Every Tuesday over at the  The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  This week’s topic is:

Ten Authors that I’ve met/seen/listened to

1. Neil Gaiman – at a book reading.  Not only are his books amazing but he’s great to listen to and really patient.  He signed everyone’s books and it was a very long queue – must have took him forever (or at least a couple of hours).
2. Joe Abercrombie.  Another reading organised at Central Library in Manchester.  This was for his venture into YA with his Half a King book.  I don’t think there’s anything better than listening to an author read their own work – they just bring something more to it.
3. Robin Hobb.  A great reading for her The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince.  She answered lots of questions about her inspiration and how she came to write books.  Really interesting session.
4. Sarah Pinborough – this is a woman who just makes me laugh.  She’s so funny!  And, of course it doesn’t hurt that I’ve read and loved quite a number of her books.  She was at the Gollancz Festival last year and took part in a number of the panels.
5. Ben Aaronovitch.  At a book event in Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester.  Another really genuinely nice guy – he just had plenty of funny stories about asking fans about things on twitter and about sitting on different buses as they travelled around London just to take a different look at some of the places he could use in his writing.  I use public transport a lot – and there are always plenty of funny/not so funny stories as a result!
6. Brandon Sanderson – another book event at the above Waterstones.  He was great to listen to.  He answered a bunch of questions, he spoke about his experiences as a writer and his processes, he read a sneaky peak out of his third Words of Radiance book and he signed a huge amount of books for an extremely long line of fans.
7. Joanne Harris.  This was a very informal event at a Library in Oldham.  It was great because it was a very small venue and felt almost like you were all just having a chat.  There was a reading for the Gospel of Loki and then questions and answers.
8. Joe Hill – who was at the Gollancz Festival.  I didn’t see too much of him but he did attend the end of one of the panels I was observing and he took part in the audience Q&A asking questions of the panel himself and I thought that was pretty cool.
9. Elizabeth May – who also attended the Gollancz Festival – a lovely young woman indeed whose name you will no doubt recognise from The Falconer series.
10. Who next??