Meeting Alice Oseman!

If you know even the slightest thing about me, you’ll know that I absolutely adore Alice Oseman. I’ve been a fan of their stories for so long now, they’re practically part of me. There hasn’t been a single other author who has made me feel as seen as Alice has. There’s just so many aspects of their books and characters that I relate to on a personal level. 

So when I found out they were going to be doing a book signing at my favourite bookshop, Queer Lit, I got a ticket immediately. 

my copy of heartstopper volume 5 with adorable freebies from the shop

As I’ve already established on multiple occasions, I am an anxious mess. I’ve gotten better over the years, and meds have helped enormously, but I’m still way more terrified than the average person when it comes to events and speaking to people – especially people who’s books have quite literally changed my life. 

But one thing I was determined to do was take the Heartstopper jacket I painted a few years ago and ask them to sign. 

i spent most of yesterday painting a #Heartstopper jacket! i’m going to be wearing it everywhere for the foreseeable future 💕 pic.twitter.com/NweHEB3LLv

— katie ♛ (@KatieBookQueen) July 29, 2021

My sister and I arrived early as the bookshop is also a café, and they stock some of my favourite tea. So we sat with some drinks for a while before the signing time started. We were also given the opportunity to write out our favourite Heartstopper moments onto a postcard, to potentially be shared on a podcast by The Proud Trust.

the gorgeous pride fan we given after handing in our postcards

When the time came for the signing, of course everyone wanted to chat to Alice, so things ended up running behind. Even though I’d arrived early and wasn’t that far back in the queue, they had to start limiting the amount of books people got signed to three instead of the originally planned five. 

It was completely fine by me because I’d only brought two other books with me – I don’t live locally, and I have a back injury at the moment so I wouldn’t have been able to carry more anyway! Since a copy of Heartstopper Volume 5 was included with our tickets, I decided not to have that signed in order to ask about my jacket instead. 

When I got to the front of the queue, even though the lovely assistant told me that they were only doing books today, Alice had already seen the jacket at that point and had decided to sign it anyway since I only had two books - I was so unbelievably grateful! 

so i took this jacket with me to meet @AliceOseman and they signed it for me 😭 https://t.co/TOOrWOgSq7 pic.twitter.com/oR8l7D3YVT

— katie ♛ (@KatieBookQueen) February 14, 2024

I also got my US hardback edition of my favourite Alice novel signed, I Was Born For This, and my original copy of Solitaire. It’s a bit of a throwback, but I still adore this version. It’s a book that’s been through the wars with me and I’ve annotated it too, so it means a lot. To have it signed makes it even more special!

Alice was super lovely, which put my anxious self at ease. The shop was running Heartstopper episodes on the screen behind the signing desk, and my picture with Alice was perfectly timed, don’t you think?

I’m so incredibly grateful to Queer Lit for organising the signing and doing their absolute best, even when things got stressful. I had such an amazing time and I will treasure my books and my jacket!

Have you ever met a favourite author?