Its finally time for the SocialDistanceBookFest, where you can stay home while supporting authors and indie bookstores, and hopefully add a few new books to your TBR!
This is an all day event created by a dedicated group of bookworms from all corners of the internet. It includes 18 panels, more than 80 authors, virtual Fandom Meetups, virtual signing opportunities, and some amazing giveaways! Check out our website and social media linked below for all the details, and check out our bookshop.org page where you can order books from featured authors and support indie bookstores. 10% of proceeds will be donated to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Fund. We hope you take advantage of everything the bookfest has to offer, and in case you miss any interesting panels, check out our playlist of all the panels and meetups, which will continue to be available for viewing
VERY Important, here's our Panel Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQwex2MTjxk07WsYh1xlC8vSjJoYXCcs This is where you can click through to see all the panel, set reminders so you don't miss any and also watch any you did miss after the event is over, this will be here for you to enjoy whenever you want to...
And for all the latest updates, here's our links to social media, they'll have plenty going on during and after the event!
I have some very exciting news for you today... On 25th April I will be taking part in the Social Distance Book Festival!
So many of our favorite book and author events have been canceled due to COVID-19. To combat this while sticking to Social Distancing, and hopefully giving readers a reason to smile, we’re putting together an online book event. Seriously this team is working so hard and it just the BEST group of people!
The Social Distance Book Festival is an all-online event that will be taking place on April 25th, 2020. We will be running panels for different genres/areas of interest across several booktube channels throughout the day. We’re hoping to do a few fan events as well, though nothing has been finalized.
What a lovely evening we were treated to by Waterstones, Birmingham. Phillipa Ashley, Sue Moorcroft, Bella Osborne and Christie Barlow entertained us royally, speaking about their new books and kindly answering questions from the audience.
They covered a broad spectrum of topics from their personal writing styles to whether they, like their readers, fall in love with the heroes in their books or imagine friendships with their heroines. Thank you ladies for an engaging evening.
What a joy to be back in Glasgow, and even more so when in the company of Lindsey Kelk, Paige Toon and Mhairi McFarlane. On June 4, Waterstones Glasgow (Sauchiehall Street branch) very kindly hosted this event where these three lovely ladies entertained us with talk of their recent exploits, their newly released books and what was in the pipeline.
I’m sure that everyone there would agree that it was well worth braving the dreich weather to listen to these talented authors, who not only had us all in stitches with their stories, but kindly answered our questions. Thanks to them all and also to Waterstones for such a well organised event.
Thanks so Fabulous Book Fiend contributor Linda for attending this UK event on behalf of the blog!
On the 23rd of April 2019 (World Book Night), Waterstones, Harrogate hosted an event with renowned author Lucinda Riley, at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate. I was lucky enough to be one of the approximately 200 people who was able to buy a ticket and attend the event. As many of you will know, former actress Lucinda is the author of a whole host of novels, including the very popular Seven Sisters series.
At this event, she was interviewed by her son, Harry, presenter on a local radio station. We were treated to a really entertaining evening, where we learned about the origins of Lucinda’s forthcoming new novel, The Butterfly Room, as well as some of her background, including her writing habits. She certainly does an impressive amount of travelling to make sure the settings for her stories are correctly described. Thanks to Lucinda for making this a most enjoyable occasion and for patiently signing all those books, taking time to converse with her readers at the same time.
Yes I've been to some more book events. I am definitely making the most of my time in the UK by attending as many book events and supporting as many of my favourite authors as I possibly can (so you can expect another one of these wrap ups before i go home!).
Last week was a whole week of book events for me, so lets do them in Chronological order.
Monday
Fabulous Night in with Fabulous Magazine.
C.L. Taylor, B.A. Paris, Adele Parks and Sarah Pinborough were interview by Claire Frost from Fabulous Magazine. We were treated to drinks from I Heart Wines on the 17th floor of the News Building, a fabulous venue for book events! Then the interview took place. Claire did a great job with the questions she asked because they sparked such awesome discussion between the authors themselves. You could tell that everyone on the stage was a massive book lover and so it was great just to hear everyone speak!
The authors talked about how they wrote the dark fiction that they do write, saying that they don;t really feel like they have to get into role before writing, its just the writing that comes naturally to them. They spoke about the different way that they draft their novels and how much they write in a year. Some of the authors take a matter of months over their novels, whereas others wrote theirs in a matter of weeks because of deadlines looming. All the authors spoke about their novels in a way that made them sound completely compelling and I definitely want to read the two that I haven't already read! Click here to read my review of The Fear by C.L. Taylor.
The evening was fabulous and my thanks to fabulous Magazine for hosting and to my friend Hayley for coming with me!
Tuesday
Tuesday saw the pre-launch of The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill. This is a feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid and everyone who has read it has raved about how awesome it is. Louise came out in full mermaid sequins ready to be interviewed by the wonderful Emma Gannon. They talked about the writing process behind the book, how Louise likes to take herself back to West Cork to write so that she has the time and space to do so.
They also talked about the fact that Louise is a feminist icon and the responsibility that comes with that. It was great to hear such an open and honest discussion about feminism and society today between such prolific and prominent women. They also touched on Louise's other books Asking for It, Only Ever Yours and Almost Love. There was a singing after the discussion and Q & A.
Thank you to Waterstones for hosting this event!
Wednesday
Another Waterstones event but this time in Covent Garden, if you haven't been to this store, it really is a lovely store and their Sci-Fi/Fantasy section is truly a book-lover's dream! This event was to celebrate the launch of House Swap by Rebecca Fleet and the paperback of He Said She Said by Erin Kelly. I went away from the event having bought both the books because the authors gave a reading and made them sound just awesome!
