Oh, who's that in my picture? Just Emily Giffin.

I'm still trying to come down from the high that was Emily Giffin's meet-and-greet at Barnes & Noble last night. She told us that that was the same B&N she'd written at when she first moved to Atlanta eight years ago, and that it was also where she went to buy her novel for the first time, telling one of the employees, "This is MY book!" Pretty inspiring.

Not only is she incredibly talented (and gorgeous) she's also super sweet! After a short ten or fifteen minutes at the mic, Emily fielded three questions from the audience and then got right down to business. 

The book signings took almost three hours, but Emily never batted an eye (I was one of the last in line, so I was super impressed to see that she not only looked as fresh as she had when she walked in the door, she was just as upbeat). Emily Giffin is one of the few authors I know of who've mastered the art of social media, and she uses it to her advantage (in the best possible way). I can't tell you how many times she greeted someone by name simply because she recognized them from Facebook or Twitter. She chatted and asked questions and took pictures. It was like every girl (and every boy, too) was her best friend...and not only was she stylish and funny...she was authentic, too.

Two of my favorite moments of the night were when, during her talk, Emily said she "wasn't interested in having my characters win a popularity contest" and also when she remembered who I was from my tweet earlier in the day. I posted a link to my blog post about her stop here in Atlanta and she re-tweeted it to her followers. I was so excited I couldn't help but bring it up when I met her. She smiled and said, "Oh yeah! Wendi!" Totally made my entire weekend!

Maybe one day I'll be at my own book signing, and I'll give another writer that same kind of thrill. Little will she know that it'll probably be one of the biggest moments of my writing life, too.