Leigh Bardugo Signing!

I can’t believe it’s already been 2 and a half(ish) months since I came to the US to study at Boston University! Time really flies... it’s only 1 and a half months until I fly back to Singapore for December Break. That being said, it’s amazing how many bookish events go on in Boston! It’s only been a short while and I’ve already had the chance to attend THREE book events. THREE! That’s absolutely crazy. In Singapore, in the four years that I’d lived there, I only attended 2 book signings. It’s sad seeing how there aren’t too many signings/author talks, but nonetheless, I’m glad Boston is FULL of ‘em.

Well, anyway, so this past Monday (3rd November), there was an amazing event: a Leigh Bardugo book signing! EEEEEEEPPPPP!!! I mean, that’s HUGE. I’m so glad Richa @ City of Books saw the event on Facebook and told me about it. We both went together (being besties in real life and blogging-wise and all) and had a ton of fun seeing Leigh talk about her book.

This is the Cambridge Public Library (during the day, the signing was at night). Isn’t it pretty? :D

Leigh’s event poster

and without further ado...

IT’S LEIGH BARDUGO!!

I’m telling you guys– if you have the chance to hear Leigh speak, it’s absolutely amazing. Amazing and HILARIOUS that is. She’s so funny! She started off the signing with her reading from her journal written during her teen years. Leigh was seriously funny back then too. She then transitioned into talking about why she writes YA, because it was always something that she’d wanted to do growing up. Before she took questions, she read an extract from her upcoming novel Six of Crows, the first book in another series set in the Grisha world called The Dreg! I’m guilty though because I’ve only read Shadow and Bone (review here), absolutely loved it, but never got to the second or third book :/ I was so glad there were no real spoilers during the signing – partially because Leigh kept shushing people who were about to spoil the book – but now I have all three books and I can totally get to reading them :)

Leigh reading from her hilarious journal

Leigh’s audience

Luckily there wasn’t too many people– I’ve been to a Christopher Paolini signing in Toronto that made me wait 4 or 5 hours to get the book signed. Thank goodness it only took us 30 minutes tops to get our books signed.

Me (right) and Richa (left)!

There was a little bit of a funny accident at the start of the signing. So Richa and I headed over to the table where they were selling copies of Leigh’s books, and Leigh was hanging around there. Because I totally didn’t recognise her I thought she was waiting in line or waiting to go get a seat or something. So I totally gestured for her to go on ahead of me, and she was like “oh, nope! I’m just gonna hang around here for a while...” and Richa and I went ahead to the book table. I then had an awful thought and hoped that the person wasn’t Leigh, but with my luck of course it was! I felt really stupid, but to be fair, her author photo is really dark and doesn’t really look like her :P

Anyway, so Richa and I waited in line for around 30 minutes (or maybe less) to get books signed and we finally did! I managed to get a picture with the very lovely Leigh. She’s too adorable you guys. When I told her that I hadn’t read book 2 and 3 yet, she was like, “well, you’re actually really smart because now you don’t have to wait!” – she’s seriously too cool guys :D

Me and Leigh!

My copy of Ruin and Rising! 

Signed to me! 

It says on the left “There is no end to our story..." 

Awesome swag that was available at the signing

Well that’s all for now guys. That was a ton of fun to attend!! I still have to write recap posts for Boston Book Fest and the Boston Teen Author Fest, so look out for those :)

Lauren Kate Signing in Singapore!

On July 9th, 2011 (Today) I went to the Lauren Kate signing at Books Kinokuniya in Singapore. It's the second time I've been to a signing (the first being in Toronto, Christopher Paolini's for Brisingr) and so I was ÜBER excited! I've never been to a signing in Asia (it isn't so often a famous author comes down here!) and I went early so I could grab a good seat. There weren't too many people luckily, so I managed to snag a seat in the 2nd row. I had my camera ready to go, all my books balancing on my lap and my feet tapping the floor as my leg wouldn't stop shaking. I was seated 20 minutes before it started, which during I purchased Passion and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. Then finally they announced that it was starting! 



Lauren Kate came up, the manager of the store gave her a gift and she began talking. It was really interesting to see her talk about how she became a writer, what the writing process was like for this book, and what we could expect from this book and the next one, Rapture, which is coming out next year. She told us that Passion was harder to write as it talks about the many romances of Luce and Daniel through hundreds of years.
After this, it was time for questions! No one at first asked a question, and then there was a question about the movie deal for Fallen. I've briefly heard about this, when I read this short article. Disney has optioned the rights to make movies out of the books, and it was funny, as Lauren Kate went, "...and I know when I say Disney, back in the US everyone's worried that Miley Cyrus would get the main part or something." Can't wait to watch and see who gets cast!
After this question, I raised my hand and asked "What made you want to write about Fallen Angels?" and Mrs. Kate answered that she had Bible studies and then came the topic of angels, and from that came the idea of fallen angels to the story she was currently writing. It then took several sources of information to find out all she needed about Angels and their history. It was interesting to hear how the research process went, how many countless books and other places she had to look for information and such.


Since there were no more questions after mine, it went onto the signing, and luckily, with not too many people, I got quite a good spot in line– I didn't have to wait too long. Maybe around 20-ish minutes, which is WAY different compared to the signing in Toronto, as I waited for 3 hours! When I finally got up to the table I was so excited! I thought I was going to die, but Mrs. Kate was so nice. She asked me if I was Singaporean (which I'm not) and then it lead to me telling her I moved from Toronto and she told me she's never been there (hopefully she will, so y'all in Canada can go for her signing!) and then she asked me which place I loved living in most and it was really cool to have a conversation with her! I thought I would like stammer or something, but nope, all went well, thank God. I even got a pic with her! Check it out:

I'll show you all what amazing books I got signed during this event, tomorrow on In My Mailbox! I'm so glad I managed to find out about this. I would be DEVASTATED if I found out I missed it or something!! 
Thank you so much Lauren Kate for coming here, and I hope you had a fab time coming to Singapore!