Again we talked about the writing process and specifically what happens with this kind of crime/thriller novel during the drafting. Erin spoke about her experience of having one of her books made into a TV series and also being a Richard and Judy pick. Rebecca spoke about what a difference it made to be published as a crime author than it was to be published under her previous novels.
Alison Barrow lead the discussion really well, even delving into the role of female authors in the crime market and why female readers are seen as needing their own genre. It was a great evening and I felt really inspired to read outside my comfort zone and delve into these books very soon!
Thursday
Yet another Waterstones event! This time i headed to Leamington Spa to celebrate the paperback publication of Together by Julie Cohen and The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman. I have already review both of these books to just click on the titles to see my thoughts!
These fabulous authors were in discussion with each other, asking each other in-depth questions. Rowan spoke about the research she did in Brooklyn before writing about the area in her novel, and specifically the area in 1977. She also spoke about the struggle of cutting down to just writing one book a year (she doesn't do that anymore!).
Both authors spoke about what their job looks like on a day to day basis, from their writing process to their social media time and their time doing events like this! Julie spoke about the difficulty in writing her book backwards and trying to speak about the book to promote it without giving away any spoilers!
I also made a video about both of these books because I loved them so much so I'll leave you with those!
On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to snag tickets to the sold out event with Lindsey Kelk and Miranda Dickinson in Waterstones Birmingham. I was really pleased that I got my tickets well enough in advance and also really pleased that I was in the country when two of my favourite authors were doing an event within driving distance. My Mum and I drove down to Birmingham for the event (it was a very excited car I can tell you) and we loved every minute of it!
The event was a discussion between these two fabulous authors and saw them chatting about their writing spaces, the worst gifts they've ever been given, parties they have attended together and of course, their books!
Once they had fully set the world to rights and amused us all greatly, they opened it up to questions. This is when things got really interesting with them discussing which of the characters from the I Heart series they would like to kill off, whether they have written revenge on anyone in their books and also covered things like how people react when they find out they're a writer.
These two lovely authors stayed late into the night so that they could sign books and meet their fans and I got to give them both big hugs. The staff in Waterstones were so accommodating and stayed open late for this event. It was such a fun evening and if you haven't read anything by either of these authors then you should definitely make a point to go now and do that, I'll leave links below!
These are two of my favourite authors and it so was great to see them both again and have a bonus evening of entertainment from them. Thanks to everyone involved and now I'm going to go and finish reading my signed copy of I Heart Forever!
Click here to order your copy of I Heart Forever by Lindsey Kelk: UK or US
Click here to order your copy of Searching for a Silver Lining by Miranda Dickinson: UK or US
I've been lucky enough to have had some wonderful authors come to town recently and so I have attended some great events held by bookshops and libraries in my area.
The first event I attended was held by my library but took place in the conference room of a hotel was an event with Laini Taylor to promote her novel Strange the Dreamer.
Now I'm not big into fantasy and I read a sample of this and knew that it wasn't my thing straight away. However, I know that she is a hugely popular writer and so I really wanted to go to the event to get to meet her and to hear what she had to say. She confessed that she isn't a natural writer, she finds it hard and every book is painful. She also said that she didn't really decide to do the whole writing thing until just a few years ago. All of this was massively helpful to me and my writing process and I really enjoyed hearing her answer others questions about various fantasylands and fandoms and the event was really enjoyable!
The next event I attended was held at The Bookbar bookshop in Denver. First of all, this bookshop was fabulous and I will DEFINITELY be going back! Secondly, this was such a lovely intimate event and I enjoyed it so much. Colleen Oakes was there promoting her Alice in Wonderland spin off series, with books 1 and 2 (Queen of Hearts and Blood of Wonderland)...
And Brianna Shrum was there talking about her Peter Pan spin off Never Never. She also let us into a secret about the title of her new YA romance novel which is similar in kind to How to Make out.
They also talked about their writing process and how they like to write as well as what they like to write. They then went on to talk about fandoms and we discussed what books we are all reading and loving right now. It was a really great crowd and just a fabulous Sunday afternoon!
The most recent event I attended was with one of my favourite authors Graeme Simsion. He was here at Tattered cover in Denver talking about his latest book The Best of Adam Sharp.
He also talked a lot about the Rosie Project and answered my question about The Rosie Effect! He talked about his new project as well, which is a collaboration with his wife, who is also a writer. It sounds really exciting and definitely whet my appetite for what is to come!
Graeme read a little from his latest novel, chatted to members of the audience and talked about the music he has included in the book and why. He also talked all things film, how the Rosie Project was originally a screenplay and how the development of the film has been one massive roller coaster. He dropped several hints as to who might be involved with the film and also possible films coming out of The Best of Adam Sharp and also his upcoming project. He was such a great host and I felt like he was genuinely happy to meet us all despite the crazy schedule that a book tour provides!
And another fab Tattered Cover event I attended recently was to celebrate the release of When Dimple Met Rishi which I reviewed here! This event was great! Sandhya Menon spoke about how this isn't her first novel but is the first YA and was very much a team effort with editor and publicist. She is a local author and so this really added to the meaningfulness of the event for me. I loved hearing her speak about her writing process and talk about the possibility of a spin off. She has just released the title of her next book and is a real presence of social media so you should definitely go and check her out!
Have you met any of these authors or know of any other events coming up soon in your area? Let me know in the comments and happy reading!
