it came to like panels and stuff. I don't think that there was enough like conversations. I do know that a lot of the Latinx authors had a meetup with like all their readers, which I thought was amazing.
01:16:01
Speaker
But yeah, I'm like, that's the one thing I'm like, I definitely could have been a little bit. But that's like, I think that's almost every event. So hopefully they keep that in mind for next year. Speaking of which, guys, we skipped over by far the worst part of with Bonanza, besides the wristbands, which was that god awful panel we sat through. I chose to ignore it.
01:16:20
Speaker
I literally got up halfway through and walked out. Not in a bitchy way, but just in a way. It was narrator improv, so they were given scenes from romance books. And then the audience yelled out goofy accents for them to read it. And it was fucking painful. It was so, so bad. Not even painful in the way that the narrators weren't doing well, except for one of them. I was going to say, not painful in a way that the narrators weren't doing a good job.
01:16:47
Speaker
but a lot of them didn't do a good job. Well yeah I mean the best one was Maxine she killed it every time. She did so good she ate all of those other narrators up on the panel like there was one point which this is the part that like just made me cringe the most they did a scene from Sinner which I'm like why would you do a book that like a narrator on the panel because after it was on the panel why would you do like a book that they have done especially like a book where that like helped put him even more on the map anyways um
01:17:16
Speaker
So they had two of the narrators and their accents given were country and Kardashian. And the country accent wasn't even country. He sounded like Goofy from a Goofy movie.
01:17:30
Speaker
He sounded so bad and it just like in the whole time exactly we're sitting there like he did not want to be there you just tell he was like fidgeting the whole time and like Rubbing his face just like not we were sat front row to which don't know like looking back I literally couldn't take it because I get really really really bad secondhand embarrassment like I can't I can't So I was like I'm gonna go to the bathroom So then I just like stood up and went to the bathroom then when I came back inside I sat in the literal last row I was like I can't do I can't do it
01:17:59
Speaker
And people were eating it up. I was like, that's crazy. Yeah, that was definitely like, I was like, no. But yeah, overall, I think eight out of 10 is great for the actual event. 10 out of 10 for vibes. Yeah, absolutely. We'll see what the lineup is going to be next year to determine whether or not we even attempt to get, try and get tickets. You guys want to go to Chicago?
01:18:27
Speaker
I would I want to meet Liz Tom Ford so bad. That's another person who I hope she said on Instagram that she plans on going to a lot more signings next year. So hopefully she ends up at one. Also, I know Simula is like in the air for us this year because of like scheduling and stuff, but they announced their dates for next year.
01:18:46
Speaker
and the year after that and in 2025 it's going to be Halloween. October the best month of the year. I'm like that'll be fun. So I do want to go to more but with book bonanza itself I'm like I saw literally all my big names like all like anyone that I wanted to see I saw
01:19:07
Speaker
So I don't know, like unless like they come out with like a new book, which I guess a few of them are, but I'm like, do I want to spend like $250 again in like hotel? So I don't know, it just, it depends. I think one thing too is like, since we're so a part of the online book community, like
01:19:27
Speaker
so many of these authors that we love love love of love are indie and they're very interactive so like we get the opportunity to like interact with them on their social media they'll respond to comments you know they're like all that stuff i and so that like satisfies me in a way too you know what i mean yeah um what else we like didn't even see calling hoover's table like i saw her once when she was going to the bathroom
01:19:54
Speaker
She passed by her real quick. She signed until 11 p.m. on side. I mean, props to her. Half the people there were there to see her. So the fact that she had to miss the final party just to keep signing was great.
01:20:09
Speaker
And then also I saw that for next year, because of all the chaos of this year, they're gonna cut back how many people attend by two to 300 people, which makes me happy because yes, at one point it was just too many people, but then it also makes me sad because in that limit, it's the amount of people who can go. We'll be able to get tickets. Yeah, so we'll see. I hope also another thing that, and this is something that I didn't even think about until afterwards,
01:20:38
Speaker
is that they had very little security at this event, which made me, in hindsight, very nervous and anxious because, like, they weren't doing bag checks. Anyone could walk in to the convention center itself, like, into the sign. Like, they were barely checking, I feel like, wristbands. I feel like at the beginning, they were. But I, to make me feel a lot more safer, especially in Texas, given our lack of, you know, great laws,
01:21:05
Speaker
I would feel a lot more comfortable if they had like even like a mental detector or just something clear back you know like what you need those regulations in place because you never know like you have really high-profile names at these events like Jenna from the Today show was there on day one so that's like yeah they have more definitely given the size of the event now and the spotlight that's been on it I definitely think that they need to hire
01:21:31
Speaker
professionals to put on this event rather than volunteers. I mean, maybe they can still have volunteers because again, we didn't really have a bad experience really with any, personally, any of the volunteers except for maybe strict line leaders and then that one lady that was leading the wristbands.
01:21:47
Speaker
I think that they are, I think it's just like the lack of communication because they're volunteers who also don't necessarily know everything. You know, and that's not their fault. That's one thing too, which is crazy. Oh, we don't know. And I'm like, how did you, did y'all like not have like a big meeting before you started volunteering to like go over all the rules and stuff? But whatever. Other than that, we had a great experience. So it was nice to check in with you guys. Yeah. Kayla and Kanda are seeing each other in a couple of weeks for Taylor Swift. Yay.
01:22:17
Speaker
So we'll check in with you guys before the summer's over again. But I'll see Brandi next month. Yeah. Yay. OK. Good job, everybody. All right. Way to end. Bye. Bye. Bye.