TGIF & Meeting Shannon Hale

(we weren't allowed personal pictures with her, so here she is signing Emma's copy of her new book)

On Thursday night, I met Shannon Hale.

For those of you who don't know who she is.  You need to know.  She is an amazing author who touches your heart with her stories.  She won a Newbery Honor Award for Princess Academy (I wanted to name our first daughter Miri once upon a time).  She wrote Austenland because she is just as enamored with Jane Austen as I am.

I think she could have been my friend in another life.

She's witty, entertaining, and so lively in front of an audience.
She's also a mom of four, cries when she talks about winning her Newbery Honor Award, and spills water all over herself on accident in front of a crowd of at least 50 fans.

She was at Changing Hands Bookstore to promote her sequel to Princess Academy, but she never got around to it, instead spending the whole "talk" portion of her time answering questions and telling silly life stories: like her experience being an extra on the Austenland movie set and signing Ricky Whittle's underwear (!).

And I got to tell her that her stories inspire and challenge me as an "author in progress."

I so want to be like her someday...an engaging, down-to-earth, beautiful-inside-and-out author.
Have you ever met someone famous and found him/her just as you imagined?

Note: this is my 201st post!!!  WOOT!