FandomFest and James Marsters

So, today was the last day of FandomFest in Louisville, KY.  And lemme tell you, it was crazy.  Not crazy for me, of course.  Bruce Campbell was there for one day only on Saturday, and the line to see him was scary long.  I'm talking down the hallway, across the foyer, and out the door long.  I'm talking two hours standing in the 103 degree heat just to get inside long.  It was long.

Needless to say, I did not stand in this line.

I only wanted to see one person, but we'll get to that in a second.  I was part of the literary track, and got to see cool authors like Jim C. Hines, Timothy Zahn, and Ernest Cline of Ready Player One fame. (Ernest was absolutely hilarious and the biggest geek I've ever seen. He deserves every second of his success.)

The biggest rush for me was getting to do a signing with Robin Hobbs, who is one of my favorite authors ever.  I brought a whole backpack of her books for her to sign, and she did because she is so nice.  So we sat together and chatted about book stuff and signed books, and then it was time for me to go meet JAMES MARSTERS.

I had been bugging one of the con managers for a meeting with James ever since I learned that he would be coming to FandomFest.  I adored Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Spike was my favorite character, and when I heard James would be in the same building as me, I HAD to meet him.  Because Spike is also the inspiration for one of the characters in The Immortal Rules (Jackal), and I wanted to give James a copy of the book, too.  Hopefully without sounding too much like a squealing fangirl.

It took a massive amount of cajoling and talking and pestering James' manager, but we finally pulled it off and they agreed to let me meet him.  So I waited until his autograph line had left, waited as his manager spoke to James, and then--

EEEEK, OH MY GOD I'M STANDING IN FRONT OF JAMES MARSTERS.

That was my little fangirl self screaming on the inside.  On the outside I shook his hand (AAAAAH), introduced myself, told him he was the inspiration for one of my characters, and gave him The Immortal Rules.

*Fangirl self*  SPIKE IS TALKING TO ME.  SPIKE IS HOLDING MY BOOK.

Sadly, I couldn't get a picture with just him and me because he was only allowed to take those kind of pics at the photo opps booth, but I did get several shots of us talking.  And James said the book looked awesome and that he would read it, so that was enough for me.

So that was my day at FandomFest, ending on the biggest high I could have hoped for.  There were some other really cool blips, like Luke Perry passing me in the hall, and Nicholas Brendan sitting in the very next booth, and of course Robin Hobb and all the readers and fans I got to talk to.  I floated home on Cloud 9 this afternoon, and it will be a day I won't soon forget.

Now, I wonder what stars have to align for James to actually play Jackal in an Immortal Rules movie?  ;-)