Atom's Book Blogger Party

A few weeks back I was invited by Atom to come visit their offices for a Blogger Party and a look at their forthcoming titles for Spring next year - so, of course, off I went yesterday!

I have one word for you: WOW! There were cakes, there was champagne, and there was book talk! Not just any old book talk - new books coming soon with pretty, pretty covers coming soon book talk! Ooooh, there was some oooh-ing going on, I can tell you!

But I should start from the beginning (please bare with me, I took no notes or photos - I didn't think I would write this, but it's needed). You enter the board room to the lovely people who work at Atom - Rose, Kate, Sam, Gina and Kirsteen - who give you a label with name and blog, and offer out champagne, juice and water, and tell you to help yourself to the absolutely beautiful cakes (that shouldn't have been eaten, in my opinion, they were THAT PRETTY!). Sarah (Sarah's Book Reviews) and Sammee (I Want to Read That) were already there, chatting to Karen (Reading Teenage Fiction) and Kate, so I joined them and discussed things such as how often reviews are posted, cakes, the clocks going back, hair, lots and lots. Once everyone had arrived (list to come), we all sat down around the table, where canvas House of Night bags awaited us, more on that later.

Then the presentation began. Oh my word, you have no idea what is waiting for you next year. There are US bestselling paranormals, highly acclaimed series sequels and novellas, new ventures for Atom with suspenseful thrilllers, translations and contemporary, exciting re-tellings, arty manga, re-published horrors, angels, zombies, and other monsters! Seriously, you have no idea how excited I am! Two of these books were Nightshade by Andrea Cremer and Rosebush by Michelle Jaffe, ARCs of which were found in our goodie bags with such pretty pretty covers (see this week's In My Mailbox later in the week), along with a catalogue including some of the books mentioned. I know some of the other bloggers took notes and photos, so you can read about these books in more depth on some of the other blogs over the next few days, I assume.

EDIT: Sarah has a great write-up you can check out here.

We were also told about a new teen reviewers club, the Atomics, that they're going to start soon, which sounds amazing, if you ask me. We'll be sent a press release soon, so I'll provide more news on that soon - teenagers, keep an eye out, it looks exciting!

Then it was time for more mingling and chatting, looking at books - we were actually allowed to take any of the books we liked that were spread out across the table (again, see this week's IMM), eating of cupcakes, which were decorated for Nightshade and Atomics! Other people have photos, so be sure to check out the other bloggers' posts to see. Soooo pretty!

Then it was time for home, and even though I thought they shouldn't be eaten, I decided to take a cake home for later, and despite being careful... it smooshed over my books, and icing got everywhere. And unfortunately, three of my books are now ruined. Such a clever girl I am!

But it was a brilliant event, and it was great to see known bloggers and meet others, who were...



Ana of The Book Smugglers
Liz and Sarah of My Favourite Books
Molly of Words and Pieces
Rhys of Thirst for Fiction
Amanda of Floor to Ceiling Books
Matthew of Teen Librarian
Andrew of Pewter Wolf
Sarah of Sarah's Book Reviews
Sammee of I Want to Read That
Karen of Reading Teenage Fiction


Publisher events are just so awesome, I'm really looking forward to the next one!

Continue reading Atom's Book Blogger Party

Event Report: Headline Meets Online

Phew, I've been home a couple of hours now since the event, and my back is hurting! Why? Well, I was carrying home a big canvas goodie bag home full of books (and I had been bending over boxes earlier today when helping my Nan pack for her move). It was heavy! Sorry for the lack of many photos in this post, I didn't take a camera. The photos you do see I took when I got home.

I had such a great time at the Headline Meets Online event! I met a fair amount of bloggers today that I know online, and it was great to finally put faces to names! It was great to see Sophie (So Many Books, So Little Time), Becky (The Bookette), Jenny (Wondrous Reads - who I have met briefly before), Carla (The Crooked Shelf), Sammee (I Want to Read That), Liz (My Favourite Books), and Carolyn (Book Chick City). I met two new-to-me bloggers too; Ros (Warpcore SF), and Rhys from Thirst for Fiction.

