Riverina Romantics
I Smell Sheep
On The Road To Meet Patricia Briggs
with DeniseZ!
I am a huge fan of the author Patricia Briggs. I have been reading her Mercy Thompson series since the first book came out and have eagerly awaited each new installment every year since. I recently found out she was going to be at Powell's Books, which is about six hours from where I live, for a signing in celebration of her newest release, Night Broken. Well what's a fangirl to do but head on out for a road trip.
Some time ago Baart's cousin dropped by for a "visit." He has since taken up residence in my office and he very graciously agreed to accompany me on my adventure.
The morning of our journey showed great promise. The sun was shining, the tank was full, and all of the essentials were packed including my road trip companion, snacks for the road, and of course a really awesome audio book for the ride.
The first stop for any experienced road tripper is for libations with my drink of choice being a piping hot cup of coffee - a big hot Kicker to be exact, and it appeared that my companion was equally appreciative of my taste. Yep he also appreciated the lovely barista that prepared this yummy concoction and was very grateful for this tasty treat!
The actual drive, although long (ending up about seven hours), was pretty uneventful. We were able to wave at a few of the cousins on the way . . .
On arrival at Powell's Books, not having been to this type of event before, I spoke with the very kind employees at the information desk and was informed that the general process was to buy whatever books you had chosen and find a seat. The program would include a reading, question and answer period, and signing. Sharon and I had discussed which book to choose for this post and decided since the new release was just recently featured, why not introduce the series those of you who have not yet jumped on the Mercy Thompson bandwagon with book one in the series, Moon Called. I had called ahead to order the book and the only copy they had that was not a used book was one with the UK cover, so this is what I ordered. My companion and I scurried up to the checkout and paid for the book.
While waiting for the program to begin I found that book people are really a fun bunch, not only online where I usually socialize, but also in person and there is never a stranger in the bunch. We talked about all kinds of books we enjoyed; shared about books and authors some had not yet tried or read, and overall had loads of fun with book talk.
Once Patricia Briggs was introduced she decided to begin the program with a question and answer period. There were a lot of questions about her series The Hobb's Bargain, originally published in 2001, and whether we could expect more from this world: the answer, yes, eventually. She is currently working on the next installment in the Alpha and Omega series, currently is being titled Dead Heat and is expected to be published in the spring of 2015. The next Mercy Thompson book is titled Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson is scheduled for release in September of 2014. She explained that this will be in the style of an anthology with half of the book previously published Mercy Thompson shorts and half of the book new content. She also stated the book is expected to be pretty substantial in size and it looks like it is going to be a real treat.
The issue of cover art for the Mercy Thompson series was raised and, as some may already know, the new Mercy physique came about with cover artist's model, who has been the same for the entire series, having a baby - well yep this does result in some changes. The publisher evidently likes the change and it is likely to stay. One thing I found particularly interesting was the discussion about Mercy's tattooing on the covers. It is different on all of the books and while I always noticed, I never quite understood this. The tattoos actually tell bits and pieces of the story in the book, which I thought was pretty cool.
Following the question and answer period she read a short passage from Night Broken and the signing commenced. We went up by rows and as you can see I am pretty far back so by the time it was my turn it was about 10:00 p.m. and roughly thirteen hours since heading out on this journey. Of course being the incredibly prepared individual I am I had rehearsed in my head all the way what I would say and just how witty I could be in the saying, full of confidence that I would just be so very professional. Well it was my turn and my brain shut down. All I could hear was the blah blah blah just like the adults in a snoopy cartoon, although eventually I was able to get out that I was excited to be there for myself and getting to share the experience on the blog I Smell Sheep and asked if my companion could take a picture with her to which she agreed. Then the oh-so professional me COULD NOT GET THE CAMERA UNLOCKED on my phone. Certain I am ten shades of purple by now, not to mention dead tired, she very graciously offered to have one of the teenagers in line unlock it for me - yes friends this is what really occurred. Well I hit the button and got the shot, much to the obvious annoyance of the lady seated in the background LOL who I did not see until later. Then my sheeply friends Patricia Briggs signed this awesome book. She not only signed it, she also drew a sheep next to her signature and said she wrote sheep next to it because she wanted to make sure we knew what she drew, frankly I think she did a darn fine job of it.
UK cover
US cover
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