So today, Sharon and I went to the West Hollywood Book Fair. Sharon wanted to go so she could get some books signed by Neil Gaiman, specifically Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. Since I also like Neil Gaiman, I decided to get a copy of Anansi Boys and American Gods signed for me. So prior to going to the fair, Sharon and I stopped by the local Barnes & Noble to pick up nice, signature-worthy copies of the aforementioned books.
Upon our arrival, we went to the Golden Apple (a comic book store) tent to get tickets for the signing. Unfortunately, the only way to get tickets was to pick flyers out of a basket and be fortunate enough to pick one with a red sticker on it. Neither of us picked out a winning flyer, so we began investigating the rest of the fair. We were excited to see that Mark Covell was going to be doing Family Guy sketches from 2-4 at the Golden Apple tent. In addition, after walking around for a while and checking out various booths, we happened upon one that had a large poster indicating that Bill Maher would be there at 4 to sign copies of his book, New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer. Somewhat reinvigorated by these awesome discoveries, we decided to run off, retrieve some food and two copies of New Rules from a local Barnes & Noble (since we have a member card entitling us to 10% off), and return.
When we got back to the book fair, we decided to try drawing for tickets to the Neil Gaiman signing for a second time. Once again, we were thwarted and left with two worthless (as far as we were concerned; they were coupons that entitled the bearer to 10% in their store in actuality) yellow flyers. At this point, it was 1:45 so it wasn’t quite time for the “Family Guy,” as he coined himself on his sign, to appear yet. Fortunately, we noticed that Bill Morrison was there doing Simpsons and Futurama drawings. We each picked up a comic book upon arriving at the front of the line. Sharon got Bart drawn on Simpsons/Futurama Crossover #2 while I had Bender drawn on Futurama #9. Afterwards, we went into the short line for Mark Covell (it became much longer later). Sharon got an awesome caricature of Stewie shooting Rupert with his blaster gun. I got an equally awesome caricature of a drunk, staggering Brian with martini in hand. Both of us were (are) immensely pleased.
After this, we walked over to the tent where the Bill Maher signing was to be and happened to notice a wealth of copies of Sideways behind the table. Upon inquiry, we found out that Rex Pickett was doing a talk on novels and movies and would be signing copies of his book afterwards. Since we both wanted to buy and read Sideways anyways, we were consigned to our fate of buying more books this day. (What are book fairs for if you don’t buy too many books?) We then caught the end of the conversation that Neil Gaiman was having at a neighboring tent (which took way too long to find thanks to stupid people). We ate the food we had brought with us and then started walking towards the Golden Apple tent. Fortunately, one of the employees was walking around with the ticket basket trying to give away the last of the tickets. We once again drew blanks to our dismay (especially Sharon’s). Not to be detered, I suggested to Sharon that we ask the guy to let us draw again. While we were deliberating this, I happened to glance over at the gentleman right when he accidentally swished a flyer out of the basket and on to the ground. I quickly walked over and picked up the orphaned flyer. I went back to Sharon and we hovered over our last chance to get our Neil Gaiman books signed. The sticker was insanely difficult to break, but after ten or fifteen seconds I finally broke it open. I then unfolded the yellow paper to reveal a red sticker. Sharon immediately jumped and cheered for joy; our mission today could now be considered an unqualified success. (Sounds just like a dramatic point in a movie, doesn’t it? Stupid movies.)
I went to retrieve the books from the car while Sharon stood in line. Upon returning, I gave Sharon the Gaiman books and she handed me the Maher books so I could investigate if there was a line for the Bill Maher signing yet. There wasn’t, so I went back and did a little recon, observing that there was a two book limit per ticket. Since we had one ticket, we decided to get one copy of Anansi Boys signed to me and the copy of Neverwhere signed to her (a rule was that one book being signed had to be Anansi Boys, since that was the new book he was promoting). I asked Sharon to see if she could finagle him to sign the copy of American Gods also. I then went back to the tent where the Bill Maher signing was to take place and claimed my position in line.
Sharon found me about a half-hour later, a few minutes before Bill Maher arrived to report that via a somewhat risky (but certainly the best available to her) strategy, she got the copy of American Gods signed for me. Basically, she had him not personalize Anansi Boys, had him sign Neverwhere to her, and then successfully pled him to have American Gods signed for her boyfriend. More success! We then were able to get our New Rules books signed by Bill Maher (unfortunately, his twirp assistant apparently decided to not let him personalize the books to save time).
We then went to the tent where Rex Pickett and a couple of other authors were discussing writing and Hollywood. What we heard was pretty interesting; however, we were more interested in the fact that we got the opportunity to sit down for a while. After the panel discussion was over, we went back to the tent, bought two copies of Sideways, waited for Rex Pickett and had him sign our books. I had him write “Hello!” in mine while he wrote a message of “See the movie!” to Sharon (after we had talked to him for a couple minutes and he gleaned this information from her). Afterwards, our day at the fair was over. We returned home victorious, despite the money we spent on books today and despite the money we are going to spend on frames for the kick-ass Family Guy caricatures.
Whew.