So...I had the chance to meet Sabaa Tahir this past week on Tuesday as part of her Reaper Tour. It was amazing and I loved every second of the event! It was definitely worth driving 3 hours there and 3 hours back through rainstorms to be able to meet her! Since I didn't film the event, I'm just going to talk about it because I love hearing about other people's author experiences and I can't wait to share another of mine!
It started weeks ago when Sabaa announced her Reaper tour. Luckily enough for me, there were two both within 3-3.5 hours away from me (the closest any book signings will probably ever be to my city). I immediately sent the dates to my best friends. One of them ended up being in Florida this week but the other was available to go! She asked off work, I let my family know that I was going, and we started planning.
Fast forward to the day of. My friend, Lexi, came over a few hours before we were going to leave. We wanted to hang out and such before we had to get into a car. Mostly that just meant watching AP Bio on Hulu and messing around. Come 3 pm, we left with plenty of time to make it to the signing. With us we had hummus and pretzels, edible cookie dough, and homemade chex mix as well as plenty of beverages.
We arrived in St. Louis, MO an hour before the signing started, found parking in a lot, and started watching Wonder Woman and eating the rest of our snacks. About half an hour before the signing started, we walked the two minutes to the bookstore. It was located in this really pretty area of St. Louis that I would have loved to explore had we not been on a time limit and had it not bee raining. We went in, I purchased my friend's (the one who was in Florida) book for her, and we took our seats. Lexi's friend also showed up to hang out with her since they hadn't seen each other in a while. It was nice to finally meet him after hearing nothing but great things about him.
So then we sat for a while. My back started hurting in the weird folding chairs because I'm just a walking injury at this point but I powered through. When Sabaa got there, things started taking off. She talked a lot about her writing process and gave advice as well as talked about her characters and story. I am both excited and scared to finally read Reaper.
After the closed discussion with the moderator, she started doing trivia. Well, she asked questions and if the person didn't know it then she whispered the answer. It was hilarious. She gave away a bunch of things including Ember swag and even a Wildcard arc! Then fans were able to ask questions and some of them were hilarious. Honestly, Sabaa is just such an amazing and funny person. I think she's my soul animal if I'm being honest. Plus, her phone case is goals!
When the discussion, trivia, and questions finished, we all lined up for the signing. There were also some cute cakes and posters at the back for us. I grabbed one for me and one for my friend who couldn't make it, and had that poster get signed for her. Then we continued waiting.
I had injured my back the day before so I wasn't supposed to be lifting more than 20 pounds by myself, so I'm curious to see how heavy my tote bag was (I was carrying 6 of Sabaa's--double copies of each--as well as one that I was reading, a camera, film, a water bottle, and a book sleeve). It was interesting to see if I could balance the entire stack as well.
When we got up there, it was awesome talking to her. My friend and I went up almost at the same time and were chatting with her about book sleeves/subscription boxes, author friends, and even how Lexi and I were aspiring authors (Sabaa gave us high-fives--cue forever fangirling). She even signed my Fairyloot Ember-inspired book sleeve!
After we finished talking to her, we wandered around the store wishing we could buy everything and waiting for the rain to let up just a bit. I ended up asking for a plastic bag to cover my books so that I didn't get all of them wet! Luckily, the books stayed dry somehow on our walk back to the car and then we were headed back home.
I popped some Dramamine because I have debilitating motion sickness and managed to stay away for a little over an hour. We stopped at a gas station in a town that had a population less than my high school and got some unhealthy snacks and gas. I was able to stay awake for as long as I was eating something, but fell asleep almost immediately after that and didn't wake up until I was being dropped off at home.
Overall, this was just such a fun experience for me. I had an amazing time with my best friend and meeting Sabaa. It's definitely an experience that I will cherish forever and I'm so grateful that I was able to go. The 6 hours of driving was definitely worth it, even if I was asleep for half of it. I can't wait to read Reaper and I just know that I'm going to love it!
A huge thanks to Left Bank Books and Sabaa for throwing this event!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren
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