Sea Witch by Sarah Henning: Launch Party Recap & Giveaway!

Launch party for Sea Witch by Sarah Henning in conversation with Renee Ahdieh

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend Sarah Henning’s Launch party of, Sea Witch at The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas. A charming independent bookstore in the heart of the beautiful, historic downtown beckons passersby to stop in for a spell to be whisked into a land of enchantment.  Holding true to its magical feel, Ngaio (the bookstore’s black cat) greets you upon entering, while her fellow employee cat, Dashiell monitored the quickly growing crowd.

In the evening Kansas heat, a bustling crowd quickly swelled to overwhelming numbers, as the shop seemed to expand at the seams to accommodate. A tremendous show of support for their local author, as well as comradery from fellow authors, there was no doubt that this debut will be one to remember.   

NYT Bestselling author of The Wrath and The Dawn duology, and Sarah’s first “book friend,” Renee Ahdieh moderates the event, asking questions that were insightful, heartfelt, fun and enlightening, allowing everyone to see the woman behind the mesmerizing, dark story of Sea Witch. Let’s jump right into the conversation:

Renee: Who is your favorite villain?

Sarah: The sea witch, but she doesn’t feel like she is a villain. What about you?

R: Ursula.  She is an incredibly misunderstood villain. First off, she had Ariel sign a disclaimer, Ariel knew what she was getting into! What are the top three emoji’s used on your phone?

S: Double pink hearts, laugh cry emoji, and of course the mermaid!

R- Why this story?

S – As a kid of the 80s, and 90s, I grew up on Disney’s Little Mermaid, but when I got older and read the actual tale I wondered, where did Disney even come up with their ideas? I am originally a mystery and thriller writer, so I wanted to blend it all together.

R- What is your advice to those trying to write?

S- Take something familiar, and turn it into something new. Get to know yourself and write, and write, and write. You also must read a lot, in order to write well, you must be well read.

R-Do you start with a character or a plot?

S- Generally somewhere in the middle. I am a hybrid. I’m going to see the plot points pretty far apart, and then I fill them in. What about you? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

R- I am an extreme plotter. I dream in words. I start with worlds, backdrop canvas, theme, then characters.

S- I find the hook, then fill the characters on the page.

R- What are the cooler moments of the process?

S- This (pointing to the audience) is really cool. Social media is so different now and is a great way to interact. I sold this book 3 years ago, then marketing pushed it to 2017, then said how about 2018?

R- This is definitely not an overnight process! What did you turn to for inspiration, in an industry that is all about rejection?

S- I became a journalist because I didn’t think being a novelist was a great idea. I wanted to tell people’s stories. But you can’t run away from your dreams. When I get down, I realize I would be doing this anyways. I also read other author’s books published with the same agency. It shows that they have done it too.

R What do you have coming up next?

S- Throw Like A Girl, it’s a story of a girl who is the not-so-backup quarterback on her boyfriend’s football team. I was a sports journalist for a long time, so this is for my “sporto’s,” and girls who want to keep up with the boys.

R-What book are you currently reading right now?

S- Darius the Great is Not Ok, is currently on my nightstand, by Adib Khorram who is actually here in attendance.

R- Hogwarts House?

S- Slytherin and Hufflepuff. But I feel that I am more a Divergent.

R- I am a Slytherin ( as she says with laughter)  What was your favorite character to write besides the Sea Witch?

S- Prince Nick. He’s a romantic and a friend.

R- Judging a beautiful book by its cover. Is this what you see when you see the Sea Witch?

S- I sent my editor a private Pinterest board of inspiration, and she sent it to the artist who lives in Scotland. I see her a little closer to the arc cover, which is different from the final cover.

R- If it’s not a spoiler what was your favorite part to write?

S- The flashbacks. I originally only had a few flashbacks, but my editor talked about the prism of grief, so we added more. I wrote them all in big chunks. It was very chartist to write what happened 4 years ago. 

R- Was there anything you had to cut in the editing process that you are upset about?

S- Yes! This was a very different book originally. It had a lot more happy things, but there was not enough space. 

With the, Sea Witch being the most breathtaking read of the summer, this was seriously such a delightful launch, with an amazing line up of questions, answers and a whole lot of information, and take a look at Renee’s shoes ♥

Are you ready to discover the magic for yourself?  To celebrate this amazing launch, I am hosting a giveaway, starting Saturday August 11, on my instagram page Amy_Fortheloveofbooks for an autographed hardback copy. Good luck and Happy Reading.  (image links to giveaway!)

ALA Las Vegas Recap!

