Realm of the Sapphired Dragon: July 2011

Sunday, 31 July 2011

Lauren Kate Passion Signing and Giveaway

At 2pm Saturday 30th August, the Fallen tour, having already toured 3 Asian countries stopped at Max Webber Library in Blacktown for a couple of hours. Lauren Kate, author of the Fallen series featuring the books Fallen, Torment and Passion, came to talk about her experiences as a writer, read from her latest book passion and answer questions from the avid readers who had come to see her and get their books signed.

I had netball until 2.15 so I literally ran straight off the netball court and up the hill to the library, getting there late at about 2.30/2.40. By this time I had missed Ms Kate reading from Passion and the beginning of the talk but was in time to listen to her answer the questions that were being asked.

When I arrived Ms Kate was talking about submitting manuscripts and getting rejection letters and that the important thing in those weeks between submitting a manuscript and waiting for the rejection letter or not was to start writing your next project. That way you could balance the lows of a potential rejection letter with the highs of writing and gave you some thing to so while waiting to hear back.

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When asked about whether she ever got writer's block, Ms Kate mentioned that she probably got it badly at least once per week but that the way she got throug it was to keep writing and get through the half or full chapter even if she hated every word she typed. The important thing was to keep moving forward only go back and fix things during revision.

Another useful tool, Ms Kate uses when struggling with writing a scene from Luce's point of view was to write the scene from the point of view of Daniel usually or occasionally one of the other characters watching Luce do whatever neede to be done in a scene. That also provided her with other ways to access what Luce was thinking of feeling in a given situation as sometimes Daniel knew Luce better than the author. So the extra bits that are sometimes at the end of Ms Kat'e novels are not necessarily deleted scenes but chapters where Ms Kate has employed this technique to drill down in to a particular chapter a little further.

After answering a few more questions, Ms Kate then proceeded to sign books and take photographs with fans. After heading down the ramp on the wrong side to everyone else, I ended up near the bcak of the line. That was fine however as I got to chat to other fans sitting in the line.

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As I had some how managed to misplace my copy of Torment and then even stranger when going to buy a replacement copy, accidentally bought another copy of Fallen instead, I had 2 copies of Fallen and 2 copies of Passion for Ms Kate to sign. I had two signed one of each signed to me and the others with just Ms Kate's signature and no personalisation.

Ms Kate was extremely friendly and nice and we had a quick chat about where she had travelled so far and the weather while she signed my books. Over all it was a great day and I would like to thank Black town library, Random House and Lauren Kate for an awesome event.

I hope there are more like it in the future.

The Giveaway:

I have a signed copy of both Passion and Fallen to give away and all you need to do is to be 13 or over, and fill out the form below. You don't need to follow my blog but feel free to all the same :) Competition is open Internationally with 1st prize being the signed copy of Passion and 2nd prize a signed copy of Fallen. Competition closes Saturday 13th August AEST.

Good luck and see you on the blog :)

Sapphired Dragon xx

This competition has now finished

Winner to be revealed shortly

Saturday, 30 July 2011

In My Mailbox #12

Welcome to In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week

For Review :

Nothing for review this week unfortunately.

From The Library:

Finally joined my local library this week ( I've only lived there a year) so got a few things out:

Monday, 25 July 2011

Teaser Tuesday #11

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My current read is Wildefire by Karsten Knight and my two lines are from page 82 :

"Okay," Jackie sauid hesitantly. "But if I check your bed in an hour and and you're not in it, I'm heading back to town with my hunting rifle and getting you." The phone clicked off.

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Sunday, 24 July 2011

In My Mailbox #11

Welcome to In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week

This week, due to being ill last week, I have a massive 2 week edition.

For Review :

Limerick: A Faerie Tale Girl Novella, #2

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
Source : HarlequinTeen via Netgalley
Release Date: 25 October 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Sleepwalkers by J. Gabriel Gates
Source: HCI via Netgalley
Release Date: 4 October 2011
Goodreads | amazon | Book Depository

Wildefire by Karsten Knight
Source: Simon & Schuster Galley Grab
Release Date: 26 July 2011
Goodreads | Amazon |

Seers by Heather Frost
Cedar Fort via Netgalley
Relase Date: 3 October 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Map of Time by Felix J Palmer
Source: Bppmerang Books Early Critics Club
Release Date: 28 June 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Boomerang Books

Limerick by Kimberley Spencer
Source : LibraryThing Giveaway
Release Date: 30 June 2011
Goodreads | Amazon

Nocturne by Christine Johnson
Source: Simon & Schuster Galley Grab
Release Date: 23 August 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Giveaways Won:

I won Blood Brotherhoods by John Dickie from Shearers Bookshop
#guessmybook on twitter. Follow @shearersbooks to play.

I won Rogue Gadda by Nicole R. Murphy over at Book Bites in the F@#% Plan B Guest post & Giveaway.

Purchased :

I have purchased a few books in the last couple of weeks.

See below:

By Maria V Snyder

By Libba Bray

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Unfortunately this is not the nice cover on the left but the Australian cover with the three people on the cover as photo above. I bought to match my book 2 of a similar cover though I already had this book with the nice cover left. Now I just have to find the matching book 2.

By LJ Smith

By Joseph Delaney

So what was in your mailbox this week?