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| Poster photo from NBS Facebook page |
It's been said somewhere that you never forget your firsts. Well, this was my very first attendance in a book signing event and I tell you, it was truly unforgettable. But first I must admit that I almost did not want to go because of the bad weather that day (it was raining so hard) but the thought of meeting esteemed YA contemporary authors and having signed books got the best of me. Also, I agreed to meet up with one of my favorite book bloggers, Sab of Sab The Book Eater, to hand over a book that I won from her blog. So here's my recap of what went down last July 5th:
I went with my sister at the venue at around 1PM. I thought we're gonna be early enough for the 2PM start time (according to the poster) but the place was already packed with eager fans when we got there. All the seats were already filled. People without seats were either milling around the venue chatting with friends or sitting on the cold mall floors doing, what else, some reading! We came by the registration area, signed our names, have our books checked (because books for signing must be bought at NBS) and picked our queue number, 410.
After registration, we joined the people sitting down on the floors. Various bookish videos from Epic Reads were shown on the stage screen: greetings by YA authors, book quotes, book blurbs and book nerd problems as re-enacted by some YA authors (our personal favorite). The energy of the people around us was sky high. Shouts and screams of cheers were in order whenever their favorite authors or books were being shown on screen. Shouts and screams grew even louder when Katie, Melissa and Robyn were called on-stage.
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| Photo from NBS Facebook page |
Before the signing, there was a little Q&A with the three lovely authors. Okay, for this part I beg for your forgiveness because I was not able to take note of all the questions and answers. Maybe next time, I'd be more equipped and ready? Moving on, some of the questions asked were the authors' dream cast for their books (celebrity names that I heard were Chloë Grace Moretz and Shiri Appleby), the songs they thought were suited for their books, favorite quotes from their books, and advice to young and budding writers. There were only two questions that I remembered the answers for. The first one was which classic literature were their favorites; Katie answered the Eloise children's series, Melissa answered Pride and Prejudice and Robyn answered The Great Gatsby. The second question was if they are currently writing something new and what is it about; Katie said she is working on a 90's tragic love story, Melissa said her next novel is about a girl coping from her mom's death and Robyn's is about two girls who both dated a boy who killed himself. My writing does not sound exciting but when the three ladies were discussing their WIPs, you can sense that people in the audience, myself included, were collectively half-wishing that their new books will materialize out of thin air so we can all read them right there and then.
After the Q&A, the signing began. The organizers were calling queue numbers by 20's and we were number 410!!! We exited the venue (with a little concern that the signing will take forever) and at this time Sab texted me to meet her up. So we met and she handed over the book prize and have our photo taken together. The first photo my sister took was shaky so we awkwardly asked for another again. She was ever so nice and she assured us that although there are a lot of people to be entertained and books to be signed by the authors, we will have our turn in no time. We parted ways and my sister and I decided to eat some snacks first. After eating, we went back to the venue and waited for our turn. While waiting, we entertained ourselves with reading and looking around fellow bookish peeps having the time of their lives meeting their favorite authors.
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| With Sab of Sab The Book Eater |
And then it was finally our time to have our books signed! We were actually both giddy with excitement. I think I was not able to say anything to the authors but a wide smile was plastered on my face the whole time. My sister was actually the one more interactive than me and I remembered her having little chats with both Katie and Melissa. Katie has the most infectious laugh and Melissa has the most soothing voice. Then she told Robyn (who is so prettily wearing her Taylor Swift looking dress) that they are both left-handed. I was supposed to be just standing there taking photos by the sides but the NBS people were kind enough to allow me to have photos taken with the authors as well. And what's more, I also got HUGS from all three of them!!!
This afternoon, my sister and I fangirled over these awesome YA authors. Thanks @nbsalert #KMRinPH pic.twitter.com/NeUQaWRlCZ
— Jennilyn V. (@RurouniJenni) July 5, 2015
Were you there at the #KMRinPH book signing event, too? Or if not, have you attended the same kind of event and how awesome was it meeting beautiful and shiny authors?! Tell me about your experience so we can both flail and do shimmies together. :)
