Ten Authors: Those I've Met and Those I'd Like to Meet

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week is all about authors we've met or want to meet! I've met a handful of authors but definitely have a wish list of others I'd like to meet!

Edited to add: I made a suggestion on Goodreads that users should be able to sign up to receive alerts when their favorite authors are coming to town. Feel free to chime in on the thread if you like the idea!

Authors I've met in person:

1. John Green
I originally met John and his brother, Hank, at a Nerdfighter gathering in Chicago on 8/8/08. My now-husband and I arrived at the exact right moment to meet both of them and then ride up in the elevator to the event together. I've met John twice more at book signing events, including one in his current city where I got to meet his wife as well. I feel lucky that I got to meet him so many times before The Fault in Our Stars came out and he became a mega-celebrity.

2. Rachel Held Evans
I knew Rachel as a blogger before I read any of her books, but I'm now caught up on all her books to date. I met her when she spoke at a nearby university here. (She said she recognized my (old) blog name! I just about died.) I got to have another conversation with her the following year at the Gay Christian Network (GCN) conference after she spoke. She's seriously one of my favorite people in the whole world.

3. Justin Lee
I got to meet Justin at my first GCN conference, which I attended due to an invitation on his blog for more straight Christians to attend. His book Torn is one of the best things I've ever read, and he is also one of my favorite people ever. It was wonderful to be able to tell him that in person.

4. Pamela Redmond Satran
I met Pamela in person once, though I worked on a couple of projects for her virtually. I've only read part of one of her books, How Not to Act Old, unless you count the baby name book she co-authored that I transcribed into an online database for her.

Authors I've met virtually:

5. Christina Baker Kline
I got hooked up with Christina via her friend Pamela Redmond Satran and helped her with a book proposal based on a blog she had at the time. She sent me signed copies of several of her books, though this was sadly before her bestseller, Orphan Train, was released! We did butt heads a bit when she tried to get me to help with promoting her personal Facebook page and I tried to convince her to create an official author page instead. (Looks like she came around eventually.)

6. Ramit Sethi
If you need to get your personal finances in order, I can't recommend a better book than Ramit's I Will Teach You to Be Rich, but it was his job search advice that got me personally connected with him. I took his fantastic Dream Job course at the level that let you join weekly group phone calls where he answered a handful of questions submitted ahead of time by students. Not to brag, but my questions got selected more than anyone else in the class (5 times), and every time I got to have a personal conversation with him where he gave me specific advice for my situation. Even though his public persona is a bit of an ass, he's actually a really great guy whom I admire a lot.

Favorite living authors I'd love to meet:

7. Vanessa Diffenbaugh
It's no secret around here that The Language of Flowers is my favorite book. Even though I didn't LOVE We Never Asked for Wings as much, I'm still a big fan of her writing and would love to meet her in person.

8. Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is the only author who is legitimately on my bucket list to meet before, well, I guess before she dies. (She's got a few decades on me.) Her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle made me a vegetarian, and The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible are two of my favorite books of all time. I very much want to meet her! I can only hope she's working on another book and will be touring again before too long.

9. Liane Moriarty
I've read four of her books, and I loved What Alice Forgot and Big Little Lies. She has a great way of capturing the way that people (especially women) reflect, rationalize, and strategize in their interactions with one another. I think it would be fun to hear her speak about her writing process.

10. J.K. Rowling
I mean, of course. She's created two of my favorite series (Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike) and she seems to relish fan interaction even when she must be drowning in it. Did she make it on your list, too?

Which authors do you want to meet?

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