A couple of book events

After a long vacation in California (and consequently, a long hiatus from book signings), I've returned to the NYC book signing scene.

A couple weeks ago, on an extremely chilly night, I headed downtown to Books of Wonder for the launch party for Melissa de la Cruz's Gates of Paradise, the seventh and final book in the awesome Blue Bloods series. I have long enjoyed de la Cruz's fascinating and original take on vampires, even if I haven't quite kept up with the series, so I was quite excited for this event.

Melissa de la Cruz

Instead of reading from her new book, Melissa entertained us with an inside look at writing the Blue Bloods books over the years. Did you know she collaborated with her husband through the entire project? She also shared her initial aspirations for Blue Bloods as a 9-book series, with three trilogies, and how she realized while writing the third book that she didn't want to wrap things up just yet and that she wasn't interested in writing a prequel trilogy. That's why the series only has seven main books and two companion books.

Melissa also mentioned her upcoming new series, Frozen, once again written with her husband (and his name is officially on the book this time!). It's a futuristic, end-of-the-world sort of story about how magic is brought into the world—or Lord of the Rings in reverse, in Melissa's words. But the part that I'm probably most excited for is New Vegas (which I believed it was called). Is it weird that I think futuristic interpretations of Vegas are the coolest thing ever? Because I totally think it will be a gambling hotspot regardless of worldwide crises and/or catastrophes.

Anyway, the next week, I found myself back at Books of Wonder for another event, this one featuring five authors: Brodi Ashton, Jocelyn Davies, Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Teri Terry. I arrived a little late due to train delays, and when I finally got to the bookstore, the event was already packed!

Brodi Ashton, Jocelyn Davies, Cynthia Hand, Teri Terry, and Jodi Meadows

Unfortunately, due to my lateness, I missed Jodi Meadows' and part of Teri Terry's introductions. But I still thoroughly enjoyed hearing the rest of the authors discuss their newest books, including their inspiration for writing them. After that, the authors took questions from the audience. Before the signing portion, Jodi Meadows, Cynthia Hand, and Brodi Ashton all had a few trivia questions for the audience for prizes. (Sadly, I didn't win anything. That's probably because I haven't read Jodi Meadows' books and it's been a long time since I read anything by Brodi Ashton and Cynthia Hand).

And that's all for now! I've found that I've needed to become pickier about which book events I commit to attending because I need actually reserve time for other things (like homework!). No need to worry, though—there are definitely a few great book events coming up in my (and consequently your) future!