Since this journal is late, I figured it might as well be exactly one month late. ;D
I will try to make this quick since nvm, who am I kidding? This thing is humongous.I thought I had this all typed out somewhere already... or at least a lot of it cobbled together, but I can’t find it. Anyways.
WARNING: BEWARE OF TIMESTAMPS, FACTUAL INACCURACIES, AND SNARK.
I. Something Grand
Going to see Marissa Meyer, author of
The Lunar Chronicles, on Saturday, January 31st, during her
Fairest book tour was the first time I'd ever been to a book signing. As is not uncommon, I wanted give her some fanart. But what to give her? Since I didn't win Grand Prize
(and thus didn't get a free plane ticket to visit my friend), I figured that I'd present Marissa Meyer a giant print of
my Queen Levana statue drawing. However, she'd undoubtedly seen that one. And potentially every other drawing I'd already posted online (unlikely, but possible).
So then, I needed to create something
new.
Unfortunately for me, the
five weeks prior to the release of
Fairest and the book signing were already
nonstop TLC drawing. Very exhausting. What could I possible do that was both epic and impressive and yet could fit within my time constraints?
(School started on the 26th..) And didn't involve any girls. I can't draw girls. They take too long. Hence, I revisited
this old drawing that I started in February of 2014.
(See how long I've been thinking about this Fairy Tale AU?) That should suffice.
II. A Timeline, as Always
of how much I stalled trying to draw 'In Her Name.' Give or take.
[[Original deadline: Wednesday or Thursday since it takes 24 hrs to process a large format print... Did I meet that deadline? Nooooooooo.]]\\_Friday, Jan 23:\\ 
Exam / went to Print Center / struggled with Celestial\\_Saturday, Jan 24:\\ Up late as usual / made more edits on 'Celestial'
Created a forum for The Lunar Chronicles\\_Sunday, Jan 25:\\ More edits on 'Celestial'
7:15pm 'Immortalized' announced as one of the 1st prize winners on Tumblr and fb\\_Monday, Jan 26:\\ First day of spring semester
12:37am Do I actually want to redraw 'In Her Name'? I'd need to trace most of it + redraw Thorne completely...\\_Tuesday, Jan 27:\\ Fairest released / plan: listen to audiobook while working on 'In Her Name'
12:09am Kindle version of Fairest has arrived / Audible version NOT AVAILABLE FOR ANOTHER 2 HOURS?? D:<
plan fails; sleep first
8:58am Listen to Fairest while working on 'In Her Name'; sent WIP to Porsheee
8:27pm Finished Fairest; 11:37pm and the Winter excerpt
10:41pm I'm tired. / AT LEAST DO THE FLATS PLEASE.
11:00pm I don't know how I'm going to do this without lines. \\_Wednesday, Jan 28:\\ *stalling*\\_Thursday, Jan 29:\\ 1:34am PORSHEEE MOTIVATE ME PLEASE
9:22pm Back from choir; Porsheee has approved of angle change.
10:46pm ha. It's Thursday night. Can I still color this?\\_Friday, Jan 30:\\ 1:04am I should make a different file for the color... / does quick flats (quick bc I was going to paint it...)
9:11pm Added more color/accents as Lish suggested
Clearly this is not getting done tonight.\\_Saturday, Jan 31:\\ And now I am out of time to do this without lines.
PLAN: Old, retired church friends P&J drive my roommate (T) and me to the bookstore. Leave at 4:30pm, get dinner at coffee shop along the way, get there around 6-6:30 or so. I meet up with Lish, who's driving in from 3.5 hrs away.
Event Schedule: 'Lunar Ball' starts at 6pm; book talk & signing starts at 7pm.
9:54am Wow. Pen pressure doesn’t work AND MS decides to not respond? this is not my day. D:
10:33am Restarted computer. I’m gonna have to use the lines. ;w; *neatens up lines/erases stray marks*
11:10am Oh d'arvit. That means I have to actually draw Thorne. ;~;
12:22pm omg I just spent like 2 hours on that but now I like the original sketchy sketch better. ARRRGGHHHHHH WHY ME?
1:04pm Thank goodness I actually did most of the flats. Just fixing them atm.
3:11pm *calls it done and rushes to catch bus to Print Center*
4:23pm *somehow makes it back to apt just in time* *quickly stuffs prints in mailing tubes*
6:00pm Made it to the bookstore, but didn't stop for dinner on the way / P&J suggest we get dinner / I am sad bc there are TLC festivities going on ;w;
6:37pm OMGWHYISN'TTHEPIZZAHEREWE'REGONNABELATEANDMISSTHEBOOKTALK
6:56pm okayokayokay done stuffing my mouth we can make it back to the bookstore...
