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.

   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.

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

Kristin Cashore visits Galaxy Bookshop + a Giveaway!!

On Thursday 19th May 2011, Kristin Cashore visited Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney for a book signing.  In Sydney for the Sydney Writers Festival May 16 - 22, Kristin has been popping up in a book store here and there to sign copies of both her books: Graceling and Fire .


While there were not a lot of people there, those that were there got to have their books signed and also photos with Kristin herself.

Kristin will be signing books at Kinokuniya Books at 6 pm 20th May and will be appearing at the Sydney Writers Festival on Sunday 22 May.

To celebrate Kristin visiting Sydney, I am giving away to one lucky person a copy of both Graceling AND Fire, each book signed by Kristin herself.  Entries close June 10th so sign up for your chance to win!

Competition Finished

Rachel Caine Book Signing Sydney May 2011

So April Script Frenzy is over and my #SpidersGroup writing group is no longer meeting for write-ins every Wednesday and Sunday. So what is a girl to do when she suddenly finds her Wednesdays free again?

Stay at work a little later? Are you crazy!  I already devote enough of my life to that place

Early night in front of the tv at home?  nice idea but no

Extra session at the gym?

Well this is me so this is not unlikely and was in fact the original plan but instead I got a better one...

attending a chat and book signing at Kinokuniya Books in Sydney with visiting US YA author Rachel Caine, author of the Weather Warden series, Outlander Season series and her most successful series the Morganville Vampires. It is in fact book 10 of this series Bite Club that Rachel Caine is in Australia to promote.

Now despite what I wrote above, I ended up staying late getting stuck at work so I actually got there about half an hour after it started and when I arrived Ms Caine was in the middle of a story her journey as a writer describing her various incarnations and pen names and the books that had been published under other them  with the calls in the middle from the publisher saying we love but you're fired in between.

After that, there were a number of the standard questions: where do you get your ideas from? What inspires you?  What would you be be if you weren't a writer?  There were questions about specific series and specific characters and ideas in those series as well as questions about whether there would be more books in those series.

Ms Caine indicated that for the moment the Weather Warden series was pretty much done, while she was currently contracted to do 12 Morganville Vampire novels and I believe there may have been one more Outcast Season novel? (Apologies - memory fails me on what was said on this last series so not quite sure).  Ms Caine however also indicated that she would assess at the end of book 12 and who knew what could appear afterwards

Overall the chat was really interesting for writers and non-writers alike, as  Ms Caine chatted about finding time in her busy life ( she was working a 60-70 hour a week job for the most of the years she has been writing and stopped in the last couple of years) and the importance of making time to write as opposed to waiting to write until there is time.  A small but important distinction.

We were also lucky enough to get a reading from the as yet unpublished book 11 of the Morganville Vampire series which was a real treat.  I was a bit worried about spoilers given I am only part way through book three (give me a break I only started the series last Monday) but there weren't really any big ones and its nice to know quite a few more to look forward to.  I aim to be up to and start reading bite club some time next week hehe.

After finishing the reading, Ms Cain kindly agreed to sign our books and pose for photographs and even more exciting for those who had their whole collections there, people could get as many or as little of their books signed as they liked

Even cooler was the cute little gifts that each person who stepped up to have their book signed reeceived: An awesome large purple book mark with one of those surfaces where the picture changes

depending on how you hold it to the light and a Morganville resident's card which had on one side the rules and on the other writing identifying the holder as an official resident of Morganville so I am set if ever I decide to travel there :)

I want to say a big thank you to Ms Caine for coming out to Australia to tour and meet all her Aussie fans.  It's not often we get overseas authors out here so it was definitely a special event and we most definitely out here again.

Thank you also to Kinokuniya books for hosting the event and allowing us to stay even after the shop had closed so that we all could have a chance to get our books signed.

All in all, defintely and awesome day!

SapphiredDragon xx