On Sunday, March 10, something that I have been hoping to happen for 6 years finally came true. I got to meet Patricia Briggs! I happened to see a tweet about her being out on tour & on a lark decided to see if she'd be nearby. Having lived in NC for most of my life, I was accustomed to getting passed over on many author's tours. Now that I live near St. Louis, I was hopeful and boy did I luck out. Patty was making a stop in Fenton, MO at a Barnes & Noble. My adoring husband was kind enough to drive me the almost hour, in the pouring rain, to make sure I could meet her.
While I arrived on time, I had a little snafoo while trying to buy my book. Once that was settled it was smooth sailing. I took my place among the attendees, seated to the front right side on the floor like a school child at story time. Patty was reading a chapter to us from Frost Burned and we all listened completely engrossed. It was quite amusing because as she read, she paced. She also self-edited as she read because, "I just can't help it." I think my favorite part was her pausing to tell us we were "sick" after we giggled at a particularly gruesome scene. Someone shouted out "well you wrote it!" and her reply was "I never said I wasn't sick!"
Once she let us dying for more, she moved forward into a Q&A session. This is what I learned from that:
- Night Broken will be the title of the next Mercy book in 2014; there will be another Mercyverse book (she's not sure if it will be Mercy or Alpha & Omega because she feels like A&O is just at a good holding place
- There is no end in sight for either series; she promises to stop writing them 1 book before she gets tired of it.
- In her upcoming short story collection we'll get to see Ariana & Samuel's story, Asil & Kara's story, and we'll finally get to hear about Bran's werewolf transformation.
- She wants to write something with Moira & Tom
- As far as her writing style is concerned she's a pancer which mean she doesn't outline.
- She wanted Mercy to have tension & extra reality so she gave her the garage. It doesn't matter what happens to her, she still has to get up in the morning and go to work to earn her living. Mercy's garage is based on real garage practices that actually happened to Patty & her husband.
- Dan dos Santos (the INCREDIBLE artist who does the Mercy covers has partnered with the Briggs to sell quality, affordable prints of the covers. I'm super excited!
After all that questioning it was time for the big event: the signing! I followed my signing etiquette & since I was one of the last to arrive, I made sure to stick towards the back of the line. Little did I know how fortunate that would make me because Mike (Patty's super awesome husband) decided to keep us company by hanging out, talking, and answering more of our questions. It was so much fun to hear personal stories about his view on the writing business. These two are the most genuine, down-to-earth people I have met that are pseudo-celebrities. They were very real and very open to discuss just about any topic imaginable.
I was so excited when I finally got my book signed. Patty was even awesome enough to take a few minutes to talk to each of us & she even let us choose what color she used to sign our book. When I told her this made been a dream in the making for 6 years for me, she was flattered and shocked that it took so long. When I explained about never being near enough to a tour stop she let me and everyone in the group know that if we'll tell them where we want to see her, that her manager will try to take that into consideration the next time they're working up a tour schedule.
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