Friday’s signing for The Host was at Thanksgiving Point and started at 7:00 pm. Our group met at the dinosaur museum around 4:00 pm to get ready to be let into the Show Barn at 4:30 pm. While we were waiting, Kayla painted “souls” on our necks for the signing.
We were going to start camping out around 8:30 am. However, thanks to Nancy, we didn’t have to camp out to get good seats. We were let in the Show Barn around 4:30 pm, even though the doors didn’t open until 5:00 pm. Because the staff wanted to give the people who’d camped out in the sun all day the front few rows, we ended up in the fourth and fifth rows. We were so stoked! Thank you, Nancy! :D
Once we got settled in our seats, we started to have fun by talking to other people at the signing, taking pictures of us everywhere (one of them was even with Stephenie Meyer’s camera :D ), and meeting and talking to Stephenie’s older sister Emily.
Lori was interviewed by Fox 13 News and made it on the 5:00 news. Some of the rest of our group even made it on the 9:00 news. (Too bad they didn’t pan up just a tad, so I could’ve made the news too. :lol: )
Stephenie Meyer came out to a standing ovation and lots and lots of enthusiastic screams. Before she started to sign books, she answered a few pre-submitted questions, dealing mostly with The Host, although she did talk about the Twilight movie as well. :D She said she’s excited for the movie and thinks the cast and crew are doing a great job. She really likes Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.
Once she was done answering questions, she started to sign books. Because there were so many fans, we weren’t allowed to take pictures with Stephenie. (She would’ve been there until next week.) Our group took pictures of each other getting our books signed, so we could “sort of” have a picture with Stephenie.
Our names were written on a Post-It note and put on the page opposite of where she would sign The Host, so Stephenie could personalize it. When it was my turn, she said, “Hello Jennifer,” and smiled at me. :D I almost died right there! But, after I said hi back, I was able to tell her she was the reason I read. She was really excited about that and told me not to stop. I also told her I was almost done with my first Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park. She answered, “That’s one of my favorites!” I was very excited about that and told her thank you for signing my books, so I could moved on.
I didn’t freak out while I was on stage with her, which is a miracle. :lol: However, because I had so much pent up adrenaline, I screamed at the top of my lungs as soon as I was out of the Show Barn.
After the signing, we had an after party. We ate ice cream, talked about the signing, and made a game plan for the next day. We also gave Lori and Laura a bag full of things from Utah to thank them for coming out and going to the signings with us. Some of the things in the bag included: a bottle of fry sauce and honey, a bag of salt water taffy, a package of green Jell-o, a Utah quarter, a BYU baseball cap, a Book of Mormon, and some other things too. Laura was a good sport when she pulled out the BYU cap and Book of Mormon since she isn’t LDS. Lori’s LDS, so Laura has been around her enough to know we were joking with her. They both laughed a lot. ;)
Stephenie’s older sister and cousin Melanie–the name sake of Melanie in The Host–came to our party for a little bit. :D Emily told us she may want to join our group because of the opportunity to have a girl’s night out once a month. Danylle gave Emily her e-mail address and phone number. We’re all very excited and hope she does decide to join. :D
Stay tuned for a post about Saturday’s signing.
