Showing posts with label book bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book bloggers. Show all posts

My Trip with Doctor Who, and How a Small Child was Maimed at the Book Blogger Social

Happy Monday y'all.


How about some Thing 1 and Thing 1!




Thing 1:
Doctor Who visited me in my sleep last night. For those of you who don't know, Doctor Who is a time-travelling man/alien who saves the world a lot. 
Dr. Who and Rose. They made me cry a lot.
Last night, I dreamed I got to go on one of his exciting adventures.  Where would we end up? Ancient Rome? Shakespearean London? Or... a thousand years into the future? 


No. He took me to 1989 to see the filming of that Patrick Swayze classic Roadhouse. You know, the one where Swayze plays a tough bouncer hired to straighten out a dirty bar? 
It's his way... or the highway.
Yeah, I wasn't familiar with this movie either. I have no idea where it was hiding out in my sub conscience.


Before you ask, no, I didn't get to see Mr. Swayze utter his most famous lines:


"Pain don't hurt."


and


"Nobody ever wins a fight."


and finally,


"My way... or the highway."


I asked the Doctor what we were doing here, and he looked at me like, "Duh, it's your dream. Isn't that a question for your therapist?"


I'm inclined to agree with him. 


Nobody ever "wins" a fight! Except the last guy standing...


Thing 1:
We went to the Utah Bool Blogger Social Saturday night. Utah is home to a staggering amount of book bloggers, and twice a year they get together to party with the local authors.


And when I say party, I mean party. Want proof? Check out this candid pic:
Authors Matt Kirby, Bree Despain, and myself.
Photo taken by Heather Gardner Photography. 
This picture popped up on the internet after the party. I love it. Bree and I look thoroughly unimpressed, and Matt looks a little disgusted. 


I'm here to tell you, that was not representative of the evening! Heather has promised to give us a little more notice before she snaps a candid picture next time.


Overheard at the party:


-Emily Wing Smith and I, taking turns to see who could cough up a lung first. (I won)


-Bree and Emily, having a discussion that involved the phrases, "Who did you fork that one time?" 
It's not like it sounds. They have both had accidents where they nearly impaled a bystander with a fork. 


-Matt Kirby said afterward that the "Who did you fork" conversation would make my blog. He claims his blog-worthy-statements-detection-skills are running at about 98%.


-During the book swap, Chersti Nieveen trampled a small child to get her hands on Emily Wing Smith's ARC of BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE.


-She later swore the child was really the devil's spawn, and deserved to be trampled. 
Here's a picture of the unfortunate demon child:
Don't be fooled by her angelic disguise.
Here's a pic that better captures the spirit of the event.


Top: Matt Kirby, Bree Despain
Bottom: Chersti Nieveen, Emily Wing Smith, Leisha Maw


Because nothing screams "Party!" like Bree Despain wearing Princess Leia Buns made out of lightbulbs. 


So, what did y'all do over the weekend? Were you at the social? (If so, give a holla in the comments). Did you see any good movies? Did you trample any small children?

Book Bloggers Slash Local Authors Shootout at the Golden Corral: or How I Named my Chest

Do you like the new blog look? The old look was making me itchy, so I'm going to be trying out some new looks. Let me know what you think.

We have some rockin' book bloggers in Utah, and on Saturday night I went to their Bloggers/Authors social extravaganza at the Golden Corral. 
 (some of the bloggers and authors. I'm too lazy to name names.)

Since I am neither a "Book Blogger" nor an "Author" I was a little unsure what to put on my nametag. 
It's not a matter of self-esteem or anything, it's semantics. I am not technically a book blogger, and since I haven't published a book I'm not an author either.
So Emily Wing Smith made me a new nametag: Brodi Ashton: Bombastic (which means pompous or overblown).

Oh wait, it says "bombtastic". Which is a made up word meaning... well... not pompous and overblown.

I'd never been to the Golden Corral, but I was excited to relive my hardcore buffet days from Vegas.
It was very reminiscent, although I kept waiting for the pirate ships full of dancing women to appear from the ceiling and toss beads at us. I guess that's only a Vegas thing...
(Me, Agent sister Sydney Salter and Suey's Hubby)

The evening culminated in a rousing game of "Book Swap". The rules are simple: Bring a used book. Then swap it. Other than that, it's Anything Goes! Some of us forgot padding, so there were a few injuries.

Other ensuing shenanigans (I stole some pics from Suey):
- Number of times we'd cheer when the book swap numbers were called: 32

-Number of times James Dashner would say one of the following: 
"Stop Cheering! There are no winners and losers!"
"It's not a drawing!"
"Everyone's a winner! Stop it!"
... 32

-I won Carol Lynch William's book THE CHOSEN ONE. James got a Baby book. See? There are winners and losers. 

-Bree Despain won a bodice ripper. The male model on the cover was undressing everyone in the Golden Corral dining room with his eyes. By the time dessert rolled around, everyone was naked. That's when the pirate ships appeared and the disco ball lit up. Makes you want to come to the next one, right?

