Surprise! Joe Hill!

Tonight, I was running some errands at Target and decided to grab some breadsticks and while I was snacking on them in the little cafe area, I randomly checked my Twitter feed.

I follow a few authors and one of them is Joe Hill. I was scrolling through updates, then suddenly I see that he’s mentioned my town. He said he was going to be at the local Barnes & Noble that evening for a book signing and it had already started. I happened to be right across the street and totally free, so I ran right over there. I don’t know about you, but I don’t seek out many book signings or events, so to stumble upon one like this was really exciting!

As I arrived he had started some Q&A and he was really down to earth and funny – very casual. When he was finished he signed books. I grabbed a copy of Heart-Shaped Box, since I don’t own that. I also had him sign a copy of Locke & Key for Mum, since she introduced me to his work. There were less people there than I thought, so it was easy to wait for the signing and I even had a picture taken with him! I had a blast – this is only the second signing/event I’ve ever been to, and the fact that I just happened to look at Twitter at the right time really shocks me!

Funny story behind the signing – I spelled my name for him, then as he was writing it out, he said “Two M’s?” and wrote a second M before I could correct him. I told him it was just one and laughed – I was totally ready to let the typo go. But he crossed it out and fessed up to his mistake on the page. :] Then he told a little anecdote about how he met a man at a signing and kept referring to him as Bill, even though the man kept saying his name was Jim. It got to the point where he accidentally signed Bill in the book and Jim just left it at that. Then Jim showed up at another signing a few years later and had him sign the book for Bill, and told him the story – Joe remembered him! Then as he was writing Mum’s name he asked if there were two M’s. The girl behind me was Heather and he asked if she had two M’s too.

Overall it was just a really great surprise – especially on a Wednesday! Have you been to a lot of book signings?