Meeting SKP

I met my favorite author on Thursday, Sharon Kay Penman, at her book-signing in Lexington, Kentucky. She's one of those people whom I consider myself pretty "cool" to have met. :) When my friend Janice and I found out she was touring, we almost immediately made plans to see her, and Lexington was the closest she was coming to St. Louis. So we asked off of work for that day and the next, got in the car, and drove about 5 1/2 hours to meet her. She's an awesome lady. She writes historical fiction, using people who actually lived in the Middle Ages as her subjects, fleshing them out and breathing new life into them and into their stories. She endearingly talks about them as though they were friends of hers, and Janice and I loved that about her. When you read her books, the dialogue that she writes is so believeable (if you imagine a world where people regularly say "for certes" and "mayhap"), and seems to bring the characters to life on the page. I told her about the historical fiction author I'm currently reading, and how it seems rather dry compared to her writing. We also had to tell her about how her books had inspired us to travel to Wales (the place she does her best writing about), and various sites in Wales where events in her books took place, particularly the house now recognized as the home of the Welsh Princes. She seemed to be intrigued and insisted that we keep in touch, handing us her business cards with enthusiasm. (She also seemed to be bowled over by the fact that we'd driven all the way from St. Louis to see her, which people in Lexington almost regarded as a foreign country, by their apparent amazement that we'd come from there.) As I'm writing this, I'm switching back and forth from this post to an email draft that I'm working on to her... I hope she writes back! That'd be pretty cool. :) From the impression we got of her at the book signing, she seems to be pretty good about email and often asks people to write to her, so I'm sure people write her all the time... I can only hope I'm interesting enough to get some sort of response! :) Anyways... it was a very fun trip overall, Lexington is a beautiful place with lots of stables and horses, :) and I'm really glad that we went.