In the last days of June, at the height of the Las Vegas heat, librarians, publishers, teachers and book enthusiasts from all over the country converged on Sin City for the American Library Association Annual Conference for a week full of learning sessions, networking, and books, books, books.  This was a big one, people. I’ve been to ALA twice before, and this one was more crowded and just a little wilder that normal.  Must have been the Vegas vibe creeping in. Or perhaps it was, at least partly, because of a special appearance by comic book creator, father of Spiderman himself, Stan Lee.  The exhibits opened with a frenzy, as Disney-Hyperion had announced earlier that only 100 coveted wristbands would be handed out, and only those with wristbands would get to meet Mr. Lee and get his new novel.  Needless to say, there was some pushing and shoving and running—but what can you do. The man is a legend, I suppose. Luckily it wasn't a top priority for me, so I let the sea of craziness waft by me, and made my into the Exhibits. :)

book vending machine!

Some know this already, but along with being a book blogger, I’ve also worked at my public library for nearly 14 years.  It makes ALA doubly fascinating for me, getting to see what newfangled ideas
are coming to the libraries of the future! Things like book vending machines, automated check-in machines, fancy robotics that take books from one floor of a library to the next.  Such cool ideas.

As always, the best thing about ALA is the fact that you are in a giant room full of thousands of book lovers.  Chatting with all the publishers that I usually only email back and forth with is fantastic, hearing what books they are most excited about and also hearing about how much they love the libraries and what we  do.  Meeting other book bloggers is the best, and also catching up with those that I’ve met before. Somehow I never remember to get pics with anyone! LOL, we just chat away and don't even think about it for some silly reason! Next time! :)

So the amount of signings this time around was what really astounded me.  Little Brown especially seemed to have signing after signing, one right after the other.  I found myself choosing my battles this time around, usually because there were other signings I wanted to make it to at the same time, and when it came to the especially hairy lines (Maggie Steifvater's line looped across three aisles!), I decided to pass. But I definitely had a blast meeting all of these authors!

 From top: Colleen Gleason, Josephine Angelini, Kendal Kulper, Marcus Sedgwick, Ryan Graudin, Victoria Schwab, and Kate Boorman.  There were more that I didn't photograph...the whole experience is just too overwhelming sometimes! LOL

Some of my Fangirl-ier moments:

Meeting David Levithan for the first time!!!

I almost completely lost it when I met Judy Blume. The woman is the pinnacle of my childhood and teenage reading and I told her so. :) She gave me this awesome sweet smile and told me how much it meant to her to hear it. My life is more complete for this moment! :)

A.S. King holds a special place in my heart! Her Dust of 100 Dogs was one of the first books I reviewed here at Stories & Sweeties...it was actually the one I was currently reading when I decided to start this little blog almost 5 years ago!

Here's Jay Asher.  It was incredible to meet him, and tell him how much my daughter and I loved his book.  He told me to tell her hi and I passed on the message. And a few days later, this happened:

OMG I can't tell you how much this made her day!  She was jumping up and down like a puppy. The girl has met many authors before, but she was so thrilled to get this tweet from one of her very favorites!  Best post-conference moment ever! :D 

SOOOO, I don't suppose you want to see what lovely books I picked up?

 You do?

Well, ok then! 

There were a few more than this...and some lovely cookbooks from the What's Cooking stage (we brought the husbands with us, and this was their favorite part LOL) and quite a few kids books that I grabbed for my son. But these are some of my favorites from the YA finds:

If I had to pick one that I am absolutely MOST excited about it would have to be Jackaby (see my WoW post about this to see why!).  And there was only one book that I heard S&S dropped and I missed it and I was so crushed...was Winterspell (if anyone has it and wants to do some trading, let me know please!)

 I feel so fortunate to have been able to make this trip, to have met so many awesome people, and gotten some really incredible books! Over the next few weeks, I'll be sorting through everything and doing some ALA giveaways and also some shelf-clearing giveaways.  It was another fantastic conference, we had a great time, but I am glad to be back from the 110 degree weather! Dry heat or not, 110 hurts!

Hurrah for next ALA Annual being in San Francisco!! Right down the road from me AND (usually) gorgeous weather in the summertime!  Anyone already planning to go?

Look out Vegas!! Here come the librarians!!

It's finally here! Time to go hang out in Vegas with all my fellow library peeps! :D Despite my dread of the unrelenting Vegas heat (dry or not, 105+ is unbearable!), I am so incredibly excited to be attending this great conference once again.  So much to look forward to, including meeting a few of my favorite authors (Jay Asher! Cat Winters! JUDY BLUME!! Just to name a few...), discover what is up and coming in the library world, grabbing a few awesome books, and of course, hanging out with and chatting up some incredible librarians, bloggers, and publicists!!

