Event: YA Panel with Holly Bourne, C.J Daugherty and Alexia Casale

My sneaky pic of the advertising poster

at Blackwell's. Hehe.

Holly Bourne - Soulmates
C.J Daugherty - Night School Series
Alexia Casale - The Bone Dragon

What an amazing event! This is my first YA panel and I am really baffled by how much fun it was!!! I arrived at Blackwell's a whole hour early on the 4th September and I never realised how deep the book store is. I was fully ready: having read all 5 books before the event and had questions for each individual author. All I had to do was wait...

Book Review and Book Soundtrack: SOULMATES by Holly Bourne

Title: SOULMATES
Author: Holly Bourne
Published: 1st September

This book is Holly Bourne's debut and it sure has got me excited about what she has in store. 

What if your love was so strong it could destroy the world, without you even realising it?

The book follows Poppy, aged 17 and totally against the idea of love. The meaning is rubbish. It's soppy. Cliché. Ew! Enter Noah, the guitarist from the new band Growing Pains, and something inside Poppy changes. A tug. A draw. Something unexpected. Before she knows it, her and Noah are falling so deeply for one another, it terrifies them both. Their chemistry sets sparks. Makes the floor shake beneath them. But not in a metaphoric way. 

Forgotten About?...and Book Signing Dates to Attend!!

So where have my book posts been?

You may or may not of noticed my absense from this blog for quite a while, but I can assure you that I am still well and alive. It's been a few more than 2 weeks since my post, so what's been happening??

I went to Peak District for a week. Now, that possibly couldn't of filled up all my time, so truthfully, I haven't been in the right mood to write anything. I have been reading a tonne of books but I haven't been bothered to sit down and write something presentable for this blog. My GoodReads page is fully awake and I am on that, but here I feel a little more "pressured" if I dare say. But with that, I am back and will try to work this blog back up again...for me.

Anyway.

With that aside you must be hear to read about the book signings. So over the holidays I've been keeping an eye out for author book signings or events that I want to go to. I have stumbled across one 1 author event/signing and 3 panel like events which have multiple authors (bonus!).

Young Adult Author Panel - Wednesday, Sep 4, 2013 at 6:00 PM
This event is in Blackwell's in Charing Cross, London and is totally free!! It includes a three author panel consisting of CJ Daugherty, Alexis Casale and Holly Bourne, all of which are British writers, which is a change for me because I side for American authors the most! Regardless of this fact I am super excited to attend this panel!!!

An Evening with Phil Earle and David Levithan - Wednesday, 2nd October 6:30pm
Here's another sneaky little panel to attend at Waterstones Piccadilly. Costs for the event is £5 but only £3 if you have a Waterstones card. Unlike the other events, I have heard and already read the books of one of the authors (David Levithan) so I won't need to stock up on too many books for this one ;P

UK vs.US: is any subject taboo in YA literature? An Evening with Tanya Byrne and Lauren Kate - Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 6:30PM                
The last panel which I've found, this one is at Waterstone Piccadilly, again, which costs £5/£3 depending if you are a Waterstones memeber. UK vs. US is something that is so interesting to me especially because of my reading habit. I also think this is going to be great because it's not just a typical author event, this has a topic to the conversation and I'm very keen on hearing the authors thoughts.

Meet James Dashner - 2nd December
6pm - 7pm James Dashner will be at the London's Forbidden Planet megastore signing his new releasing book, The Eye Of Minds! This is also an author who've I have already read all his books and am waiting for The Eye of Minds to come out so this one is a definite.

I also am attending the TotallyBookBlog signing, which is bringing over some American authors and some UK ones in a massive room. But unfortunately this event was sold out last month, so sorry I didn't get to tell you guys sooner.

I am totally stoked for these book events.
I am, however, going to need to buy a lot of books this year, more than what I would like. So sadly, I have decided to not buy every book each author has written and maybe just buy the book that they are there to promote.

Let me know if you're going to attend any of these and we can totally hang out during the events! :D

I AM INSPIRED!

ZZZIIIIINNNNNGGG!

ZZZAAAAAAPPPPP!

BING!

 

That's right...I've become...inspired.

 

How? Why? When?

I guess you can say it was after attending that mini award ceremony and the discovery of Movellas. After going to the award show, I went to check out the site for myself....and now, I'm a new fledged movillain (a bit of Movellas lingo for ya ;) )

I have been told that this writing community is very welcoming and you are welcomed with open arms. Yes, this is definitely true! I've have tried out a creative writing site called Figment, which is American based, and in comparison with that site Movellas is ahead already! I've been welcomed with open arms and people are so aware of one another on Movellas, whereas I felt so lost in the billion people in Figment.

Another reason why I also transferred over to Movellas is also because of it being based in London and I found being on Figment I was unable to join in on any of the competitions because they were all American based (which I found so annoying!!!)

