I have discovered the secret to meeting someone famous....

And I'll tell you! :) But first...

A week ago Shannon Hale came to my little town. She spoke at the library--which was packed by the way, adults and children alike wanted to come hear/see/meet her.

(Okay...she's not exactly famous-famous... but well known for sure... and a successful author--O ya! Twenty books and counting published!)

I loved hearing her insights as well as hearing so many things we agreed on when it comes to writing--I being the newbie that I am, sort of feel like I don't have a clue what I'm doing half the time. She made that half empty glass, half full! :) I realized I DO know what I'm doing!!!--Half the time, anyway.  :)

And there's a whole lot I need to learn, without a doubt.

Still, she came, she spoke, she answered questions and then she signed books.

The line for the signing circled the room.

It was crazy. 

So, although I really wanted to meet her and have her sign something, my friends and I decided our stomachs out-weighed the length of the line. So, we went out to dinner. We laughed, we talked, we ate... we SAT. It was lovely.

Two hours later, Heidi and I decided to see if there was still in fact a line to see Shannon. 

Guess what? There was. And ONE person was left in the line. (Thus my sitting joke above... we didn't have to stand in line for two hours!!)

So, we didn't just get her to sign our stuff, but we had a nice little visit as well. She went to the same mission as my hubby--the same years--neither of them remember the other, but still kind of cool. Heidi bragged me up--(tho there isn't much to brag about--my one novel that's coming out looks a little lonely compared to her twenty already out. haha.) The ironic thing was she bragged me up after Shannon wrote this note in my book. :)

It was fun. And inspiring. I came home and wrote out an author talk for kids--(a teacher has asked me to speak to a bunch of 5th graders...and I hadn't a clue what to say!! But she helped inspire that).

And someday if I have a little author-talk-book-signing thing I'm guessing there will be 6 people there--all friends who know and love me. But that's okay. I have to start somewhere. And I am really really grateful for those friends who know and love me.

So, if you're one of them--and if you're reading this, you probably are. Thank you! :)

O yes and the moral to the story: When there's a huge line to meet someone special... go out to eat first!