So last yesterday I made the two hour drive to Seattle to go to the Fierce Reads Tour signing! Here's the recap along with photos, but note: it is pretty fierce.
The bookstore hosting was the lovely Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, and I was super excited. I arrived at the bookstore around 3:00 where I browsed the YA section while I waited for the bloggers I was having dinner with to show up at 4:30.
Here are all the awesome bloggers and myself:
(From left to right)
Kristina from Kristina's World of Books
Me!
Sarah from Sarah's Random Musings
And Anna from Peace, Love, Teen Fiction was also there, but sadly, no photo with her!
The bloggers and I all grabbed dinner at The Third Place Books commons (very good tofu teriyaki) and chatted books. Then we all meandered over to the "den" where the event was happening. And thus, started the agonizing waiting period for the authors to arrive.
At 6:30, the authors arrived! Here is a photo of all of them:
From left to right: Lish McBride (Hold Me Closer, Necromancer), Marissa Meyer (Cinder), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Jennifer Bosworth (Struck), Anna Banks (Of Poseidon), and Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14)
Here are some photos of them doing their presentations/talks:
Surprisingly, though Emmy Laybourne's novel was pretty dark, she was super funny!
Anna Banks was also great! We got to learn about her idea for a Sasquatch YA romance (I need this)!
Jennifer Bosworth had the funniest story about what inspired her to write Struck! Who knew a Discovery Channel documentary could inspire her awesome debut!
Leigh Bardugo shared a really great story about how no one wanted to publish high fantasy, then we all got to laugh about it because of obvious Game of Thrones reasons.
Marissa Meyer had probably the most inspiring story about how she entered a writing contest (and lost) about a futuristic Puss in Boots that opened a can of worms for fairy tale dystopians that would inspire her to write Cinder!
Lish McBride had this great speech that I totally agreed with about the bogus that is publishers not wanting to publish boy books! C'mon pubs, some guys read! *waves hand madly*
The talk was a blast, but the most fun happened after the talk was over. I started by getting my books signed, and I was happy to find out that almost all of the authors recognized me! After the signing line had cooled down, the authors all came out to talk with those of us who stayed around. I had a great time talking with them (everything from talking about Anthony Hopkins with Jennifer, the chilly Northwest weather with Anna, blogging with Emmy, and lots of other stuff) was a blast! and look, photo with them:
They look FIERCE!
While I was there I also got to meet Elizabeth Mason, senior publicist at Macmillan who was so nice, a publicist whose name is not coming to mind but talked to me about a author/blogger meet and greet she was planning with Gregg Olson. I also chatted with Daniel Marks, author of Velveteen (September 2012), and Kristin Halbrook, author of No Body But Us (2013).
I also came home with a crap load of swag, which because it was all so awesome, I'm going to hoard instead of giveaway (I'm mean, I know). And I got all nine of my books signed!
This was a great event, excellent job done by Third Place Books, and I had a awesome time meeting everyone. Cannot wait for the 2nd installment of Fierce Reads this fall!
Benji, I'd have been happy around all those gals too! lol
ReplyDeleteIt is inspiring to see you write as well. I believe I will show my students what CAN be done no matter ones age.
Take care.
Oooof it looks amazinnggg! You are spoiled for choice :-P. I would love to meet those authors- it sounds like they were really interesting too which is nice! x
ReplyDeleteGreat recap, I'm finally working on mine. I hope I can get it up in the next few days. Loved the event, all the authors were awesome and it was a blast having a little pre blogger dinner :)
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