Armchair BEA - Author Interaction

It's the second day of Armchair BEA. Yesterday was amazing, I loved connecting with so many people over Twitter and by visiting their blogs. I haven't been able to visit half as many blogs as I would've liked to and unfortunately I have to work today which means my visits will have to happen in the evening. 

Let’s talk interacting with authors IRL (in real life) or online. This is your opportunity to talk about your favorite author readings that you have attended. Or, you can feature your favorite author fan moment (i.e., an author sent you a tweet or commented on your blog). Maybe you even want to share how your interactions have changed since becoming a blogger or share your own tips that you have learned along the way when interacting with authors as a blogger.

I haven't really met a lot of authors IRL, unfortunately. I once went to a Q&A session with Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which was absolutely brilliant but I was way too terrified to approach him afterwards, let alone talk to him. That was two years ago and I'd like to believe that now I am more collected and would be able to have a normal and sane conversation with him, but who knows. Another interaction I really enjoyed was when I got to send some questions (here in case you want to have a look) to Geraldine Brooks regarding her novel People of the Book. What made it all the more special was that it was me grand father who recommended the book to me because he absolutely loved it and I managed to ask Geraldine some questions that he himself had been wondering about.

Most of my author interaction happens via Twitter or through interviews and emails. Although there is something amazing about interacting with well-known and established authors I actually really enjoy talking to "normal" authors. Whom I mean by that are the authors who haven't reached worldwide renown (yet) but simple are writers. Getting to interact with them and see how they manage to write their novels while often maintaining a day job and a family life is a major inspiration for someone like me who desperately wants to become an author as well. This is the place where I want to thank all of those authors for being so incredibly kind and patient with bloggers like me who simple manage to lose all grasp of language when they come in contact with them!

One of my favourite moment of online interaction wasn't technically with an author, but I'm still going to count it because she does write. I tweeted Brenda Chapman, a writer and director who has been involved with some major Disney and Pixar movies. She was a story artist for The Beauty & the Beast, she was Head of story for the amazing The Lion King and became the first woman to direct a major studio film when she became part of the directing team for The Prince of Egypt. All three of those movies are absolute favourites of mine and I think Chapman has been incredibly important in making way for women in the industry. I basically tweeted my admiration for her and she thanked me, which made me fawn all over my phone. I was in the best mood for the whole day. More recently she co-directed Brave.


So, those are some of my favourite author interaction moments! How about you? I'd love for you to tell me about them, so leave a link in a comment and I'll come visit :)