The event started off with some mingling, and I met some of the Headline staff; Sam, Maura, Kasi, Helena, and Caitlin. I think there may have been a few others there, but there were SO many people, I'm not sure. They were all very lovely ladies, and did such a great job of putting on a great event. Kasi gave out the canvas goodie bags, which have some nice things (spec fic catalogue, Little Black Dress series nail files, pencil and lolly, Carole Matthews bookmarks, Laurell K. Hamillton backlist flyer, and I am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells Chapter 1 sampler), and said we could fill them with whatever books we wanted. As I said at the beginning, my bag was heavy! Keep an eye out for this week's IMM post ;)

After the mingling, it was time for the presentation, which was a film of some of the books Headline will be publishing this year. Several times I was watching and thought "Oooh!" but I seem to have forgotten most of them (my memory seems to be awful!), but the one I do remember and absolutely need to read is Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw. I really want it! It sounds so good! Sophie and I were sitting right at the back, and I had trouble seeing the screen at times because of the people in front, and I went and spilled have my water over me when I moved. Brilliant, huh?

Then it was back to mingling, eating (mini eggs!), and meeting some authors as they were then brought in. Becky, Sammee and I had a great little chat with Alex Bell - author of Lex Trent Versus the Gods. She's really cool! She told us about why she went into YA (adult comic fantasy isn't selling as well, apparently, and she really wanted to write a comic fantasy), she didn't have to change her writing style for YA, and about her involvement with the cover. Very cool lady.

And then it was time for the quiz! It was pretty much a pub quiz on bookish things. When we all arrived and got our name tags, we had little coloured shapes on them, which indicated what team we were in. I was in the Hexagon team along with Liz, Sammee, Rhys, Kasi, and Dan Wells. Kasi told us that the award we were playing for was delivered yesterday, and they found it was broken when they opened it, so they had to call up and get another one ready for today. There were six rounds.


Round 1 - Sci-fi/Fantasy
Round 2 - Chick Lit
Round 3 - Crime Fiction
Round 4 - Horror
Round 5 - YA
Round 6 - Picture Round (name the characters in the photos of book-to-movie adaptations)

Guess what? Team Hexagon won with 26 points! Oh, it was so cool! Dan Wells was such a cool guy, he was funny throughout, and when we won, he didn't think it was fair that only one person would take the award (Liz's photo!), so asked if the broken one was still about, and could we each take a frgament - or he would break the one we had one. So we all got a piece! It made me think of the end of Mean Girls when Lindsey Lohan breaks the home-coming queen crown for people, haha! So here is my winning piece:



Click image for a larger view.

Cool, huh? Sorry about the flash and the blur, it says "Headline Quiz 2010". And then Dan Wells signed a few books! I already had a copy of Mr Monster, but I grabbed another one to get signed as I didn't bring any books with me. Dan also gave out business cards to those he signed for, so we could email him once we've read Mr Monster to let him know what we thought. I said I will do, but would have to get I am Not a Serial Killer first. Maura overheard, and managed to get me and several other people a copy! So Dan signed that for me too. Photos:





Click images for larger views.

The first says "May you have many horrible nightmares," and the second says "I apologize in advance for the cat." What cool people are those at Headline and Dan? Awesome!

I had another mishap! Sophie asked me to hold her drink while she got her copy of Mr Monster signed... and I kind of dropped it. Water and glass all over the floor. I swear, I am a right muppet! I was so embarrased, and apologised a fair few times, but they wouldn't let me help clean up, I think it was a health and safety thing. Good job, Jo! So sorry for losing your drink, Sophie!

