I made it no secret that I was going to be taking the 3 hour drive down to Miami for The Dark Days of Supernatural Tour. So let's talk about the experience a bit.
 |
| My husband Brian, Ashley and Maggie |
My husband, best friend and I loaded up in my car at noon on Saturday and headed down to Miami. After copious traffic jams and miles, we made it to Miami at about 3:30. From there, we found parking at Books & Books in Coral Gables and met up with my friend Maggie who lives in Miami. We explored Books & Books for a good 30 mins and it could have been much, much longer considering their floor to ceiling bookcases full of novels:
Plus, the entire place is set up in a "U" with an outdoor patio in the middle so it's absolutely beautiful. It was pretty easy to fall in love with.
 |
| This is not one of my photos but I wanted to show you all what it looked like |
Anyhow, after browsing, we headed downtown to go to the Cheesecake Factory and wandered around another bookstore for a bit.
 |
| Maggie, Ashley and I at the Cheesecake Factory |
After dinner and a bit of shopping, we headed back to the bookstore and found seats at the event. They'd set it up in the right hand side of the bookstore:
Then they piled in the guests of honor. On our leg of the tour it was Claudia Gray, Kimberly Derting and Courtney Allison Moulton. Everyone was so polite and quieted down.
 |
| All 3 authors! |
After the introductions, each author got up and talked a bit about their novels and read a passage which I found to be one of the most interesting parts. I love to hear how the author perceives the character's voice as opposed to how I do. I was a little too awestruck at the beginning to get a photo of Claudia Gray talking but I did get a few of the wonderful Kimberly Derting and Courtney Allison Moulton.
 |
| Kimberly Derting reading |
 |
| Courtney Allison Moulton reading |
During Ms. Moulton's reading my husband kept asking questions which I thought was really funny. She introduced her excerpt and talked about it being the death of Marshmallow with blood and that started him off.
 |
| The Q&A portion |
After the readings, the audience got to ask some questions. I asked how each of their novels changed from the beginning to the final product because as a writer, I find this to be the most mysterious and fascinating parts of the publishing process. It was interesting to hear about the progression from each author in her own words. After that portion finished, I scrambled to buy Afterlife, 2 copies of Desires of the Dead (one for my friend and one for a giveaway) and one additional copy of Angelfire (for a giveaway). Then I waited in line near the back until it was my turn to meet the authors.
 |
| Claudia Gray and I |
Ms. Gray was so nice. I hadn't read her novels yet but she was great a keeping up a conversation. She saw my name was Amber and started talking to me about an upcoming book with a character named Amber. I preceded to ask (with much trepidation and a little bit jokingly) if the character was a mean girl since that's usually how my name was used and she told me she was making a very kick-ass nice girl with the name Amber. This makes me very happy indeed!
 |
| Kimberly Derting, Courtney Allison Moulton and I |
I spent the most time with Kimberly Derting because she had to sign five novels for me. I talked to her a bit about how long I traveled to see them and about my blog because I had interviewed her somewhat recently. I got all tongue-tied when she remembered my blog and she very kindly pretended not to notice as I got stuck on repeat and told her how much I loved her books... (which I do by the way, a lot). I didn't get too much time to talk to Courtney Allison Moulton because my husband was! Ha! Being one of like 3 guys there, he decided he'd speak to her because he loved the artwork for her novel.
I know there were some other book bloggers there but I couldn't/didn't recognize them so if you were there and I didn't say hello, I'm sorry! I had such a great time and I want to say thanks to those amazing authors for coming out and to Harper Collins for sending them.
Want more info? Check out this live stream of the event and hear the wonderful authors answer my question!
Wow, sounds like so much fun!! And that bookstore looks absolutely gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteOh, I totally feel you with your characters named Amber thing. Amber, Ashley... yah, our names are totally used as mean girl names. It sucks! I really want to read a book where the cool main character has my mine, or even a side character that is awesome and not bitchy, haha.
Oh! It looks like you had a fantastic time!!
ReplyDeleteThe set-up for the authors looked much more nicer than the one I went to! I had a blast though!
ReplyDeleteSooooo jealous! I would have loved to meet Kimberly Derting - I loved The Body Finder and can't wait to read her second book that I have on my Nook Color! So glad you went and had a great time!
ReplyDelete