I wasn’t looking forward to last weekend because I had to decline the invitation to join my friends in St. George for another murder mystery party because of my midterms.  (I got a 95% on my Doctrine and Covenants midterm and 90% on my Japanese written midterm.  I still don’t know how I did on my Japanese oral midterm or my English midterm, but I’m hoping it wasn’t too bad. ;) )  Luckily, my weekend took a turn for the better when I received a tweet from Natasha, a book blogger, inviting me to the book blogger social she puts together twice a year.

I felt really privileged to go, honestly.  I had seen Natasha’s post about it on her blog, but I wasn’t going to go because I didn’t think I’m a “true” book blogger nor am I a member of the Utah Book Bloggers group (soon to be remedied; my membership is pending).  But, I guess I post enough book reviews and talk about books and my interactions with authors enough to get an invite. :D

The evening was full of fun, food, and lots of social interaction.  Natasha told us that this was the biggest turn out yet.  Lucky for us! :D It was so much fun to socialize with book bloggers and authors.  It’s always fun to socialize with others that share my same interests.

I sat at a table with my friends and fellow book bloggers Debbie and Catie.  And, because of Debbie’s and my connections to our soon-to-be-published-author friend Brodi Ashton, we also got to sit with Brodi, Bree Despain, Sydney Salter, Emily Wing Smith, and Ann Bowen.   I had already met Bree and Sydney thanks to Debbie and Brodi’s connections, but it was fun to see them again, and meet Emily and Ann.

After dinner, we had a book exchange.  I got Jaleta Clegg’s book: Nexus Point: The Fall of the Altairan Empire.  After the exchange, Jaletta came over and signed it for me.  The book looks really interesting and I’m excited to read it.  Kristyn Crow also gave me one of her books to read: Bedtime at the Swamp.  It looks very exciting and I love the artwork.

I was happy to see Karey Shane at the event.  I met Karey at the Children’s Book Festival last May when she told me about her upcoming book Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate.  I’ve been keeping tabs on her ever since and I’m so excited that her book will be released on April 6!  It has been a whirlwind of events to get her book published, but her time, dedication, and persistence is about to be paid off! :D I was lucky enough to get a copy of her book in January when she printed a run of ARCs.  Unfortunately, because of school, I haven’t had the chance to read it yet.  It’s the next on my list, once I finish Elantris.

I also had the chance to meet James Dashner and because of my interaction with Brodi on her blog, I felt like I was part of the “in” crowd when I talked to him.  I spent a couple of quality minutes with Shannon Hale discussing a fun event my group of friends had with her last September and a charity event Kristyn Crow and other authors will be hosting this August.  (I’ll post more details about it when I have them since I’m sure it will be fun and a good cause!)

I also met Ann Cannon, Becky Hall, Jean Reagan, and a few other authors of whom I can’t remember their names.  It was also fun to meet not only Natasha, the overseer, but Rachelle Rogers Knight, another book blogger and publisher of reading journals, and Suey, another book blogger.  I know I missed out on meeting a lot of bloggers and a few more authors, but I hope to meet them next time. ;)

I’m glad I had a chance to go to this event.  It was so much fun!  I hope I can go to future ones as well. :D