Heartbeat Weekly (75): Awesome Book Signings!

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on March 13, 2016 | 7 Comments


hbweekly

 

Two week book haul

book haul

halfbloodprints order mybookbag subscription

From the Kagawa/Schwab signing:

All books are signed :)

From the Bishop/Briggs signing:

All books are signed :)

Bought:

For review:

Thank you Tor Teen!

From HalfBloodPrints:

  • Finnick, Cinna, Loki, Snape, and Luna minimalist prints
  • Sirius print
  • Minimalist Harry Potter stickers
  • Marauder’s Map bookmark

I’m really sad that I didn’t get my Sirius minimalist print I ordered. I’m hoping that issue will be resolved. I’m excited about all the awesome bonus stuff that was in there, though! I love the Hogwarts house stickers and the bookmark! I cannot WAIT to frame these prints :)

MyBookBag subscription:

This is such a great subscription box because it features only indie authors! It promotes the up and coming new authors that some people may not have heard of and gets them more exposure. If you want to try a month of it you can use my code NOVELHEARTBEAT to get 10% off your first month!

From the library (not pictured):

Weekly Recap

Posts on the blog:

Julie Kagawa, Victoria Schwab, & Gwenda Bond Signing

signing display

I had SO much fun at this one! It’s no secret that Julie is like, my favorite author evarr, so it was awesome to see her again! (For about the sixth time. *coughs*) I drove down early in the day with my wonderful boyfriend. We got there pretty early, so we decided to go to Five Guys for dinner! It was my first experience there, and it was pretty good. They messed up my burger and I had to wait a long time to finally eat, but it was pretty darn tasty. Not sure if I’d go back, since I’m not really a HUGE burger fan, but it was good as far as burgers go!

The bookstore was crazy impressive!! It was HUGE. It puts our JB in Cinci to shame!

unnamed joseph beth lexington

The signing itself was totally fun. All three ladies are hilarious! The audience laughed out loud quite a few times. Some fun things I learned:

  • Julie wrote a book in high school that eventually evolved into Talon. It was originally a medieval fantasy!
  • A Darker Shade of Magic started as a vision Victoria got randomly of a guy, covered in blood (“all of my characters end up covered in blood at some point” lmao), walking through a wall and crashing into a girl dressed like a boy. The idea didn’t come to fruition until many months later.
  • Julie’s #1 hobby is video games. (See I told you she’s awesome!)
  • Gwenda was a reporter.
  • Victoria sees Kell as somewhat of a mix between Eddie Redmayne and Lee Pace, but in way older pictures; she confessed that the ONE actor she would absolutely have to have, no matter how old he is, would be Mads Mikkelsen for Holland.

Gwenda Bond VE Schwab Julie Kagawa

We talked about books, ice cream, and they did a giveaway for some cool stuff (none of which I won, of course), and then we did the actual signing. I fangirled for a few minutes with Julie, got a picture, and we were off! I was super tired at work the next day because we didn’t get home until 11 pm and I had to get up at 6 am. DEDICATION, MAN. Dedication.

me and Julie Kagawa me and Ashley
I also got to meet Ashley @ Fictional Living, who I met through Instagram, in person. (Her bookstagram is awesome, you should check it out!!) It was pretty hilarious because we wore the exact same shirt – and totally didn’t even plan it. Great minds think alike! It was cool to meet you, Ashley!

Oh, and there was a drink menu custom made for the event. One of the drinks was named “Dragon Slayer” – how awesome is that?! Sadly I failed, and didn’t get one. Sigh.

Anne Bishop & Patricia Briggs Signing

This one was a bit more rough than the Tuesday event! Tuesday’s trip was a breeze – the traffic was pretty normal, the weather was great, and we were able to get into line and get out asap and be home around 11.

