The Next Best Thing

I had the pleasure and honor of meeting New York Times best selling chick-lit author Jennifer Weiner this weekend. She recently released her 10th novel called The Next Best Thing and has been on a book tour for the past 3 weeks promoting it. I didn't really know who she was until about a year ago when I noticed that a lot of people were retweeting her tweets commenting on the reality TV show The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I have been a fan of this franchise since the very 1st season aired while I was in college. I never understood the appeal of Twitter until I found that fans of the show loved to partake in live tweeting of the show while it was on. At first I just read the comments but then I started to get in on the action by tweeting comments of my own and I found it to be equal parts addicting and fun. I love the challenge of trying to be humorous in 140 characters or less and surprisingly I was making online friendships through this social medium with people I never would have met otherwise. Jennifer's hilarious comments would always pop up in my twitter feed as retweeted by some of my best tweeters so I decided I had to start following her.

I quickly learned that she was an author living in Philadelphia with two daughters and a lover of social justice. Her books are about women in all stages of life going through real life struggles and their stories of how they deal and overcome it. After reading the synopsis of some of her books I knew that they were the kind of books I would love but never made the time to read them until now. I was so excited about the release of her new book that I pre-ordered it on Amazon and waited patiently by my mailbox until it came. While waiting for my book to arrive I saw that she had been tweeting about her upcoming book tour and was encouraging her fans to come out and meet her. I went to her website and was excited to find that she would be coming to St. Louis my playground which is not too far of a drive from my home. I was hesitant at first to go because I've never been to a book signing and I hadn't been a lifelong fan of hers like some of the others I'd expected to see there but then I remembered that this was my summer of adventure so I made plans to go. I was excited all week deciding what to wear and calling the store to see what time all the festivities would begin.

Saturday morning came and I wore the outfit pictured above. I am wearing J. Crew from head to toe including the pearl necklace. I know it's a little over the top but I love it and the book signing was at Saks Fifth Avenue so I thought it would be perfect to wear to a casual summertime event there. I got to Saks and was greeted by Suzanne at the Chanel counter who helped me replenish my makeup supply and recommended a great new blush as my favorite color from Clinique had recently been discontinued. She also made a point to tell me how great she thought my outfit was which is exactly what I needed to hear because I was so nervous about how I looked. I wanted to look chic when I met Jennifer.

 I was there an hour early because I wanted to make sure to get a close seat but they hadn't even set up everything yet so I browsed Burberry's new fall collection as if I could actually afford any of it until they were ready for the fans. I signed in as they were taking donations for a great cause called Connections to Success that help unemployed underprivileged men and women obtain professional clothing to help them on their job search. They also had a beverage bar, cupcakes, and sharply dressed caterers serving California rolls, meat & cheese trays, & some other type of fancy crab hours d'oeuvres. I was seated in the 3rd row amongst other Jennifer fans and i must say it was the best dressed group of bookworms I have ever met in my life. I loved being among women from all walks of life and all shapes and sizes who were there because they related to her books and wanted to say thank you for giving us a voice.

Jennifer walked out just as if she was a regular person shopping in the store, said hello, and started signing books. I got so starstruck & giddy I didn't even stand up when they announced that she would do some pre-signing before she spoke. The line filled up very quickly but I stayed seated because they said she would sign more books after she spoke. I was pleased to find that she was willing to take pictures with everyone and even took a few moments to speak with each person that came up to meet her. When each person approached her she would exclaim "Hi!" just as if she was seeing an old friend for the first time after years apart and she was excited to see them. She even stopped signing for a moment to track down the woman serving cupcakes who she affectionately called "cupcake lady" to get 2 highly decorative chocolate cupcakes and eat them while meeting fans. Clearly a woman after my own heart.

After the first round of fans had their books signed, Jennifer spent about 45 minutes talking about the inspiration for her books, her experience being in Hollywood when one of her books became a movie & the TV sitcom she created, and also what inspired her to become an author in the first place. She also took several questions from the audience and gave real honest answers to each one. I was pleased to find that all of her books have been born from real life experiences that she had. She wrote her very first book after being dumped by her boyfriend who was kind of like Satan after 3 years together and she spent several months trying to move on from it. She decided to create a character much like herself going through exactly what she was going through but the character gets the respect and the guy in the end which they never show happening to average girls in the movies or on TV. I loved how open and honest she was about herself. She has her flaws, triumphs, failures, & successes but she stays true to herself and keeps learning as she goes.

After she spoke she sat down to sign more books & I was 3rd in line behind a woman who had already met her before the reading but cut in line because she just had to ask Jennifer what her thoughts were about the Tom Cruise Katie Holmes divorce said her husband whom she asked to tell those of us waiting so we wouldn't pounce on her. As a side note Jennifer believes they had a contract and that the marriage was never meant to last longer than 5 years and I wholeheartedly agree with that. Anyways, I gave my phone to the lady behind me who agreed to take my photo and I went up to meet Jennifer. She greeted me with the same enthusiastic hi that she did all those who came before me and she asked my name. I had planned to tell her that I followed her bachelor/bachelorette tweets and then fell in love with her books and surprisingly I actually managed to tell her that without sounding like a buffoon. She said thank you and then asked me who I thought the bachelorette was going to pick in the end and we both agreed that we liked Arie better but that she seemed to like Jef more. The kind stranger snapped my picture and I said thank you and with a smile I scurried off to get a cupcake & view my first "celebrity" photo. Before I got too far away she yelled out to me saying that she loved my purse. Being the fashionista that I am admiring my clothing or accesories is the highest compliment anyone can give me and coming from her it meant the world to me. I turned around with the biggest grin on my face and cried out "Oh my goodness thank you!" and went to retrieve my giant decorative cupcake which was delicious by the way.

Our meeting was brief but so meaningful. Jen was so relateable and was so open with her advice for aspiring authors. She has pages of advice on her website which I have read and kept in mind but the one thing she said during the event was that the difference between an author and someone who wants to be an author is the fact that the author actually writes a book and is persistent with getting it published. For the first time I believed that it is doable and that even I could really do it. I don't have a book written but I have been writing different things here and there all my life. Right now it's kind of a dream of mine as I don't know if I'm really meant to do that with my life but as I sit here looking at her book and seeing her signature I can't help but think how good it would feel to have something I had written and labored over in hardback with my name on the cover. I wonder what it feels like for her to see hundreds of copies of her books clenched in the hands of her fans as she takes each one and signs it knowing how excited it makes them. I certainly wouldn't write hoping to be famous because I like leading a relatively private existence but I love relating to people and knowing that even one person read something that I wrote and connected to it and felt like they could do something positive in their life because of it would mean the world to me because that's what so many books have done for me.