Meeting One of My Heros

I've known about this for months. I am, as I have stated before, a loyal reader of Shannon Hale's blog. She announced a while back that data had been taken at the Logan library, and her books were the highest circulated YA books in the Logan Library. So she thought it would be nice to come visit Logan, and support her fans in Cache County. I was determined to go.
About a month ago, she announced that she would be coming with a couple other authors (James Dashner and Jessica Day George) to the Logan library. Then last week I found out that not only were James Dashner and Jessica Day George coming, but Brandon Mull and Ally Condie as well. And they moved the venue to Mt Logan Middle School, because they anticipated a fairly large crowd (I found out after the fact that there were over 1,000 people there).
I dragged Elyse and Keegan along with me. I'm glad they were such troopers. We listened to hem speak first, for about an hour. They answered each other's questions and questions from the audience. And then they signed books.
I stood in line for about three hours. Elyse found a book she wanted to get for Keegan and have signed by Brandon Mull (Pingo. A very cute picture book about imaginary friends). In hind sight, we should have stuck together, but we decided to get in our respective authors' lines and meet up, since they both had really long lines. Poor little Keegan did not enjoy standing in line so long. I wish I had been thinking more clearly, so Elyse and I could spell each other. Elyse didn't end up getting her book signed because Keegan was having such a hard time. But I promised her I would go to the next Brandon Mull event that's nearby and get her copy of Pingo signed for Keegan. It's only fair, since I dragged her along.
I met some really cool people in line and had nice conversation about our different interests. And when I finally got up to meet Shannon, I told her I had named one of my ducks Miri after the main character in The Princess Academy, and that I had gone to the same high school that she graduated from. She was super nice. I can only imagine how tired I would be after signing books for hours (she didn't get back home until after 2 AM). Not to mention the fact that she has twin babies and had at least one of them there with here. All of the authors seemed really cool, and I wish I had had a chance to meet them all, but I am so glad I got the chance to meet my favorite author. This will be one of those things I will remember for a while. After all, I still remember when my mom took me to meet Ann M Martin (author of the Babysitters Club books) when I was in sixth or seventh grade. Shannon is even cooler.