Shannon Hale and The King's English

Over the weekend I had a great time reminiscing while looking through my 2009 blog book. I was reminded of my adventure with Bridget and my friend, Angie, at The King's English book store in Salt Lake. We went there to meet The Pioneer Woman and get my cookbook signed. Suddenly I wanted to go back to that book store (I'm always on the lookout for a happy place). I looked them up and noticed that Shannon Hale would be there that very night! Bridget and I have read Princess Academy and I've read Goose Girl, at the Sisters' Retreat I watched "Austenland." The book Shannon was promoting was Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters, third in the Princess Academy trilogy.

We invited Annie to come with us - she's a Kindred Spirit Book Friend. :) We went into the book store to get our copies of the new book, then over to the Gallery to listen to Shannon Hale talk.

They handed everyone a little alligator. How cute is that?! Shannon (or "Sister Hale," as I almost called her to her face) was fantastic. She talked about writing and embarrassing stories and having confidence. Bridget and Annie were pretty quiet, but I loved that they were hearing all that great stuff. :)

Here they are in the Gallery getting photo-bombed. That guy warned me that they'd photo-bombed us when I sat down. I thought that was hilarious, so we're keeping it. After the talk and the question-and-answer session, we went back to the The King's English to wait in line to get our books signed. I hurried the girls over since it was a school night and we couldn't afford to be in the back of the line like I was for The Pioneer Woman. I bought the second Princess Academy book (we don't have that one) for Shannon to sign as well. 

There we are! So much fun. I am inspired. Three cheers for independent book stores and Shannon Hale! 

Off I go to finish laundering everything in my room because Colin peed in our bed last night. WAST NIGHT. Still inspired. ;)