As I believe I mentioned briefly on this blog before, on Saturday the 27th of November I got up at an unGodly hour (5:55 am), put on my make-up, straightened my hair and then made my way to my local railway station. There I began a somewhat arduous three-hour journey to London. Luckily the snow was not yet as bad as it's been for the past week, but it was still bad enough that I was stuck in Doncaster for an extra hour, and turned up late at my final destination (sorry, everyone!) which was Walker Books Ltd, my UK publisher's office.
But I didn't care! Let me tell you why.
The reason I'd been asked to visit the Walker offices that day is that my publisher has a really exciting line up of new YA books planned for next year. These books will be released as part of their new Undercover Reading range. And Shadows on the Moon is one of those books. The fabulous PR and marketing departments at Walker had decided to hold an event to promote the Undercover range and invite some influential bloggers to hear all about it.
And I, dear readers, was the Mystery Author.
Although I've done quite a few Inspiring Speeches about my books at this point, for instance at the Walker Sales Conference in September, I have to admit that I was reeeally nervous about this event. Shadows on the Moon is so special to me, and I desperately wanted to convey that specialness to these fabulous bloggers (all of whose blogs I already followed). These are people who've been to a LOT of publishing events. These are people who've met and chatted with really famous authors like Maggie Stiefvater. Cue: Zolah Freakout.
I turned up, late, hot and bothered, with hat-hair, and plunged into this roomful of important people to babble at them and give them presents. I told them all about the book, and then answered many astute questions with more babbling (are you sensing a theme there?) To my surprise, I found I really enjoyed it. Of course the bloggers were all passionate about books and reading anyway, so that helped, as did the support of the lovely Annalie (my long-suffering and supremely patient editor) and other Walker peeps Ruth, Rebecca and Sean. And then I went home. And the next day I woke up and thought: "Oh God, WHY did I have to talk so much? Why did I have to talk so fast? I bet no one understood a word I SAID! Arhgkkllghh!"
But it's okay! I need not have despaired, because apparently said bloggers are used to listening to hysterical authors babble. Either that or Annalie was discreetly translating for me. Anyway, the event reports are starting to show up on the interwebz now, and they are overwhelmingly positive about My Preeessshcious. So I thought I'd share.
Lauren at I was a Teenage Book Geek talks about it here.
Liz from My Favourite Books talks about it here.
Sarah from Sarah's Book Reviews talks about it here.
Becky from The Bookette and Lynsey from Narratively Speaking haven't posted their event reports yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that they will soon.
Thanks for making my slightly nerve-wracking day out fun, Kindly Bloggers. Hopefully I'll get to meet you all again one day!
13 comments:
"Engaging and hilarious"?
"Deeply intense and frighteningly funny"?
Yay, Zo! It sounds like you came off great - not babbling at all!
Congrats on getting to spread the word about your book, sounds like everyone enjoyed themselves!
Phoenix - That's why I said they were *kindly* bloggers :)
Shannon - The only bad thing about it was that all the good sandwiches had been eaten before I arrived. But they still had mini-Snickers and cookies, so I survived.
I love Snickers.
I'm glad you spread the word. Hopefully I'll meet you one day.
Mmm...peanuts, chocolate and caramel. There is NOTHING wrong with that. Actually, when I was on my way home I opened my bag and found that they had stuffed about twenty mini-Snickers in there for the journey home. I love my publishers (Hi Ruth! Hi Annalie!).
Meghaz, I forget, are you in the UK? Because I'm hoping to arrange a few book signings in various places next year, and I'll give the details here. So you never know, you might just meet me in the not-too-distant future.
Awesome!!! I'm going to need to check those out tomorrow afternoon, because right now I have to go to a school reception, and I only get back at 9:30 p.m. But I'm very excited to read them; that's so cool!! (Did they actually get to *read* SHADOWS ON THE MOON?)
They all have ARCs of their own, yes, but because my publisher asked them not to post any reviews of the book right away (since it's not out until July) they probably haven't read them yet. Remember, these people get given armloads of ARCs every week, so they have to prioritise.
Yes, I'm in the UK, Zoe. When/where will the signings be?
If you want, you can email them to me: mz_monkeygirl@yahoo.com .
Yayyyy! I really hope I'll be able to meet you sometime!
I don't know the dates yet - it's a little early - but I'll post times and locations here as soon as I have them. I'm hoping to be signing in a few places, so with any luck you might be able to get to one of them.
LOL you're so funny Zoe. I thought you were fantastic so stop freaking! :)
But freaking out is part of my Cheeky Northern Charm! If I handled everything calmly I'd have to actually fall down to get the laughs, and I bruise like a peach, you know.
But thank you very much, Lynsey. I really did have a lovely time meeting you all, and I'm so glad that *you* seem to have enjoyed it too.
Zoe it was an absolute pleasure meeting you & it didn't come across that you were babbling at all (or if you did we were all completely joining in - nobody can babble like a book blogger at a publisher event LOL). I loved how enthusiastic you were & my copy of Shadow on the Moon keeps looking at me begging me to read it! I'm trying to hold off until nearer the release date though. Amazon finally delivered my copies of The Swan Kingdom & Daughter of the Flames though so I'll be digging into those soon :o)
Thank you, Sarah! When I get nervous or excited the words just keep coming and sometimes I even confuse myself. I'm thankful I didn't confuse everyone else on this occasion. I really, really hope that you like TSK and DotF. *Crosses fingers*
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