Visiting with Adriana Trigiani!

On Wednesday night, I went to 'An Evening with an Author' at Thurber House here in Columbus, Ohio. Adriana Trigiani was our author and she was so much fun!

Having never been to anything like this before I had no idea what would happen. My sister went with me. Since we were clueless, we got there about an hour ahead in case there was an issue with seating - we wanted to be close to the front. When we got there, about 10 folks were already there. We sat in the third row right in the middle.

Side note: these seats had to be the smallest auditorium/theater seats I have ever sat in. Everyone who came in after us commented on them. Combine that with the fact that neither my sister nor I are the smallest women, a potential full house, and it wasn't all that comfy to sit there, especially the early parts. But enough of that.

Adriana popped out at exactly 7:30 and was funny from the get go. When she was being introduced, she called out comments. She has a deep voice that is quite unique and travels well. She had us laughing before even getting on the stage. When she did get up there, she had stories about her childhood and hometown. Did you know that she grew up in Big Stone Gap? And that since it was her first book, she tended to use names of folks or characters that really existed in the town? Even swapping them up a bit, she and her parents got quite a few phone calls after the book was released about what she did. Most were good but ... if you have read Big Stone Gap, you can imagine.

She commented once that it felt like we could have all been in a living room and just sitting around chatting. And I agree, that's exactly what it felt like. She would start telling a story, digress one or two or three times (just like a normal conversation among friends) and then come back around to finishing her story.

She took questions too and that led to more stories. One of my favorite comments of the evening had nothing to do with her books. A lady was asking a question and said she was there with her entire book club. Adriana asked if they had a name and the lady said no. Adriana then said that if they or anyone else decided to give their book club a name, be sure not to use The Book Bags.

Think on it.... I giggled for quite a while and I still am laughing.

After she was done talking (because she was told to be done, not that she was actually done), we all stood in line to get her to sign our books. The line moved slowly because she talked to every single person. We had a bit of excitement with the long line - one woman got dizzy and the squad was called. But after about 2 hours, we finally got up to meet her, get our books signed and get a photo. I even gave her my blog address!

The photo disappoints me. I made a rookie photographer mistake and that just burns me. I didn't bring 'my' camera because I thought it would be too bulky so just brought the 'little' camera. I had changed the ISO setting during her talk to try to get a picture of her behind the podium (was not happy with those pictures) and forgot to turn it back in line (hello..in 2 hours I could not remember this?). So when I turned the flash back on to take the picture of the three of us, we had way too much light. I tried to fix it, but this is the best I could do.

My sister, Adriana, me

Guess I'll just have to go to another event with her to get a better picture! Oh, darn. LOL

As soon as I finish the book I am reading now, I am going to read Brava, Valentine. The folks there that had already read it loved it and I can't wait!