Authors I'd Fangirl Over

I'm incredibly lucky in my career as a book blogger to have been able to go or been invited to some incredible events... I've met so many lovely authors that sometimes I feel like if I pinch myself I might wake up and it might not all be real.

I was at an event for a really popular author who was talking about some of her more ... enthusiastic fans, shall I say. And she was telling us about a signing she'd done previously in which one girl was almost about to faint from meeting this author and when the author went over to her to ask if she was okay, obviously really concerned and it just made things worse and the girl went into even more of a flail. And obviously at the time of hearing this story I laughed and thought yeah, that would never be me.

Except that it totally could have been me. With the right authors.  Say, for instance, these authors...

Neil Gaiman is such a rock star, isn't he?  I've loved everything of his that I've read so far, especially his books that I consider 'for children' - Stardust, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, but also American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere.

I think Meg Cabot is an absolute genius about writing funny, romantic stories. I love her craziness and her outlook on life.  I think she's amazing and I would lose it if I met her.  I haven't been keeping up with her latest books but The Princess Diaries books will always be amongst my favourites.

I absolutely love the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness ...and also A Monster Calls. I love it the most when stories are written in such a way that I feel everything very strongly too and that's just what happened when reading The Knife Of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer and especially Monsters of Men.  I didn't think I'd survive getting to the end of that trilogy!

I'd love to meet the author whose stories have destroyed me so completely as Melina Marchetta's stories have. Every single one of her books felt like they've changed me in some way. And especially Jellicoe Road and The Piper's Son have broken my heart into so many different pieces that I don't think that I'll ever recover. 

Surely it goes without saying that JK Rowling would make my list, right?  She did events recently in the UK and I was instantly jealous of absolutely everyone who was able to go because I couldn't!

Are there any authors you'd fangirl over? Have you ever fangirled over an author you've met in person?