When my writing partner, Katie, heard that fantasy author Cinda Williams Chima was going to be in Oregon, she immediately texted me about it. And from there we formulated our crazy plan: a three-hour road trip to The Dalles, where Klindt’s books was holding a YA book signing event. And better yet, our lovely and exuberant friend Rachael decided to tag along for the adventure.
It was an interesting trip. Let me tell you about it!
Now that I’ve totally freaked you out, let’s start with the night before. After I had finished everything that I wanted to for that day, I glanced at the clock and realized that it was midnight—and I hadn’t even taken a shower or packed my bags for the trip.
HOLY CRAPMUFFINS!
…And I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning. Epic facepalm. I got all my stuff done as quickly as I could, but still didn’t get into bed until 1:45am. At that point I was like, “Oh well!” I had survived on four hours of sleep before; I could do it again. YOLO, right?
Anyway, I woke up on schedule and was ready to leave the house by 6:15. Rach was supposed to come pick me up at 6:30, so we could head on over to Katie’s house and leave from there by 7. Five to 6:30 I get a text from Rach saying that her car battery had died and her dad had to come out and help her jumpstart it.
My dad would’ve killed me if I had woken him up that early!
Everything turned out fine, though. Her car came back to life and we left just before 7 as planned. Score!
First
priority for this trip? Coffee, of
course! We stopped in Junction City to
raid the Starbucks (okay, not really), get breakfast, and fill up on gas.
Then we were
on our way! I felt great! Excited!
Astronomical! Who needs
sleep? SLEEP IS OVERRATED.
For the
first 45 minutes of the trip, Katie and I chatted with Rach about Cinda and her
books. Rach got a little nap in, and
during that time Katie and I discussed our own books. Mwahaha. The next hour was spent singing along to the
radio at the top of our lungs, and composing some pretty awesome (and, well,
some pretty terrible ones) harmonies to today’s most popular songs. Love my choir girls! Ha ha ha
We only made
one bathroom break on our way there. The
rest stop that we found ended up being a trailhead for a hike along a really
pretty creek. I would’ve taken pictures of
the creek, but I had left my phone and my camera in the car.
We started
to get really excited when we saw the
first The Dalles road sign! Sorry the
photo is so blurry, but hey—give me some credit! It’s really difficult to take pictures in a
fast-moving vehicle!
Soon enough
we reached our destination. As I
tweeted, Klindt’s is a perfect little shop in a wonderfully quaint town. The first thing I noticed when I stepped out
of the car was the change of atmosphere.
Like literally, the atmosphere.
The air was thicker and more humid than down south, but no
allergies! Woohoo!
ANYWAY,
Klindt’s. Just look at the
pictures. This bookstore is
amazing, and apparently, the oldest one in Oregon. I’m in love. ♥
And guess
who was right there when you entered the store?
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA, of course!
My friends and I got there right as the event began, so we some of the
first people to come in. Cinda is just
the coolest lady. Katie and I got to
talk to her for a good 15-20 minutes about everything from books, writing, and The Enchanter Heir (eep!) to travelling
and Doctor Who. I serious found it hard to breathe for a
moment when she realized that I was that nerdy blogger who had tweeted her a
day or two before the event.
She
remembered me! I got to hug her! And talk to her! And I bought Crimson Crown! And she
signed both that and my beloved copy of The
Dragon Heir! I was what Tumblr calls “internally
fangirling.”
In all
seriousness, though, Cinda has been one of my primary sources of inspiration
for writing ever since I started reading her works three years ago. I am very honored and grateful to have been
able to meet her!
I also got
to meet Rae Carson, who is the author of The
Girl of Fire and Thorns, which I bought and got signed as well. I
had just added that book to my Goodreads to-read list a week before, and I
hadn’t even known that she was going to be there. That was a pleasant surprise. I can’t wait to read it.
Other
authors that I got to meet and talk to were Kendare Blake (Anna Dressed in Blood, which is hitting the big screen!) and
Danielle Myers (The Last Burning of New
London).
We hung out
at the bookstore for an hour, and after checking out we browsed The Dalles on
foot for a bit. Then we stopped at a
local park to eat lunch. To walk off all
of those calories, we left the car and walked down main street Dalles to do
some more browsing. I scored a pair of
Isaac Mizrahi loafer flats and a purple scarf at a thrift store, but my
favorite purchase would be this cute old Pokémon tin that I got for $4.50. It was taped closed with the price tag, but
it was heavy so I knew that something was in it…but I didn’t know what. Turns out that it was full to the brim with
Pokémon cards! I felt like I had won the
lottery!
By late
afternoon, we had started the trip back home.
And our not-so-epic quest to find an In-n-Out. I’m not going to go into to many details
therein, because it’s definitely one of those “you had to have been there” sort
of stories, but long story short: we had a GPS navigation malfunction and ended
up passing up the In-n-Out near Portland and…yeah. It was disappointing, but we settled for
second best (Five Guys, of course).
And that’s
about it! The rest of the drive was
composed of playing 21 Questions and MASH and snapping random photos of clouds
We made
it home and parted our ways. Even though
it was nearing seven-o-clock, I still couldn’t feel the four hours of
sleep. It didn’t really hit me until
about ten! Yeah, and then I
crashed. Like literally.
...That all being said, this was quite a day, and
certainly one to remember! I should
write a memoir someday. That would be fuuuun.
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