Thursday, not so much. It was freaking POURING – seriously, it was like a monsoon. Driving was awful and traffic was awful, we got stuck in multiple stop and go traffic jams, and it was super slow because of the rain since we could barely see. We left at the same time – 2:45 – and didn’t arrive at the bookstore until 5 minutes beforehand (it started at 7). Tuesday we arrived in Lexington at 5 and had an hour to have a nice meal and an hour to sit around and chill (and explore the bookstore) before the signing started. Thursday, we didn’t arrive in Lexington until almost 6.

We stopped for dinner at Golden Corral (which wasn’t too smart because it made us late), where I’d never been. We had to eat pretty fast because the restaurant was still 20 minutes from the bookstore (according to Siri). When we left the restaurant, I decided to go 27 because Siri was taking me WAY all the way around, which was like 8 miles longer. Um, shortcut? HORRIBLE IDEA. The “shortcut” was through downtown Lexington, which I didn’t realize. After sitting completely still for 20 straight minutes, I pulled a U-turn and went the way Siri originally told me to go. (I know, lesson learned!)

By the time we finally got there I was pretty frustrated. They were handing out line tickets, which I didn’t know about, and I was basically the very last ticket because we arrived so late. It ended up not mattering anyway, because there was a 2 book limit on the first pass through the line and I had 6 books for Anne. We just waited to get into line until the very end. We didn’t leave the bookstore until 10:30! By the time I got home and took care of the animals, I didn’t go to bed until 2 am. And had to get up at 6:30 for work. Needless to say I felt like ass all day Friday (12 hours of it)!

patricia briggs anne bishop

The signing was cool, though! It was very interesting to hear both ladies talk, as they both are seasoned writers and have a lot of experience. Most of Patricia’s talk had to do with her stories and characters, which I know nothing of because I have yet to read any of her books. (I hope to soon, though!) I asked Anne which Gard was her favorite, and she said Wolfgard or maybe the Ponies, but she loves Tess a lot too! She gave some teasers for book 5:

  • There’s a scene where Henry Beargard tells Meg a learning story (i.e. how the chipmunk got his stripes)
  • There’s an adorable scene with Twylla and Skippy
  • There are more Meg/Simon feels – he offers to go get her meat from a nearby city since she doesn’t like bison, which is kind of like the Wolfgard equivalent of buying flowers and chocolate. DAWWWWW.

Anne was super nice! I’m so excited to have all the beautiful hardbacks of the Others series signed. They will look lovely on my shelf!

i met anne bishop

What’s in your mailbox, loverlies? Link me up!

Jessi (Geo)

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7 responses to “Heartbeat Weekly (75): Awesome Book Signings!

  1. Okay seriously… Can we swap lives!!! You got to meet Victoria Schwab, Julia Kagawa, Patricia Briggs and Anne Bishop all in one week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My jealously rating just went through the roof!! You’re weeks been incredible! I wasn’t going to read what you had to mention about Marked in Flesh because I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but I couldn’t resist ‘There are more Meg/Simon feels’ PLEASE I NEED ALL THE FEELS FROM THESE TWO!! Great post!! Loved reading it :)

  2. Hey, that’s ‘our’ Joseph Beth…at least it’s the closest one to us. *ahem* We have been known to drive to Lexington (about 70 miles) with no other aim than to go there. And I’m with Amy…I’m seriously pea-green with envy! ;)

  3. OOoh nice! Two signings in two weeks?! That’s awesome! I just saw Patricia and Anne as well this past Friday! Which was odd because they came to the same bookstore last year! I seriously though I was reading an old posting on B&N’s website for a bit! LOL! Hope you enjoy all the new reads!! Yay Julie!! Love her books too!

    Here’s my STS

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

  4. Those signings look like fun! I am loving all those HP prints you got. I need to see where you got them, so i can get them for my books room. Looks like you had a great week. Happy reading!

  5. WOAH two signings in one week – that’s awesome!! I actually got to see Victoria Schwab too!!! I need to write a post about it – i’m so behind on blogging cus all I do is read lately haha. Not a bad thing I suppose. But I loved hearing her talk about her writing and how she wrote ADSOM. She’s a very cool lady. That bookstore is insane!! It’s so big!

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