Anyway, as soon as I started I quickly transferred some of my old writing pieces over to start off with. One of the pieces is very old and the other a little newer...but both short pieces which I thought would be nice to have up as a little "starter". Another factor I love about Movellas is the fact that you can see if your piece has been read or viewed by someone else. It doesn't say who's read it, it just gives you a little number saying that someone has read a specific piece. Then like many social networking sites, there's a favourites button and a like!

As a consequence of being inspired, I have also decided to start writing again. I am desperately hoping that I can get further than the beginning chapters and maybe finish a semi-completed book (semi-completed meaning that I'd still need to going back to edit and tweak, a draft book). I have a good feeling about this one....fingers crossed it all goes well!

Anyway, I'd like to share my experience with the lot of you, the readers, here on my blog, find the link to my page below and I hope maybe you join too!

My Movellas Page

A short blog post today but I am super excited about becoming fully involved in this writing community and also experimenting out my writing, stretching it and improving it!

NOTE: I am not saying there is anything wrong with Figment! There are some great features that are on that sight, I love the reactions buttons and I will miss them loads. If you are an American, it is definitely a site to check out because the competitions are amazing! Many of the stories I've seen on the Huffington website on one of their sub-genre sites, which is how I discovered Figment in the first place. So just because I transferred, doesn't mean Movellas is 100% better. Just my thoughts :)

Sony Young Movellist of the Year 2013

So if you didn't know I am part of the Spinebreakers Editor crew and last night (16/07) I was lucky enough to attend the Sony Young Movellist of the Year 2013!

The whole competition was hosted on the Movella website with the help of Random House, The Reading Agency and the Sony Reading House which allowed people aged between 13 to 19 to submit their piece of creative writing. The winner would then get their books published by Random House to sell!!
 Not only this the judging of the whole competition was Malorie Blackman!

Here's my name sticker ^^
(I am a bit too proud over this ;P)

So I arrived at the King's Place for the event, meeting the other Spinebreakers out front. I've never gone to any of the Spinebreakers' events or any of the editorial meetings before so it was nice to finally meet everyone! Every started arriving at 6:30 where they served drinks and we got our own names and who we're represented on a sticker.

As we stood awaiting our time to go in we got to talk to Anna who is part of a publishing company that works digitally, CompletelyNovel. She also gave us her business card to keep! (To check out more about CompletelyNovel click here)

Entering the small hall at 7pm, the guests sat down amongst the 10 amazing young writers who were chosen out of the around 100 participants. As the presentation started we found out that Malorie Blackman was unwell and unable to attend, breaking my heart but I was still so amazed by their work I didn't feel like it was too much of a loss. Representatives of Movella gave us an introduction to the the lucky ten, where we then watched a short video of all those there and who they were, what they wrote and what inspired them. I was so amazed on the drive that each of them had! To even finish a novel at the age that they were is incredible and it is such an amazing achievement. I feel like I need to be more writing active like this lot!

The books in no particular order are:

Wings by Danielle Paige, 16 from Norfolk

My Corrupted Lungs by Kyra Schlachter, 16 from Essex

Girl with a Thousand Faces by Emma Yeo, 17 from Tyne and Wear

The Name On Your Wrist by Helen Hiorns, 19 from Coventry

The Lives We Live by Edie Dams, 14 from Brighton

The Art of Forgetting by Warona Jolomba, 16 from Warwickshire

The Thorn in My Flesh by Alexandra Morley, 19 from Kingston

Gift: The Rebellion by Saskia Ross, 16 from Buckinghamshire

I Dare You by Molly Looby, 18 from Essex

The Mendacii Key by Annabel Green, 15 from Somerset

Out of the ten the top three were chosen first who were: Kyra Schlachter, Helen Hiorns and Emma Yeo.

Then the winner....

The Name On Your Wrist by Helen Hiorn

She went to the stage to recieve her very fancy glass award, which was presented by Malorie Blackman's publisher, as well as a Sony Reader. She then got a chance to give us a speech that seemed so confident and easy for her. She was great, balancing her amazement and adding humour. (Much better than what I would have been like if I had to do any sort of audience speech!) Then on top of that we got to hear a cheeky extract from the first page of the book!

After the ceremony, we were surprised by recieving a tote canvas bag which had Malorie Blackman's most recent book, Noble Conflict, and also a voucher which allowed us to recieve a FREE copy of Helen Hiorn's book. But then to my disappointment, when I did come home and try to recieve my free book, THE VOUCHER DID NOT WORK! I am so devastated because I think the whole idea of the book is great and the fact that she is only 2 years older than me and has achieved what she has....incredible!

There were more drinks and some lovely canapés that were served after the show...they were lovely canapés....just saying. But we also met two other Spinebreakers editors who were in the top ten, Annabel Green and Emma Yeo (who was in the top 3!).  I didn't get to talk to Emma but I spoke to Annie for a bit and she is so nice...I am so jealous of her achievement and that she has her book printed for herself...

All in all, it was a great night! A really awesome experience and now that I know about this competition, who knows, I may try out next year...?!

Lastly, a big THANK YOU to Spinebreaker for allowing me to attend!!