[WEEKLY MUSING] Victoria Aveyard in PH!!

signed copy!!

Hello,

We all have our first times on things. Last Sunday was my first time to attend a book signing here in the Philippines. Here's a quick thought: it's as crazy as I see them in photos. Let me give a rundown of my uneventful experience last Sunday.

• I left our house at 8:00AM. Not early enough to be first in the book signing but enough to get me inline and not being the last one.
• I arrived at the event registration at 9:30AM with my sister, Gelleesh, only to find a line longer than the train line at 6:30AM on a Monday. I expected to find a long line but I didn't expect it so be so long. Expectations failed me. Ugh.
• National Bookstore (NBS), the host of the event, started letting people inside a few minutes before 10 (perhaps because of the utterly long line). Getting inside excited me as I'm getting tired of standing outside and the heat was starting to kick in. But once inside, we only find ourselves seeing more of the line and it was scary as hell! Earlier, I was joking about letting NBS cut the guests to 500 but from the looks of thing, we won't make it.

• When the registration finally started, I'm in line with my sister and we each have two books for signing. My fear came to reality when we found that our registration numbers are 685 and 686. I don't want to feel hopeless and just go home. I don't want my effort to go to waste so we wait. We wait for around 8hrs.
• So what happens in all those waiting hours? We ate lunch (naturally), memorize every single thing that they are selling in NBS. Three flours of books, arts, school, and office supplies goodness? It's kind of a part of my life to check those so why not do it here? I bought a a few page markers for myself and I almost bought a Zig Waterbrush and 300gsm watercolor pads (I mean 300gsm!! I don't always see that but it's bloodydamn expensive and while I do have the money, I don't want to spend it right now).
• We set on sides of bookshelves looking at the activity of other people. Plainly boring like that.
• The event proper, of course, started at 2PM. Victoria Aveyard comes out then. There was a question and answer which I can't quite hear because we stayed at the 2nd flour of the store (there were just too many people on the first floor!!). I heard people screaming Maven though. HAHA. #TeamMaven
• The actual signing started at around 2:30PM. We wait. 
• At around 4:00PM or something, she requested for a break. She signed books of around 200 people by then. It was honestly crazy just thinking about it. I was really thinking about how exhausting it must have been for her. So I don't complain. I don't ever want to complain.
• Next thing I know, I see a kid whose mother is getting really mad about their family's wasted day because of the book signing. She insists that they go home thinking her kid won't get her book sign any time soon. She was 800+, I think and I really feel sorry for her. At the end of it, she went home with her family.
• When Victoria Aveyard resumed her booksigning a few minutes later, things started getting faster and faster. I got my book signed between 6:30PM and 7:00PM. Sadly though, there were no more personalized signing. But that's fine.
• When it was my time, she was like: Hi, how are you? Thanks for waiting! And my mind was like, ohmygod, what should I say? WHAT!?. I know I look so weird then and my introvert and awkward self just came out. Apparently I was starstrucked. Ugh! So I was like: I was so excited to meet you. This is actually my first book signing. And what did she replied? I did not even hear it. I was too overwhelmed!! @__@ 

I look weird and awkward and whatever else :P

That's all, I guess. it was crazy. While things didn't go as I imagined it to be, it was a great experience. I was completely overwhelmed by the number of people in the venue as well as meeting an author. Next time should definitely better. LOL.

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How about you guys, how did your first book signing go? Were you completely startstrucked like me? If you haven't been on one, who'd you like to meet? Who's the author that you'll see no matter what?

let's connect!