If you happen to be attending ALA too, please don't hesitate to say hello if you spot me wandering the Exhibit floor! Or if you want to find me, you an always tweet me @storiesweeties! Hopefully I'll have my head together enough to tweet a bit of the event, but I can't promise anything.  I get so overwhelmed at these things!

I'll be back early next week with a full report and hopefully some fun photos!

Rachel Hawkins Event Recap & Signed Rebel Belle Giveaway!

In an adorable little bookshop called Face in a Book, I was fortunate enough to meet one of my very favorite YA authors.  She was glowing and witty, there was lots of giggling around the whole room.  Yes, dear readers, Rachel Hawkins is just as funny in person (funnier, actually!) as the hilarious personalities she instilled in her characters. 

There was lots of  excitement in the air as this was the actual kick-off tour stop for her newest book, Rebel Belle.  Her entire sitting area was adorned in pink lollipops, tiaras, and pearls. She actually brought long strands of lovely pearls for her guests (making a hilarious crack about being surprised she made it through airline security with them without having an officer try to break one open in suspicion of finding drugs), which was such a fun idea, as her character often wears them in the book.  She answered a few quick question about all of her titles, the Hex Hall series, School Spirits (she assured us that there are no sequels in the works for this one), and Rebel Belle. She talked about cliffhangers, wild train adventures with Allie Carter, and being taught to smile for the camera by Maya Angelou.

She graciously signed all of our books, also stamping each copy of Rebel Belle with a cute little pink high heel shoe.  She was very casual with the crowd, upbeat, and animated and we all had a fantastic time!

Now, as I always try to do when I get to go to signings, I bought myself a finished copy, so I'm giving away my ARC---and, of course I got that signed for you, too!  Plus, LOOK at the adorable Rebel Belle posters that were handed out! Had one signed and I'm giving that away, too! :D

Enter below! One winner gets the signed ARC and signed poster of Rebel Belle!

•US addresses only

•must be 13+ or have parent permission

•Ends 5/1/14

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marissa Meyer Event Recap & Signed Cress ARC Giveaway x 2!

A few weeks ago, we drove an hour through pouring-down rain into the bay area to see Marissa Meyer, the author of my favorite series, The Lunar Chronicles.  As much as I hate driving in the rain and traffic, hearing this incredible author talk about her books and writing was 100% worth it.

We walked into the children’s section of  Book Passage, a sweet little book shop in Corte Madera, and found plenty of shelves stacked high with the gorgeous new copies of Cress, as well as Scarlet and Cinder for those who needed to catch up.  In the signing room, there was a table of fun bookmarks, buttons and purple hair combs with the Cress title on them, so clever to go with the Rapunzel theme of the book! 

Marissa Meyer was introduced and first and foremost, she apologized for bringing the rain with her from Seattle, where she had just flown in from.  She delighted the crowd with many fun stories about growing up in a family of nerds (driving the point home by mentioning she had an uncle who remodeled his attic to look like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise—I wish she’d had pictures of that!) and shared a really awesome picture of herself as a child dressed up as a cling-on at the opening night of one of the Star Trek movies.  Some of her early writing was fan-fiction based on her love of Sailor Moon, and was ecstatic that so many in the audience were familiar with the show!  So the world of Sci-fi and fantasy definitely runs in this author’s blood. 

She share that early versions of the Lunar Chronicle stories were written during NaNoWriMo, an event that she is a huge fan of and definitely encourages every aspiring writer to try.  A really early version of Cinder was written as an entry to a Seattle-based contest where the person who wrote the most words in a single month would win a walk-on role on a Star Trek episode. Sadly she missed the prize by 1000 words, but found out later that they never filmed the episode anyhow!  AND she ended up with a book that would later get her her first publisher deal---a perfect consolation!

Lastly, before open up the floor for questions, she treated the audience to a little storytelling! We got to pick which story out of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, or Snow White (which the final book, Winter, will be based on) and she told us the original fairy tale version, in all its grim and dark detail.  We chose Rapunzel, to Marissa’s relief---she mentioned that Red Riding Hood is the most gruesome and there were some small children in the audience that night! 

She then graciously answered tons of questions, and even more graciously signed tons and tons of books, all the while chatting away with her excited fans.  It was a great night!

Oh, and most exciting for me, she confirmed for me that there is definitely some Han Solo inspiration in Captain Thorne.  I suspected as much! ♥♥♥

*GIVEAWAY!*

I had 2 ARC copies of Cress, but of course I bought a gorgeous finished copy at the signing for my own collection, so I'll pass those two ARCs on to two lucky winners! 

