One of the reasons Mary and I read Breaking Dawn so fast is because we knew that ten days after the release, there would be a book signing and concert with the author. Stephenie Meyer only had four book signings for the book release... Chicago, L.A., New York... and drumroll... SEATTLE! We were lucky enough to secure tickets. All four concerts sold out the day the tickets went on sale. Stephenie paired up with a musician by the name of Justin Furstenfeld for this event. Stephenie did some Q&A on stage and Justin, along with his acoustic guitar, played songs that inspired her while she was writing the books. It was WONDERFUL!!
But let me back up.... Mary and I had been planning to make t-shirts for this event. We spent a lot of time designing a shirt that we would want to wear. We finally got the design finalized the MORNING of the event. (Talk about cutting it close.) We left early and headed to the mall to the t-shirt place where they took our design and put it on a really cool baseball style shirt. We were SO proud of how they turned out and we got a lot of compliments on them!! We came back to my house and started getting ready. We dolled up our hair. Mary is the hair queen. I can't do squat with my hair... but she is my Alice (it's a book reference!) and does a fabulous job! She curled our hair and put it up. Then we put red ribbons in our curls. The red ribbon is another book reference. We also put glitter all over our skin (yet another book reference) and just had fun. We painted each other's toenails too!!
Linda came over to sit with my boys in the interim until Mike could get home from work. Mary and I took off on our long anticipated adventure!!! As we took off for Seattle, we truly felt like teenagers with a sense of freedom neither of us had felt in a long time. We went early and found GREAT parking. The event was held at Benaroya Hall, downtown. Then we walked over to Pike Place Market and cruised around for awhile. We had enjoyed dinner at the Pike Pub. Mary had a great BBQ sandwich and I had a Reuben... probably the best Reuben I've ever had (and I've had quite a few!)
When we were done eating, we walked over to Benaroya and got in line. We noticed many others had on cool t-shirts too and we got lots of compliments on ours!! We had GREAT seats! The concert and Q&A was awesome! When that was done, we stood in line no less than an hour and a half to get our books signed. But it was fun. The atmosphere was festive and everyone was excited to meet Stephenie Meyer! Well, the moment of truth finally arrived. We handed our books over to her publicist, who opened them to the correct page for signing and slid them over to Stephenie for signing. When it was our turn, Stephenie looked up and said, "I LOVE your shirts!" SQUUUEEEEEEE!!!! We were so excited. Mary said, "Do you want to see the back?" and she said, "Yes!" So Mary modeled the back for her. We were so honored that she took the time to look at them. She stopped signing to do it. Most people got herded right through. I also dropped off a letter for her. We walked out of there on cloud 9!!!
When we got down to the parking garage, we paused for a moment to look at our books and gush over the autographs in them. That's when my heart sank. When I handed my book over for signing, I realized that whoever took it, broke the binding on it. I was so sad... my heart just hurt. I had waited all this time and finally got to meet the author and get the book signed, only to have it ruined. It was tempting to feel sorry for myself, but we had had a PERFECT day and so I made a decision to just be happy that I'd gotten to meet her and go to the concert. We left in high spirits. (By the way, I could not go back and try to get it corrected... security was VERY tight and there as NO way of getting back into the venue. Seattle police were at all the doors and she had several body guards, not to mention at least another thousand people still in line to get their books signed.) When we left, we wound up going to The Cheesecake Factory at Southcenter. We sat there, enjoying appetizers and cheesecake and just chatting and reminiscing about our night. So WONDERFUL! Then we went home and crashed out. Mary left the next day.
Well, the broken book was eating at me a bit. So I got on the computer and went searching... and searching... and searching... for Stephenie Meyer's publicist... and I found her! I emailed her my whole sob story, not really expecting to hear back. (Stephenie Meyer's fan base rivals that of Harry Potter... the fandom is HUGE and spans the globe!) To my shock and amazement, I heard back from her publicist, Elizabeth Eulberg, the next morning! Here is the response I got from her:
Hi Christina, I’m very sorry to hear what happened to your book during the autographing, especially since I am the one who takes the books and passes them to Stephenie. Breaking Dawn is a pretty big book so the binding is delicate as is, so I’m not surprised to hear there is an issue. If you give me your address, I will send you a replacement copy of Breaking Dawn that has a very cool signed bookplate in it from Stephenie. Best, ElizabethAMAZING! So I sent her my address along with my profuse thanks and this is what she said to me:
I’m so glad Christina – I have to spend my time telling people no all day, so it is always nice when I can make someone’s day! Best, ElizabethNot only did she remain true to her word, but shockingly, I received the book, from New York, the NEXT DAY! Yes... the next day!! She sent it via overnight mail. I am so lucky!!! So now I have two signed copies of the book, though one is broken. They sit on my bookshelf (er... I mean Twilight Shrine) and I don't even touch them! Okay... next stop... movie premiere... November 21!!! Mary and I are planning on going on opening night for that!!!
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