My Five Minutes with Tucker Max

Tonight I had the privilege to be in the presence of Tucker Max. For those who do not know him, Max is the author of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell and most recently, Assholes Finish First. The books are a retelling of events that have actually happened to him, including everything from awful things he's done to women (mainly bizarre sexual experiences) to random really duchy guy things. In a single phrase, the man truly is an asshole if you just read the books, blog postings on his website (which are what the books originally are), and watch the movie version of his first book.

But when you meet him, it's totally different and exactly what you would expect.

I arrived at the Borders where the signing was to take three hours early. Apparently all the speculation on the Facebook event page was a load of malarkey. They started giving out wristbands to see the order of the line at 10 am, not six, and at four o'clock there were only 10 other people there. Altogether there were most likely 50-100 people there, and who was first in line when they called for line up at 6:30? You guessed it. Me.

As I stood there in line I looked around me, the majority of the people that were there were women, myself of course included. What drew all of these women to this event, nay to read his books in the first place? They all said the same thing. He's hilarious and I agree.

I personally got into Tucker Max at one of my lowest points in my life. I was never happy, I was very pessimistic, I hated everything, my life was literally falling to pieces around me. One day I happened across his book in the store and I read the sushi pants story in IHTSBIH. I have to this day laughed so hard throughout an entire book. Plus the fact that he straight up tells you he's an ass. He makes no apologies for who he is and completely honest, well unless he's trying to get you into bed. =) Now for the past four years I have been addicted to his hilarious and not so moral antics and I can't wait for more.

When he arrived at the store no one really knew it was him walking in until he started talking mainly because the pictures of him do not do him justice. He is soooo much better looking in real life than his photogenic self leads on. Also he's my height! (Which is short for a guy, but okay for me). I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for to actually meet him. He was sooooo nice! He really is. He's so great to his fans. They actually took away the post-its for our names to be written in the book only so that we, the fans, could have more time with him when it was our turn!

He signed my books and exchanged small talk. He also poked fun at me because I said I was confused by Facebook after he asked how long I was there. What I really meant was I was confused by the people on the event page saying what time people should get there. But he was so cool and I was totally fangirling it wasn't even funny! When we were done, I started to veer off but then turned back to give him a hug which almost turned into a tackle. I just couldn't believe how happy was to see this guy! The only time I had ever been that happy was when I first saw my boyfriend and I was ecstatic then!

All in all the moral of this story, not all assholes are complete jerks and can be great guys too and Hi, I'm Lydia Hall and I am a Tucker Max fangirl! =D

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour!

So I had the privelage of attending the Smart Chicks Kick It Book Tour yesterday. The Smart Chick Tour is a tour of Young Adult authors, mainly of the supernatural genre, getting together and talking shop and readers trying to squeeze precious information out of our favorite authors! On the leg of the tour that I attended tonight the lovely Melissa Marr (The Wicked Lovelies series), Holly Black (White Cat; Geektastic), Kelley Armstrong (Otherworld series; Darkest Powers series), Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instrument series), Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon series), Alyson Noel (The Immortals series), and Kami Garcia and Margret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness)!!!

I of course was most excited to see Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, but the other wonderful ladies have swayed me into loving them and making me want to spend my next paycheck on all of their books!!

The panel was great and crazy exciting with swag flying every where at one moment and Holly Black running around the room with a mic for lighting round Q&A the next! The best part for me was the signing! I've never really have done a signing before unless you count the last time the wonderful Rachel Caine, author of the Morganville Vampire series, and I felt so bad because I haven't really read anything of hers except something in a Charlaine Harris anthology. But she was a gracious person and her signing was so much fun! She, by the way, will join the Smart Chicks later in the tour! But I digress, when it came to the signing I had my little poster for the girls to sign and my Cassie Clare books in tow. She was at the end of the line so I had to wait patiently while my lovely friend Cari (check out her blog she's has awesome giveaways and reviews!! It's really cool!) had the second half of her like twenty million books signed! The girls were here the night before in the Woodlands which is on the outskirts of Houston so Cari went there and then to the one tonight. So there she was, now I have been a HUGE fan of Cassie before the Mortal Instruments series from her fanfiction days, so I was psyched to meet her in person. She was great and fun to talk with and I actually got to fangirl about Simon with her! It was this fangirls' craziest dream come true! I loved it and how layed back she was. It was awesome and just fun all around! I can't wait for these ladies to come through town again!

To check out the site click here and see if they're gonna stop anywhere near you! The line up changes a little per city but the three constants are Kelley, Melissa, and Alyson. It's totally worth going to!!

I have pictures and as soon as I find a way to get them off my phone I will totally post them ASAP!!!

<3
~lydia

P.S: Links to these authors are in the side bar!! Check out their sites and read their books! They're awesome! Trust me! =D

The Fine Bros. and 50 Book Spoilers in 4 mins!

SPOILER ALERT!!!! YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET THE ABRIDGED ABRIDGED VERSION OF CLIFF NOTES OF 50 BOOKS!!! Btw: Sub to these guys! They're awesome!!!!



~lydia