-Number of trips I took to the ice cream bar, all the while claiming "I'm gonna get my ten bucks back in ice cream alone!": 4

-Number of times I complained that the hot fudge machine was rigged to be difficult: 4

-Number of times I told James to "stop looking fuzzy" for my camera phone: 2

-The whole night, I refrained from saying how I thought Apollo Anton Ohno is cute, because I didn't want Natasha Maw to think I was hitting on her husband:
(Natasha, her hubby, and her sister Leisa. The resemblance to Ohno is uncanny, isn't it? Although from his expression in the pic, I imagine a little word bubble above his head saying, "If someone tells me I look like Apollo one more time, I swear I'm gonna throw this table across the room." Just kidding. He's really nice. This is a long picture caption, isn't it?)

Here's the real Ohno. Tell me there isn't a resemblance...

-Every time someone asked me about my book, I'd answer using "We..." As in: "We're still waiting... We're working on it... We're spending our mornings writing..." I don't know why this made me feel better. As if writing wasn't such a lonely endeavor. I finally said, "And by 'we', I mean me, my left boob and my right boob. The three of us are working hard on the book."

-When asked why she had two nametags, someone said it was so she could name her two best friends:

-I won't tell you who it was...

Shenanigans Ensued at the Book Bloggers Social

Random Thingee: Hubby keeps calling me Martha. Over and over. He's been getting mad when I don't respond. Anyone care to offer diagnosis? Martha, Brodi. Brodi, Martha. They're practically interchangeable.

Book Bloggers Social
Saturday night, I went to the Utah Book Bloggers social, where I met all sorts of cool bloggers.
Aforementioned "Cool Bloggers"

I knew everyone would have business cards to hand out, so about an hour before I was supposed to leave, I decided to quickly design some and print them up.

Designing the little suckers was a feat, because all I had was my name and my website. And I didn't want to be all "Men in Black" about it:


Like, "I'm Brodi. I blog. I'd have more on my card, but I'm CIA, and it would cost someone a life. Do you want that on your head, just so you can have more information?"

Thankfully, I remembered Marie's artwork for my book:

so I slapped it on there.

This all took up the first hour. Hey, typing is hard.

Then I had to search for cardstock. Came up with 8 pieces of white.

So, I set it to print 8, figuring that would give me at least 40 or 50 cards. More than enough. When I went downstairs to the printer, all 8 pages had printed. With one card per page. Smack dab in the middle.

Crap.

Now I'm 15 minutes late, and I can't find the kitchen scissors, or my paper cutter. (Yes, I'm really that disorganized.) I'm about to tear them, when Kid C hands me his "scissors" from kindergarten.

Together, we cut out all 8 cards, in under 30 minutes. Did I mention Kid C got 2 out of 5 stars in kindergarten for "Cutting in a Straight Line"?

No problem. I shove the cards in my pocket and head out the door. When we get to the park, we wander around for about half an hour, looking for the group.

The cards get nice and sweaty.

When it's finally time to hand them out, they're curled, warped, wrinkled and moist.

To add insult to injury, I have to say, "I only have the eight, so if you think you're gonna throw it away, please don't take one."

Great impression, right?

Here are the authors at the event. I promise the picture taker said, "Okay, Brodi please look like a dork. The rest of you smile like normal people."
Other random happenings at the social:
  • Bree Despain debuted her Dark Divine nail polish
  • Suey's son declared J. Scott Savage's book to be "better than Harry Potter"
  • James Dashner threw a cup at me
  • Organizer Natasha Maw treated me like an author. (Shhh, don't tell her the truth).
  • J. Scott Savage, or "Jeff" as his friends call him, cleared up the confusion about his name. Sorta.
  • Emily Wing Smith made interesting, and slightly gross, hand gestures at Coldstone
  • Bree Despain gave in to her lactose intolerance, and ate ice cream
  • James Dashner bet me 5 bucks I couldn't finish my extra large Coldstone Ice Cream, with Raspberries and Graham Crackers
  • Upon observing me chow down the first five bites, James Dashner rescinded the offer. And asked if I'd need another one.
  • None of us could remember what movie made Doris Day famous
  • I learned a new word. "Habitue". When I asked what it meant, I was told, "It's like 'denizen'." When I asked what that meant, I was told, "Home." By then, I had forgotten what the original word was.
  • I learned that Bermuda Shorts don't necessarily need to have flowers printed on them.
  • We decided Emily Wing Smith's new contacts were haunted, and turning her eyes black.
  • James Dashner admitted to chasing down Mike Tyson in an airport based solely on the fact that it would make a good blog post.
  • Natasha's hubby Taylor is writing a book about aliens too. They really are the next big thing! Pass it on!
Here are some links to the bloggers I met. There would be more, but I totally suck at hyper-linking. (Is that even the correct terminology?) The link at the bottom will take you to the entire group.

mawbooks.com
http://bookhabitue.blogspot.com/
http://bookscoops.com/
http://haikuamy.blogspot.com/
http://sueysbooks.blogspot.com/
http://mjmbecky.blogspot.com/
http://emilysreadingroom.blogspot.com/
http://angieville.blogspot.com/

Entire List of Utah Book Blooggers

How's everyone's week going? Any happenings? Hope you all are doing well, and thank you for your comments and your donations from Monday's blog.