Recap: Hachette YA Blogger Night with guest Laini Taylor

Wow you guys. I just came home from one of the best blogging events ever! Hachette held their first ever YA blogger night and they did a phenomenal job. In Australia, we don't get massive events like BEA and YA is only really starting to take off - don't get me wrong, people read it, but the blogging has really picked up these past 2 years as people join the book blogging community here. Which means YA is spreading more yay! And it's only recently that children's/teen publicity divisions of publishers have started holding events like these to reach out to bloggers - and I really love nights like these because I get to finally put faces to names, especially the publicists who we work with and talk with so much via email but don't see. I also get to catch up (and meet) lots of amazing bloggers too!

Firstly, a massive thank you to Date a Book of Hachette Australia (the Children's division) for hosting the event and Ashleigh the publicist for inviting us! Thank you also to the Hachette Australia team who worked so hard to put this together, I met a lot of you tonight but I can't remember all your names I'm so sorry! But you're all lovely and I hope to see you all again in the future :D

I also saw so many bloggers tonight and met some whom I've talked to on Twitter for ages but never met! There are too many to mention but it was great seeing you all tonight <3 And a huge thanks to Gina for the lovely DoSab trilogy bookmarks she made!

One of the coolest things they had was a photobooth where we could dress up with props and take instant photos. There was also a lolly table with cute little boxes where we could fill up with different candies of our own choosing. They even provided us with finger food, pastries and beverages! They also had a treasure hunt, placing copies of Found by Harlan Coben around the room. (Yes I managed to snag a copy but haven't unwrapped it yet). For tweeting, I also won a goody bag with lots of awesome inside, including, yes, BOOKS~

Ashleigh and Kim talked about the upcoming YA/NA releases from Hachette and I am SO excited for a lot of these!

Already Released Highights:

• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Boy21 by Matthew Quick - for lovers of The Perks of Being a Wallflower! Matthew Quick is also the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. 
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown - a post-apocalyptic book about Earth's destruction and inhabiting Mars. Apparently Pierce is voted the hottest YA male author or something? I do admit he's quite a looker :D

Author Highlight:
Jessica Sorensen NA author

Upcoming Releases:

• The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black - faeries! But not as we know them - this is a more sinister side. Apparently this book may tie in with her other faery series. Released January 15 2015

• Upside Down by Lia Riley - about a girl who goes to Melbourne to study and escape her life, when she saves a guy in a koala suit from being attacked by a man in a business suit

• The Here and Now by Ann Brashares - it's NOT about pants ;p. 

• A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond - a modern retelling or Orpheus. I'm so excited for this one because I love mythology and the writing style is apparently very unique. Released October 2 2014

• Day 21 by Kass Morgan - the sequel to The 100

• The Walled City by Ryan Graudin - dystopian set in Hong Kong! HOW COOL IS THAT? I've heard such good things about this. Released November 6 2014

• The 100 Society by Carla Spradbery - about a high stakes game that goes wrong. Released September 4 2014

Guest:

LAINI TAYLOR

By the godstars you guys! Laini is so AMAZING. The way she talks is so inspirational and her words are just lovely. If you're familiar with her eloquent writing style - and you should be, if not READ DAUGHTER OF  SMOKE AND BONE NOW - then you'll be amazed to know that it's reflected in her speech. The words she uses are so lovely, I don't know how to explain it. She talked about how Daughter of Smoke and Bone came about - that she was in a writing slump for a while but suddenly the idea of a blue-haired girl arguing with a father figure came into mind. She was always heckling him, he would never give in, but they genuinely cared about one other. Then the idea of using teeth for wishes came, then wishbones. But it all stemmed from the characters. In writing Dreams of Gods and Monsters, she spent 23 hours STRAIGHT writing the end. She is so cool I'm still fangirling inside.

I asked her two questions - 

1) The end of Dreams of Gods and Monsters ending the way it did and having an open ending and whether she could continue the series - for now, no. BUT she would like to continue it some day. I really hope she does because it's like a whole separate ARC and a new story that could come from it. 

2) The concept of her angels, which are very different from the Biblical ones - this stems from the idea that just because something is beautiful, doesn't mean it's good (as humans we think beautiful = good). Her mindset was that people immediately think angels are good and monsters are evil but how about the fact that they're all sentient beings living like humans, and whether they're good or evil is a personal thing? Just like humans. I thought this was so amazing! 

Sunny also asked her about advice for aspiring writers and Laini's tip was like nothing I've ever heard - if you want to be a writer, you need to be in it 100%. Don't have a 'back-up' plan like being a lawyer/doctor etc. because you'll end up living your back-up plan and even if you think you'll do writing on the side, it's not like that. Because writing takes at least 100% of yourself. That was so eye-opening for me.

I got all my books signed by her - 2 copies of DoSab, DoBaS, DoGaM and Lips Touch Three Times :D

As we were leaving, they gave us goody bags too... WITH HOLLY BLACK'S BOOK THAT ISN'T COMING OUT TIL NEXT YEAR HOW COOL IS THAT?

Thank you again for an amazing night Hachette!

Goody bags! With books are products from Natio, Lanolips and Spotted Cow

Follow Date a Book (the YA division of Hachette) at the following places:

Website: http://dateabook.com.au/

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