Saturday 18 August 2012

The Day I Met Derek

Yes, Derek Landy, author of Skulduggery Pleasant, came to Adelaide. And I think I freaked him out a little bit.

Me, my mum and my brother got to Rundle Mall early. Two hours early. In the car, I had a bag of seven books and a bag with a skull, a rock and a banana with a ribbon on it. I was planning to give Derek the banana as a present, for I am the Banana Lord. While in the car, I mentioned that it felt like I was going on holiday. My dad told me later that the reason would be that I was carrying so much. I had even packed the night before. So we arrived at the mall, and we got a spot at the front of the line (at the time there was no line)! So Mum stayed there in front of the Grand Desk that Derek would be sitting at, and accidentally took a picture of the Grand Chair... I had a picture taken of me next to a Skulduggery, but unfortunately you won't be seeing that. My brother and I went upstairs and my brother looked at comics...So I went back down the escalator to find that there was someone waiting behind my mum. And so they come, one by one, I thought randomly. I killed time by going to the food court with my brother and getting a hot drink and spotting immobile owls and trying to work out how to get internet from McDonald's. We went back to Dymocks, wandered outside, and then my Friend came. That's what I'm calling them. Brother and Friend. So Friend came with two books for Derek to sign, and there was me, with nine things for Derek to sign... There were the beginnings of a line, which Friend joined, and then she bought books... and Brother and I wandered outside again, soon to be accompanied by Friend, and we tried to figure out which way Derek would be coming from. Friend thought he would come in a Limo, Brother thought he would come in a Bentley, and I was just flitting from right to left, and the queue was lengthening...people were lining up around the side of the shop, and if I had just called out "HELLBOY! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" then I would've met Hellboy! Darn. Then Mum told me to stay in my spot and don't move, and even as people started to say, "He's here!" I could not move from my spot at the front of the line. And then he came into the shop, and I kind of thrust my arm up into the air and shouted "Hi Derek!" which embarrassed my family a great deal. He sat down at his desk, and I said "I'm Eve from your blog!" and he said "Eve the ROCK!" Victory! My celebrity idol remembers me! I made a fangirl fool of myself when I couldn't stop giggling and apparently I was shouting everything I said and my hands were shaking. I gave him my books, then my skull, then my ROCK, then he said "Eve, you are an oddball" and straight away I gave him the banana. He said, "You shouldn't have!" and at one point he said that I've finally met him and I wasn't saying anything, so I told him how much I loved his books, and that I'd read the series five times, and my mum said "You're her Justin Bieber" and he held out his fist and we did the fist thing. I passed on messages from Bloglandians and he laughed at them all. The lady next to him was called Eve. Then I took a picture with him as you will see below and he shook my hand and then he hugged me and said "I'll see you online" and Mum said "You'll be seeing her a lot sooner than that!" And so I left, and Friend asked me about it and stuff, and I was really hyperventilating, because the guy next to her was looking at me like, "You're crazy. He must be really awesome." and I thought it was Hellboy but he didn't say anything and then we were walking away from Dymocks. I was still giggling, and I almost nearly was close to shedding a tiny tear. I imagine this is what meeting One Direction would be like for some of you.   

My Kingdom Of The Wicked book. He signed six other books, but this was the only one with "To Eve" on it

Heehee!

As you know, I am Eve the ROCK, so that's pretty much equivalent to him signing my head.

It says "2012" on it. Woohoo!



After that, we went home, had lunch, and I took pictures that my friend and Anonymous Artist drew so Derek could sign them at the event. I was very lucky to be going to this event, actually. Brother 2 came along, and we were one of the first there, and we sat in the front row, me right next to the projector, and Derek came and he gave me a look as he walked past. Like, "Ah, it's you again". He is so much funnier than I thought he was, and that is saying something. When it came around to questions, he told everyone to stay away from the Twilight series and when he asked who likes Twilight I was the only one to put my hand up. I actually just lifted my finger up a bit, but he saw. And the lecture began. I know Bella is a stupid idea for a character, okay? Just because a book or movie or game is stupid doesn't mean I can't enjoy it! But Derek was really funny when he compared Edward/Bella to Caelan/Valkyrie. Hopefully I can show you the video, so check for updates on this post.
He answered a question I asked, yay, and then I got in line to get the pictures signed. I wasn't at the front this time, but I got them all signed, and all I said was "Sign here, here, and here." and while he was signing, he said "You can speak, dear" and I just laughed and then we went home. I got my picture with Derek framed, yay! And I'm going to blab about everything all over again when I go to school on Monday.



Eve, 11:32pm, Saturday 18th of August, 2012