7:10pm(ish) Marissa appears and the book talk begins
7:50pm Book talk over; now to wait around for two-and-a-half hours...
10:08pm We meet Marissa Meyer / now I should really get going bc P&J have graciously waited for me for sooooooo so so freakin' long and it's gonna take another hour+ to drive back. ;w;
Note: Since I was rushing 'In Her Name,' I still need to go back and fix it before officially posting it online. I don't know when I'll get to that, but I do know that if I post it now, then I will practically never get around to fixing it. :\ So anyways, if you happened to look through all that, you get a preview of a (hopefully) epic piece. 
III. The Art Itself
So I discovered that just using regular ol' laser printing on regular paper is much cheaper than making a large format print... (50¢ for an 11x17in. color print. What a steal.. after those large format prints...) Hence, I also printed out some of my other drawings just because I could.
Items brought with me to the book signing: 
(large format x3; laser print x1)
(laser print x2)
(laser print x1; alternate text about chibis written on back)
Triangular Mailing Tube (a.k.a. box) (x2)
Breakdown: Only MM got a printout of 'Crossover.' Lish, MM, Porsheee, and NightmareSiren received copies of the other four images, with Lish getting a laser print of 'Immortalized' while the other three go large format versions. Porsheee and NightmareSiren's copies are signed by Marissa. Oh, and the three each got a triangular mailing tube as well.
IV. Whilst at the Booksellers
While MM was talking, I set my messenger bag down and leaned the boxes against a shelf/rack thing
(idk whatchu call 'em. There were socks hangin' off of them), leaving my hands blissfully free. I took out drawings from MM’s tube for some reason
(I think I wanted to give it to Lish but they started). So I just left it on top of the shelf while MM was talking. It was nice to not have to hold stuff though...
After the talk, I flattened out the drawings for Lish and gave them to her. A couple ppl happened to see them, and we advertised for TLC Ship Weeks. 
My roommate left to go look at stuff since she wasn't getting anything signed. Lish and I decided to eventually wander back toward the fireplace(?)/Fiction section where the events started. (I think I suggested flaunting drawings before this point. So pretentious lmbo). Later, I took over the display table and sort of laid out my drawings on there... (I believe the giant ‘Immortalized’ print for MM was covered by the other 3 drawings most of the time, so...) //I’m very sad that no one recognized the drawing I did for the FAIREST contest/that it won first place. ;w;
Some people dropped by and commented on the drawings (and I aggressively attacked them about SW).
One girl dropped by the table and I asked if she was looking at the drawings. She said no; she was looking at the trivia challenge/activity sign, much to my disappointment (offense?). After she left, I turned said sign around and jokingly propped up the Levana print (*flaunting*) for a couple seconds before putting it back down lol. That girl(s) came back later and looked at the drawings.
At some point, I started ripping paper into rectangles and writing 'The Lunar Chronicles Ship Weeks / tlcshipweeks.tumblr.com' on there to hand out since ppl were like '??? okay we’ll check it out if we remember...' Eventually, we relocated. I think we looked around a little bit (saw some wood carving things?) before finding a seat near where the line was passing by. Oh. We spotted someone with a tri-fold display board; it peaked my interest since I thought it had to be fanart! So we staked out the signing line by sitting at that bench... Oddly enough, we never did find the display board though o___O
Lish spotted MeridianGrayDraws passing by in the line because the latter was holding a print of her Cress and Scarlet drawing (which Lish had recently reblogged) to give to MM. (She also had her Fairest one too. I'm afraid I don’t know what else.)
Anyways, Lish was excited, and I was excited, because we knew who she was (for those unfamiliar, MeridianGray also makes the TLC Sims VO series).
After conversing about her drawings:
Me: So I don’t know if you recognize me better as—
Me: *flashes the corner of Unbroken Promises*
Me: —Sorcaron or MF-islands.
Her: *covers mouth/points* OMG. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
Me: (thinking) Aww yeeeessssss. This is the best reaction. I’m famous. :D
(or at least that's how I think it went. Apologies for gaps in my memory.)
We were able to talk for a bit but MeridianGray and her friend moved away in the line. 
I would have followed, but we er, I had too much stuff sitting out, propped against the pillar.... >w<And then finally,
finally, the line dwindled down and Lish and I were able to hop in at the end (we'd already bought the book elsewhere, so we didn't get tickets from the bookstore... End of the line for us...). Definitely past 10pm at that point..... (And we got to talk to more ppl about TLCSW along the way!! To be honest, it was actually kind of surprising when people said they
had heard of Ship Weeks. o3o Didn't happen upon any other participants though...
I didn't really mind. I had a blast talking with Lish. But I did feel really really bad for P&J. P has read Cinder and J started it (tbh I don't think he's finished it...), and T has read all 4 books by now, but really, the only person who cared about it all was me. 
