I was all set to spend the weekend reading through my giant TBR Book Pile of Shame when Kat told me about a conversation on Twitter between It's A Hardcover Life and Reading Teen about a signing with Kami Garcia in Bethesda, Maryland.
I was so excited ! Reading Beautiful Creatures is what got me back into reading YA and what eventually led to starting this blog.
Day Tripping
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This photo of Georgetown Cupcake is courtesy of TripAdvisor |
Even in the rain this area of Bethesda, known as Bethesda Row ,was so cute ! There were rows of shops and amazing restaurants. My personal favorite being Georgetown Cupcakes from the TLC show DC Cupcakes.
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via Bethesda 365 |
The Signing
The signing took place in the Art & Architecture section of the B&N. When we arrived we were greeted by the B&N community relations manger who made sure we had the books and plenty of swag. There were about 25 seats filled with posters, glow sticks and bookmarks; all swag sent over from Warner Bros.

The three of us arrived and hour early and took seats in the 2nd row. Also a little early was Amanda from Literati Literature Lovers , an open genre blog started by a group book lovers. I like their modge podge of genres and reviews !
Kami Garica
Kami was not what I expected at all. For some reason I expected her to be a soft-spoken YA writer. Instead she was very blunt and passionate about her journey to publication and about the YA genre. I didn't know BC was originally a story she and Stohl wrote for fun to entertain the teens in their life. I liked how they didn't set out to be famous and wrote just for their small audience.
As a reader I found myself nodding along to what Kami said about switching up the status quo of YA and how teens (and adult) can handle complex storytelling.
Kami was also full of great advice for writers, she doesn't sugar coat how important it is in fantasy to have a strong grasp of your world and how writing isn't all magic and fairydust.
I really enjoyed hearing her speak (I bet she's been making the circuit a lot lately) and she is one of my favorite authors now.
Takeaway
I've never been to a chained store event and I was afraid they were going to be strict and controlling. Over all it was a nice relaxed event and it made me appreciate Beautiful Creatures for how it stood out in the world of paranoraml YA, even with its faults.
Sounds awesome. My BFF and I are going to see The Raven Boys author (can't remember how to spell her name) on March 10th a signing so I hope it is as awesome as the one you went to.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome and the little town of Bethesda looks so quaint! I'm glad you had a great time and picked up so much swag and insight on the writing process and thoughts from the author!
ReplyDeleteI am actually currently reading Beautiful Creatures. The Expulsion Town meeting scene was EPIC! I only have about 100 pages left to read so I better get to it. Thanks for sharing your signing experience!
Glad you are reading Beautiful Creatures. Are you planning on watching the film ?
ReplyDeleteBethesda looks so cute! I think that Georgetown Cupcakes are AWESOME by the way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the event sounds like it was fun! I wish I could have gone to something similar, especially as I need to read Beautiful Creatures again...