Enter below!

•Must be 13 or older, or have parent permission

•US mailing addresses only please

•Ends March 5th, 2014 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Curtsies & Conspiracies: Event Recap & Signed Series Giveaway!

Recently I was lucky enough to attend a great event at Copperfields Books

in Petaluma, CA for author Gail Carriger, on tour to present Curtsies and Conspiracies to the world!  First I want to tell you all, if this author comes anywhere near your town, definitely don’t miss the chance to see her! She is such a great author to meet and hear speak about her writing.  She loves to entertain and it shows.  The second she walks into the room, she makes an impact with her adorable outfits (I’ve actually met her twice and both times she was dress to the nines in such chic retro dresses!)   Plus her books have a huge dedicated fan base, so you’ll often spot a few event-goers in full steampunk costumes!

The event was kicked off with pizza and red vines and we were all treated to the book’s awesome trailer played on a very antique looking movie projector screen.  Gail went on to tell a little bit about Cursties & Conspiracies and then opened the floor for questions.   She let us in on lots of fun facts and talked about her writerly ways.  When asked the classic “where do you get your ideas from” question (I think I’ve heard this question at every author event I’ve ever attended) she had the whole room laughing with her answer:  “My ass. If I sit on it long enough the stories ideas will come!”  Then she got serious and told us how small ideas grow and grow with a lot of “what if’s” and how worlds are built from being shaped around smaller details and what she called “thought experiments”.  I personally love the steampunk worlds she has created so it was fascinating to hear about her creative process.  She also mentioned that she loves Tamara Pierce---her desert island book is The Forgotten Beast of Eld---but that she doesn’t read anything but non-fiction when she’s writing.

She shared so much great insight on her books!  If you happen to be a fan of her adult series, The Parasol Protectorate, apparently the Finishing School is about the same world several years earlier.   A few characters from one can be spotted in the other, and she had so much fun dropping in little “cookies” for readers of both series to pick up on.   She definitely made me want to go back and read her first series!  Especially when she said that one setting in her third book, Blameless, is in Egypt and was her first excavation site when she was an archeologist!  I’m a sucker for little details like that!

When asked about the writing style and the language in the books, she answered that they are a fun gentle parody of Victorian times and language.  I heartily agreed with that---I love the liveliness of her writing and how readable and hilarious it all is for an era that is known for its propriety and manners.

There are two more books to come in the Finishing School series! They will be Waistcoats & Weaponry in 2014 and Manner & Mutiny in 2015.  Also, another adult series in this same world is in the works based on one of the characters from the Parasol Protectorate! Prudence will be out October 2015 (Gail says it must face a few rewrites because it’s just not funny enough yet!)


Definitely a fantastic author to see if you ever get the chance.  But wait…see what Gail is doing right here?? She is signing gorgeous copies of her book.  And guess what?  I got two extra signed copies for one lucky winner!!

 Enter below to win a signed paperback of Etiquette & Espionage and a signed ARC of Curtsies & Conspiracies!!

•US mailing addresses only
•Must be 13 or older
•Ends 12/26/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Off to ALA Anaheim!!

Well, it's going to be a bit quiet around Stories & Sweeties until next week!! And that's because I'm off to Anaheim for ALA Annual!! I am SO excited to be attending this year and I'm really looking forward to seeing so many great authors, chatting up some of my favorite publishers, and hopefully meeting as many of my wonderful fellow bloggers as possible! :D This is my first event of this magnitude, so I'm hoping not to be too overwhelmed! I'm also hoping not to get too roughed up---lol, after all the crazy stories from ALA Midwinter about foul play over books, I'm a bit freaked out--- after all, the "little" in Little Miss Becky ain't just for show. I'm just a 5 foot little filipino girl, okay! :) So here's to hoping everyone plays nice, has a great time, and doesn't trample me! :D I'll see you all Monday (or Tuesday, I may need a day to recover lol) with lots of pics, stories, and great books to share!

If you're attending ALA, too, and you see me around the exhibit hall, please don't be shy (because honestly, I tend to be). Come up and say hello! :D If you want to find me, shoot me a tweet @storiesweeties! I'll be trying to tweet a bit about all the goings-on while I'm milling around in lines and such.

Rock the Drop!!

I'm rocking the drop today in support of Teen Lit Day!! This yearly event is hosted by Readergirlz, and book lovers across the country are dropping books in parks, bus-stops, restaurants, etc, for some lucky reader to find!! HarperTeen has generously sent a box of books that I'll be leaving around my area. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@storiesweeties) and the hashtag #rockthedrop because I'll be taking photos and tweeting the location of where I drop them!