Ah well.And here, I shalt attempt to log my nearly-three-minutes with Marissa Meyer:
Me: Hi, I’m Joy!
MM: Joy! So nice to meet you!—ahhh!
MM: *eyes the Immortalized prints* Can I keep it? O:
Me: You can keep one. I’d like you to sign other two.
MM: *picks up giant print and hugs it* This is one of my favorites~
Me: *lays out other drawings* There’s this one [Immortalized]. And then these were for Ship Weeks [Unbroken Promises + Masquerade]; I don’t know if you’ve seen them yet. There’s also this [*hands her Crossover*]; I hope you’ve seen Tangled?
MM: *reads front*
Me: I like the back better. ;D
MM: *reads back* That’s hilarious! This is adorable.
Me: And this *reveals last print with a flourish jk* is a new one that’s not online yet [In Her Name].
Worker Dude: Woahhh. Hey. I never gave you license rights.
Me: (thinking) ...?? oohhh. XD
Everyone: *laughs*
MM: I love this so much. Thank you~!
Me: [???]
MM: [???] //idk, everyone laughed at something.
MM: That’s right. She ran this awesome thing. Like a five-week extravaganza full of all the different fanart[??] for all the pairings. And she’s also the runner of the DeviantArt... *searches for term*
Me: Group.
MM: Group.
Me: *hands slip of paper with TLCSW on it to Worker Lady lol*
MM: Okay. What do you need me to sign?
Me: Just these two prints of Levana.
MM: So this one’s to [NightmareSiren]. Do you want me to sign anywhere specifically, or..?
Me: Eh not really.
Worker Lady: I’ll just put these [my fanart] over on the ledge at the back [where MeridianGray’s fanart already is] for you.
Me: Do you want this poster tube? *holds up box*
MM: Um, yeah actually. That would be awesome!
MM: I thought this was such a cool and creative way to do it. And when you described it, like yeah, it totally is. Because on Luna, she actually does [have physical portraits/can't have images shown through the screen(???)].
Me: I claim the wolf is Ryu’s uncle.
Us: *laughs*
MM: Nothing signed for you?
Me: Um, I guess not.
Lish: Yeah, I asked her the same thing!
Me: *mumbles* I... at least already have something signed by you??? [I have signed copies of Cinder and Fairest. Both were prizes.]
*Lish takes picture of me with MM*
MM: Thank you so much for the artwork and everything. Very good to meet you.
Next up: Lish: ha, sorry, my memory isn't as detailed here...MM: Oh where did you get these [stickers/postcards]?
Lish: I won them for the trivia booklet.
MM: Sounds like you’re enjoying them.
Lish: Yeah, I started them in June; read ‘em 4 times.
Me: We’re crazy fans.
MM: Crazy fans are the best.
Me: *attempts to take pic*
Lish: *checks* Perfect.
MM: Thank you for coming!
V. And At Last
In conclusion, I am thankful that Marissa happened to be passing by a bookstore near me, giving me an opportunity for a 'first experience.' I am thankful for my church friends who so kindly drove me to the book signing, and my roommate who came with. I am thankful for being able to meet Lish in person and being able to hang out with another avid TLC fan.
I regret that I didn't look around the bookstore more; it really was quite beautiful and it's been a while since I've been to one. I'm sad that fanfiction isn't nearly as easy to promote.
(Go read her fics, guys!! They're great. ;D Especially A Conquest, A War. THIS ONE. JUST.) I may or may not regret shamelessly self-promoting my art and TLC Ship Weeks. ;D
I'm thankful for all the people who made TLC Ship Weeks possible—all those who drew/wrote/etc for it, all those who promoted it, all those who followed along and helped share the love, and
CrazzyCookies and
Kadara46 who volunteered their time to help out on the admin end. I'm thankful for all the friends I've made since Ship Weeks. I'm thankful for
NightmareSiren and
Porsheee for being my two best friends on dA—apparently thankful enough to order a giant print, get it signed, and mail it across the country to them. ^^
tl;dr I am overly ambitious yet have a tendency to stall a lot. I did a lot of shameless plugging at the book signing since we were waiting around for so long, and Marissa is the
sweetest person ev—
HOW IS SHE STILL SO UPBEAT AND SMILEY AFTER THREE HOURS OF MEETING PEOPLE ON DAY FIVE OF A TOUR??The End.
Word Count: 2631
Bonus: Girls: Ooh, look at those drawings!
Me: HEY GUYS. HAVE YOU HEARD OF TLC SHIP WEEKS? :D :D
Girls: .....*shuffles away in other direction*
Me: I think I scared them away...
Lish: Yeah, just... don't talk to kids.
