Book Blogger Hop--Have you met any authors? If so, who have you met and where?

To join the weekly blog hop, go to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer
Guidelines: Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end on Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book-related question. The hop's purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers and receive new followers on your own blog.

This week's question: Have you met any authors? If so, who have you met and where?

I've met dozens of authors over the years at Romance Writers of America regional conferences in Seattle, at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Dallas, at regional and national SCBWI conferences, and at our local RWA's conference, the Inland Empire chapter (located in Spokane, WA).

Once at a SCBWI conference in Bellevue, Washington, I struck up a conversation with Jay Asher, who'd recently published 13 Reasons Why. He was standing by himself, looking shy and a bit nervous. I asked him about his next book and he told me about his plans. 

Later my friend leaned into me, whispering that it was a ballsy thing for me to do. He was (and still is) a big name in YA fiction. Authors are still human, but it seems like the bigger their name, the more frightened us mere mortals are of talking to them.

Another time, our local RWA chapter (IECRWA, Spokane, WA) invited Nora Roberts, who was on a multi-city book tour, to eat dinner with us. The very gracious lady went around the room meeting each (about 20) of us. She wanted to know our names. When she met me, she looked into my eyes and held my hand for an uncomfortably long time (in my estimation).

But I'm not complaining. I was very happy to meet her and, during dinner, to be entertained by some of her funny publishing stories.