Jenny Han in Manila Signing Recap!

Welcome to the first of the very long months filled with rain! For June, National Bookstore invited Korean-American bestselling author and the very fabulous Jenny Han for a book signing here in Manila!

Photo from Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs

You know I never seem to get enough sleep a day before a book signing. For this one, I was running on (more or less) 5 hours of sleep but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the day! I wasn't able to check out the line outside the mall, but the news was fans started lining up as early as 11pm the previous day (Friday). How crazy awesome is that? Jenny treated the first 30 fans in line to a cup of hot chocolate!

And then she arrived.

Jenny was all smiles when she walked in wearing that lovely jade dress and started saying hi to everyone! I sat there, starstruck. I never get used to seeing authors of books I've read sitting there in front of me, just a few feet away.



Before the Q&A started, I had time to talk and bond with friends and fellow book bloggers and it's so nice to see them again! I feel like we got closer the past month and so when we met again, we had a blast just catching up.

I got a chance to ask Jenny one question and it's this:

What's a typical day like, for you? Does it always start with writing something then doing other things, or do you have a specific time in a day when you start writing?

Jenny said she usually writes all day and there really is no set time for her to start writing, so she goes online and checks Twitter and her other social media sites to take a break. And then she writes again, and takes a break after and spends time online again, which usually eats a lot of her time as well.

A run down of the Q&A:

- When asked what the difference is in writing her own novel and collaborating with Siobhan. Jenny says Siobhan knows the kind of feedback she needs. Siobhan's really good with story telling and plotting since she has a screen writing background and went to a film school, and Jenny's strength is writing about the characters and dialogues. They trade pages and they help each other.
- If you're wondering how Jenny and Siobhan Vivian ended up writing a novel, it's because they met in graduate school and ended up becoming best friends when they met in David Levithan's class. They're also neighbors.
- As to writing her Burn for Burn series with three distinct characters: Jenny and Siobhan planned the whole book out w/ a 20 paged outline and divided it to what they were most excited to write about.  They can't just divide it as it is since each of the girls show up in each other's scenes, so they had to know each of the girls characters really well.
- For Burn for Burn, Jenny and Siobhan wrote each of the three characters equally. In Fire with Fire, Jenny wrote most of Lilia's, Siobhan wrote most of Mary's and split up writing about Kat.
- If you were ever wondering about Jenny's fabulous nails, she wasn't the one who made it, but she always has them done at a Japanese nail salon in New York called Studio L and they use Calgel, and it takes about two hours. The one she had on her nails during her signing here were decals.
- Jenny has a tumble account for her nail arts. Go visit http://justanothermanimonday.tumblr.com/. She posts to keep track of the nail art she had done on her nails.
- When asked if she ever considered writing a spin-off for Jeremiah, Jenny's answer is: NO. Jeremiah's left in a good place in the story and he's upbeat and he bounces back. The difference between Conrad and Jeremiah is Conrad is more sensitive. Jenny was more worried about Conrad if things hadn't gone the way it did in the story, he might be in a dark place for a while.
- When asked if there was ever a time she ran out of ideas, Jenny answered no, and hopefully never. She has 3 novels she wants to write right now. It's a matter of having the time to write the stories she want to write. She hopes to keep being inspired.
- When asked if she can write herself into one of her books, who will she be and why, Jenny answered that she'd like to be the nanny in The Summer I Turned Pretty, because of the beach house. She'd like to cook great food, drink wine and just hang out with the moms and let the kids do their thing.
- Sarah Dessen interrupted us by tweeting! :D She is one of the nicest people Jenny knows. (She asked if we're fans of Sarah's books!) They went to the same college and she's given a lot of support to Jenny and her writing.
- When asked if she was Lara Jean, who would be her Top Five celebrity crushes and which of them will be Peter Kavinsky for her.
One is Alexander Skarsgard of True Blood. Daryl from Walking Dead. The cop from The Killing, he's a Swedish model. Jaime Lannister from GoT, even without the hand. Jo In Sung and recently, Seo In Guk in Reply 1997.
- Who Peter is for her: He's very handsome in a nice, old fashioned way, like a young James Marsden.
- What makes a contemporary novel stand out for her and if she ever considered branching out to NA. For fantasy Jenny says if she had an amazing idea, then she will write it. Her concern is with the world building. She thinks of George RR Martin and how he can create this huge kingdom and that she tends writes her novels in a smaller scale unlike GRRM, as it takes a gift to write something of that scale. Emotions and experience are what's universal may it be fantasy or contemporary, it's what the readers hold on to, the universal experience of growing up, pain, suffering. As for NA, she has not read a lot: Abbi Glines, Christina Lauren. Jenny says her stories are more warm-hearted and tend to be more innocent. If she had a great idea, maybe she will write New Adult. YA can still be sexy though, and adults read YA. Anybody can read anything.
- When asked if it's healthy to go about life writing letters to people they like instead of having the guts to say it: Yes, it's very healthy. It's all about the person writing the letter. It's figuring out how you feel as you write the letter. It's up to the person on how they want to proceed. It's a personal experience in exploring emotions. As for Lara Jean, they weren't really meant for people to see. It's more of journaling in a way.
- When asked which of the books she'd written is her favorite. Her first book, Shug, will always be special since it's like the first child in her family. It's the first and the last that she feels like the most special in her heart.

There were a ton of people at the signing! Jenny herself felt like she had signed a thousand books. Copies of To All the Boys I've Loved Before were hard to come by and paperback copies of Fire with Fire ran out of copies and it was just amazing to see a lot of people there, supporting Jenny and attending the signing and just giving her their love.

Jenny Han has a message to her fans, check out the video below:


Another Saturday well spent, thanks to the wonderful people who made it possible! Much thanks to National Bookstore for another amazing and very successful event! And thank you so much to Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster / Simon Teen for the wonderful surprise.

As an extra, our reactions when we got ARCs of Ashes to Ashes. Jenny recorded the video herself and posted it on Instagram!

Were you able to attend the signing? How was your experience? Let me know! And if you posted your own recaps, leave me links so I can add them to my recap post as well.