[Recap] Hachette Date A Book Blogger Night 2015

What: Date A Book YA Bloggers Night 2015
When: Monday 17th August 2015, 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Hachette HQ (aka. the land of awesome, like OMG JUST TAKE ME!)
Why: Because books rock and so do book people! :D
How: The faeries!

Okay! Let's see if I'm bothered enough to see this through to the end. Heheh... heh. Well, so there was this thing on the other night in Sydney Australia (I live there!) called Date A Book YA Bloggers Night, held over at the Hachette HQ. I so wish I could just live there, like if I had the choice between being eaten alive by a pack of rabid ANY OF THESE, and living at Hachette HQ (or really any bookish anything), I'd choose the latter without a doubt.

This was their second annual Blogger Night and it was, by far, bigger and better than the first! Now, being confined in a small space with a bunch of people I may or may not know, whether online or by brief offline encounters, wasn't the most appealing idea for me to spend my evening (especially as I was stuck between night shifts... and still am). Hey, just being honest here! My friend had bailed on me, and I didn't want to be the awkward chickadee standing by the corner eating a pile of snakes and staring at everyone creepily, or latching onto a group of people, clutching to them FOR DEAR LIFE because OH GOD DON'T LEAVE ME! I'm exaggerating here, but you get what I mean.

[Recap] YA Book Buzz @ Kinokuniya - National Bookshop Day 2014

I normally never get the opportunity to attend a book event--it's either work or school, too early or too late or too far or just somehow otherwise inconvenient to get out there to meet the authors. But not this time! Stroke of luck: my boss told me to take the day off work, so I quickly RSVP'd and ended up going with a couple of fellow book-loving friends.

We entered Kinokuniya at roughly 11:30 am, drinks from the Starbucks downstairs in hand, only to be faced with a panel of authors overlooking about five rows of chairs. Luckily we got to sit down (a few people had to stand along the sidelines) and enjoy our drinks while the crew set up the mics and the authors talked amongst themselves. They looked quite excited to be there, the audience, ditto.

A couple of minutes passed before the host hopped up on stage and started things up. The authors bantered about who should speak first: Garth Nix eagerly nominated Wanda Wiltshire, who admits that this is her second book event, but her first with a considerable crowd. She passionately described her novel, Betrothed, which is about not just romantic love (it is NOT just a romance novel!), but love of all kinds. I had never even heard of her book before, but it was a treat to listen to her talk about her book, as well as her sequel, Allegiance. She finished up with some book recommendations--anything by Melina Marchetta and the Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater.

Garth Nix took the mic next, much to Wanda Wiltshire's relief (Garth: don't worry, we'll get back to you). He was a bit sick but still very charismatic and funny. Unfortunately I only remember his recommendation of Rogues, a collection of short stories about rogues written by the likes of George R.R. Martin, Gillian Flynn, himself (Garth Nix) and Neil Gaiman, and Howl's Moving Castle and all other works by Diana Wynn Jones.

Next up, Margo Lanagan, who I was pretty excited to meet since her books probably interested me the most. She describes her books as 'dark fantasy' and mentions that her next book will also be a selkie novel, but even darker and more messed up than Sea Hearts (The Brides of Rollrock Island). She makes light of the fact that her previous books have run into trouble in the past for being filth (Them: Is this the kind of filth that kids should be reading these days? Margo: Yes!). Her biggest recommendation was Joyce Carol Oates.

Last to speak was Justine Larbalestier, who was wearing an incredibly snazzy coat. Her new release, Razorhurst, sounds so good, it was pretty hard for me not to get a copy of it for myself (both my friends did, so I will have to borrow later on). I can't remember what she recommended, but she did add on to one of Margo's (Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott). (Apparently the dialogue is amazing; Justine wrote Razorhurst from her reading of that book to better understand the period and how to write good dialogue.)


Then it was time for questions!

I had intended to get a copy of Tender Morsels for the longest time, so I finally got it and it's mine and she signed it and she was lovely. I'm kind of really really frugal and money-conscious, so I did not end up buying a book from every author on the panel (I did feel bad about it when I only went up to get a signature from Margo!). If I had prepared a little more and KNEW that there would be author signings I would have brought my copy of Zombies vs. Unicorns, Team Human and Sea Hearts. My friends made up for it though since they went nuts.

Anyway, I had an awesome time and I was extremely glad that I was able to attend. Let me know if any of you guys attended too! I would love to have more reading buddies for Tender Morsels... and also for Garth Nix's Abhorsen series (I've preordered the pretty new cover editions! :D)!


PS. I know I'm super late with posting my recap of this book event. I'm going to try and be more up to date with the goings-on with bookish stuff, including book events.

PPS. I will be having a giveaway in the near-ish future. Something Garth Nix related! :D <3

PPPS. I am EXTREMELY sorry for the lack of posts and presence lately! Blogging is, and always will be strictly a hobby for me, so in the grand scheme of things it'll never be up there on my priority list. Work's been crazy, life's been crazy, you know how it can be. I'll be flitting from one full-time job to another very soon, so I have no idea what's to come in the future (as usual).