UKYABA!

Photo courtesy of Michelle (Fluttering Butterflies)

Last Saturday, I made my way across to London for the first UKYA Blogger Awards! I was super excited and surprisingly nervous, especially since I was actually nominated for one! 

Anyway, I had to work for a few hours so came up to London late. I had planned to bring The Fiance but he was ill so my mother tagged along instead. Which was actually great, we walked through Hyde Park in the dying sunlight, which was only slightly terrifying, and I didn't have to worry about directions, that was mum's job!

When we got there, I found a few bloggers waiting in the amazing Waterstones Kensington, including the group above, and did a bit of exploring of my first London Waterstones - I know, Sophie has already made me promise to go to Piccadilly with her asap.

I've only done a couple of these big bookish meet up things, so I'm still not used to it, but it was so great to met bloggers I haven't met in real life before, and meet new ones. It was truly incredible to see so many bloggers and book people in one room; the basement quickly filled up. I talked to so many awesome people, including finally meeting Viv and Kirsty in real life, and meeting new-comer Michelle, chatting to CJ again - it was all a little overwhelming! And then of course the award ceremony started and everyone started crying and whooping and cheering each other on. 

Plus there were authors there, like CJ Skuse, James Dawson, Johnathan Stroud and a few more that I spoke to or eavesdropped on without realising who they were - we totally need name tags next time!

After the ceremony, we were gifted with a goody bag from Hot Key with CJ's new book, plus some crisps and chocolate. Due out in September, it sounds so damn cool and I can't wait to read it!

A bunch of us also went upstairs to check out their teen section and I treated myself to a couple of new books that I've had my eye on, which were books 2 and 3 of Holy Black's Curse Workers trilogy. (I have ordered book 1) While we were looking, I was still in work mode, Sophie had to slap my hand a couple of times to stop me rearranging the shelves!

Anyway, it was a completely amazing evening and equally amazing to feel the love first hand of this awe-inspiring community and I am so damn happy to be part of it. Finally, I want to say huge well done to Andy Robb for organising it and congratulations to all the winners. We all rule, basically!

Event Write-Up: Black Ice Tour

On Friday 14th November, I worked my first book tour event from the other side of the table. Waterstones Swindon started Becca Fitzpatrick's Black Ice UK tour, which was incredibly fun. First up, it wasn't actually in Waterstones, it was in a nearby cafe. So Jess and I, who I was working with for the evening, hauled all our stuff, including three boxes of books, tickets and petty cash, through the shopping centre to the cafe. We then set up tables, spread out the books all prettily, had a fight with the banner, and waited for people to show up. 

Moira Young had been invited along as well, which was really cool. I had met her briefly last year at her Rebel Heart launch in Bath, but it was really nice to meet her properly. Becca was running late due to insane traffic from London and, bless her, was still jet-lagged from the plane ride over but she made it!

Becca then led the talk on her inspiration for her new book, and how she got into writing in the first place. It was really interesting hearing her talk, hearing about the writing process from the other side and she was a very funny and involved speaker. Moira then took over, talked a little about her series and what inspired her, like being taken to the movies as a child and having an epic scene-like imagination. They then took questions from the crowd, mostly things about their writing and how they chose names and if characters were based on people in their lives. Jess and I could relax during all this, we just sat in the back and laughed along with everyone else.

Then is was signing time, so we both went back to the table to sell more books and waited for everyone to leave before we could start packing up. We also had our books signed and had our picture taken with both Becca and Moira!

Just a basic talk-and-signing but it was very fun to be working it, even if it was quite tiring! I had the best time, the stall did pretty well and I got my books signed; all in all, a successful event!