And then it was down to the pub! I sat at a table with Carla, Jenny and Carolyn, and there were others on another table, and people standing up. Dan came and spoke to us for a while before he had to leave about cultural difference (the tube/underground as opposed to the subway, and why we have no clocks in our shops), and Sam had a chat with me about getting into publishing, which was lovely of her! And then it was time for me to leave. I had SUCH an awesome night, so thanks to those at Headline, the authors, and the bloggers I met. You're all just so cool!

If that wasn't great enough, guess who was on the platform when I got to Great Portland Street? Only Joel Beckett, who played Jake Moon in Eastenders. I didn't speak to him, but I was thinking "Ooh, I know you, you were in Eastenders!" It was a really awesome night!

Continue reading Event Report: Headline Meets Online

Event Report: Chicken House 10th Anniversary Big Breakfast

Chicken House turns 10 this year, and so to celebrate, they held a breakfast event in London, and I was invited! I hadn't been to a publishing event before so I didn't know what to expect. Having only reviewed one book for Chicken House, and so little contact with anyone from the publishing house, I didn't know anyone there, and there were so many people! I spoke to a few people who took pity on me, standing on my own, before the event began properly, which was lovely.

Then the event started. Barry Cunningham, the Managing Director, gave a talk about how Chicken House started, and how far they've come as a company, with the novels and the authors they've published. He also mentioned that two of their novels, Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, and The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh have been shorlisted for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010. Then several authors were invited to come up.

First up was Cornelia Funke. who spoke to us about her experiences with Chicken House, and about her new novel, Reckless, which will be released on 14th September. She also read out an excerpt from the first chapter, and it sounds really good!

Next up was authors Rachel Ward (Numbers) and Lucy Christopher (Stolen, Flyaway), who both spoke in turn about why they write teen fiction, what they love about it, and their publishing experiences with Chicken House.

Then up came Di Toft (Wolven), who did the same, but also spoke about how Wolven is supposed to be funny as well as scary, and how she was inspired by Steven King. She also spoke to us about Demon Strike by Andrew Newbound, and a book who's name I can't remember for the life of me, nor find online anywhere (sorry!), but I believe it's by Ross Mackenzie. It sounded good though! About magic and dreams! Both authors were also in attendance.

(ETA: Ross Mackenzie commented, and his book is called Zac and the Dream Pirates, released in August)

We then had Sophia Bennett (Threads), who talked about her experience of winning the The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction competition, as well as that of previous winners Pat Walsh (The Crowfield Curse) and Emily Diamond (Flood Child).

Finally came Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams (Tunnels series), to talk about their Chicken House experience. It was great to hear how they originally tried to self-publish before receiving a call from Barry. There was also news about Tunnels being optioned for a movie! Apparently there will be more news on this next week on Chicken House's website.

Then Barry came back to the mic to end the event. It was a pretty good event, and it was great to hear about so many books! Barry mentioned several other books during his speeches, and there were so many novels mentioned throughout the whole event that I want to read! Chicken House is publishing some brilliant sounding books this year, and I can't wait to read them!

And, just as I was on my way out, who did I happen to bump into? Jenny of Wondrous Reads! Neither of us knew the other was going to be there, but it was great to meet her! Unfortunately, I had to get going, so I wasn't able to speak to her for very long, but I saw someone I knew in the end!

Here are some of the books Chicken House will be releasing this year, either by authors who spoke, or were mentioned by others:





The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh - Jan 2010
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher - Jan 2010
Pretty Bad Things - March 2010
Demon Strike by Andrew Newbound - March 2010
Threads: Boys, Beads & Bangles by Sophia Bennett 2010
Closer (The Tunnels Series Book 4) by Roderick Gordon and Brian Willams - May 2010
Wolven - The Twilight Circus - May 2010
Numbers 2: The Chaos by Rachel Ward - June 2010
Flood & Fire by Emily Diamond - August 2010

How awesome are all those covers?! I love them!

Continue reading Event Report: Chicken House 10th Anniversary Big Breakfast