Yep. I met Amie, Jay, and Victoria Before My Birthday (Recap of Illuminae Event)

    First off, I want to recommend you guys Illuminae only because I LOVE it so much and I want other readers to experience this too. It has a little bit of everything, just mostly what I want from a book. Just a mix of thriller, sci-fi, romance, and etc. And it’s formatted you would never seen it before. Filled with emails, interviews, text messages, it’s a story you’ll rarely see. Interested? Then buy it now. Don’t lose the interest. Just buy it and see it for yourself. And also, I will point out to buy Red Queen too since the author of the book was also in the event too and even though I haven’t red it myself, I heard great things about it, and I also went to USC just a few days ago and I kind of want to learn there (and no, not because of the fact it has a bookstore at the campus…well yeah).

                         

For Illuminae (don’t regret yourself with getting a copy):

  

For Red Queen:

  

     You know how I much I LOVE Illuminae, right??? You should know. Over the months after YALLWEST (which was around early-April of this year), I have read and just talk about this book a lot when Illuminae wasn’t as big in the book blog-verse and I end up in a book hangover because of you know what happened in the end if you, reader, read it. It’s like one of the best of the best books I read in my whole life, like Top 5, maybe even Top 3. I don’t know. I just love it that I want to talk about it for like half an hour when I see someone has Illuminae in their hands. And when they just announce there was a book tour of Illuminae, I was really pumped about it, a bit nervous at the same time.

     It’s usual to be excited and nervous about meeting an author at the same time, doesn’t it? But anyway, enjoy this vlog-style text (something like that) of the whole experience on the Illuminae book tour at Huntington Beach, which is at SoCal, just so you know.

12:35-ish PM – I put down my bag full of Post-Its and a Sharpie (to write down the names as we drove to the signing) and of course, the books. And On the way, I think about scenarios of what would happen as I meet the authors, and it ended in a good note.

1:05 PM – We have arrived at the Barnes and Noble at Huntington Beach via the freeway (good thing there wasn’t traffic at that time) and we parked far away from the bookstore because there wasn’t any parking space near there, which would take minutes to get from here to B&N.

1:10? PM – Entered B&N and from a distance as I entered, I see the sign of the Illuminae event that’s happening in less than an hour. When I go up to the next floor by the escalator, I didn’t see the event where it was suppose to be taken placed at but when I see many chairs at the other side of where I got off the escalator, I walked there and try to find where it sit at (there was a lot of chairs at that time) and see the table where it showcases Illuminae and Red Queen and alongside the table behind were books of Illuminae and Red Queen in rows and in the bottom were Amie and Jay’s other books. When my eyes are locked on Endsinger, I walked there, grabbed it and got Red Queen as well since Victoria is in the event also. Minutes later, I’m in the line to pay for the books, waiting until I go to a bookseller and gave her my discount (Yes, I’m a B&N member). I finally got my books after I purchased the books and go back upstairs to wait for the event to start.

1:30 PM – Just waits until event begins in a couple of minutes. 

2:05 PM – I’m patiently waiting until I see Amie, Jay (the first thing I noticed from the group was him because of his height, which I now know how tall he is…like really tall) , and Victoria coming to us and sits at their designated seat and gets ready for the event to start. Jay also took a pic of the people who were sitting for the event (sorry for the blurriness by the way). Stacee @book_junkee is moderating the event and is asking the authors some questions and later questions from the audience.

(I’ll skip to the best moments of the event in a bit)

3:00? PM – And then, the signing was about to begin. Yeah, I was most likely to be nervous on in a book event just when the people were starting the people to go the line to meet either Victoria or Amie and Jay. Weirdly, when I go to the line to meet Victoria (first author they get me to get my books sign on), I didn’t became nervous as I thought I would be. It was just a simple greeting conversation and told me how was I…okay. Then I asked her to take a pic with her, and tells me that I’m one of the special people as she sees my ARC of Illuminae sitting at the table (Yep…one of those people.) and went to go to the line to meet Amie and Jay right after.

     As I move on to the line to meet Amie and Jay, I was really excited to meet them and did save the best for last (Not that meeting Victoria is bad or anything. I love meeting every single author in mostly all of the book events I have been to. I mean I rarely go to book events and I make it count.). When I’m in the front of the table to talk with them, Jay sees me and instantly says to me “I finally get to meet you from Twitter”. Okay. I need to stop there and need to take a breather or 2. And Amie is happy to see me too. They sure know to make my day a whole lot better in just under 5 minutes. Actually, it should be a whole lot better in just under 6 seconds.

     Because I bring a majority of their books at the line, I was a bit embarrassed that I bring so many books because many people who were at the event had just Illuminae and Red Queen, but I got the whole Lotus War books, Slasher Girls, These Broken Stars, and most importantly, my Illuminae ARC, which is the one of the books that are sentimental to me that I currently have. Back to the story. So as they see the books, they sure are happy that I bring that much books. Whew. *makes the “whew” expression*

     So when they’re currently signing my books, I asked Jay a question: When are you going to reveal the cover for Nevernight (synopsis sounds awesome and badass as always by the way)???? So he told me it’s going to be revealed by the end of next year, which I can’t wait to see this amazing cover that I know Jay would have a cool cover with an amazing summary. And that he’s almost done with this cover, just having a few tweaks of it. Again, I’m anticipated with this cover and so is the book.

5:35 PM – We drove home and I just can’t believe that that just happened and got home and just checked my book babies all signed and just became one of the most enjoyable book signings I have been to.

Best Moments and Worst (not really) Moments??

• Meeting Victoria, Amie and Jay of course
• When Jay was revealing what was his least favorite sound and tells us it’s silence and the next thing, the mic was not being a good friend to him as it’s constantly on-and-off and just gives up
• Having that moment in my head and later at home where I united the 3 Lotus War books and jumps up, giving a very happy expression in my face and pauses, showing it was a success
• Victoria telling me I’m special from my Illuminae ARC (should’ve give her a bit of sarcasm as well)
• Right after I met Amie and Jay, I put down my signed books to wait for my sister and my mom to go to the restroom and I started to hold the bag, I hear this small ripping sound and all of the books have fell down and instantly, I need to know how to hold these books to the car though my parents are there and even my sister but it’s just 7 books so it wouldn’t be a hassle for me
• Taking a picture with the authors. I’m have this gut feeling where whenever I see a pic of me and an author I met at a book event, I tend to look away because it feels a bit embarrassing to show the pics but for the first time, I didn’t really have a problem with the pics I took with the 3 authors and became comfortable with it
• And finally, I became so happy and so shocked just when I stepped and Amie and Jay greeted me (highlight of the event)

 

You know, I’m going to end this with this small comment. I couldn’t thank the fact that Illuminae has even existed, or the fact Amie and Jay decided to partner up and wrote Illuminae or even when my mom got the ARC of Illuminae at YALLWEST. Either way, I wouldn’t be at the event, getting the chance to meet Jay or Amie, who fly all the way to Australia. And yes, I mostly talk about Illuminae. I feel a bit sorry about not mentioning Victoria or Red Queen a lot.