Recap: Tahereh Mafi in Manila book signing (with Ransom Riggs) + Giveaway!

A little over a week after and I still have a serious hangover for this seriously AMAZING book event.

At the start of this year, I got wind of a great news that Tahereh Mafi was coming here to Manila for a signing, and when we got the specifics (March 2nd, Powerbooks Greenbelt 4) I was so excited to attend. But I was in for a surprise since I got an invite from National Bookstore, the bookstore chain bringing Tahereh here in Manila, for a very exclusive bloggers Q&A with the author. Of course we didn't pass up the chance and together with my Filipina blogger friends, we were there!

While we were waiting for Tahereh...

I had to wait for two of my friends (Precious of Fragments of Life and Dianne of Oops I Read Again) and we arrived at the venue just in time. It was so nice to meet fellow bloggers, especially since 15 out of the almost 20 bloggers there are my friends.

Tahereh answering some questions!

By the time the signing started, I was a bunch of nerves. We were given numbers (I was #13) and we can ask 1 question to Tahereh. Coffee and Muffins (Cupcakes?) aside, my question was this: "Since readers who read your book tend to focus more on the characters, tell us something about the world in both Shatter Me & Unravel Me as I feel there's somewhat an environmental significance for it. Why is the world like that?"

Her answer was, Tahereh wanted to create a world where the worst possible things that could happen in it has, indeed, happened. The world was so devastated and destroyed even the birds couldn't fly anymore. Tahereh got the idea for it when she was watching a documentary about the genes of a male fish altering to become female all because of the pollution in the environment. (Yes, at that point we were talking about fishes :P)

Other information from the Bloggers forum were:

- Kenji was based on Tahereh's older brothers. There was a scene in the book (I forgot which one) that really happened in real life. Tahereh had to write it down when it happened and told her brother that she'll include it in her book.
- The original title for Shatter Me was 'Touching Juliette', which Tahereh herself suggested (LOL!)
- Tahereh's doing the final edits for the 3rd book (!!!!!)
- The new covers for both Shatter Me and Unravel Me, the eyes, represents the metaphysical growth of Juliette as a character.
- As of the moment, the 3rd book is called 'Untitled Me' (meaning it still has no title yet!)
- There will be an e-novella after Unravel Me, which Tahereh hasn't written yet. She didn't confirm if this novella is about Kenji.
- Tahereh was very surprised when she found out that most of her readers were on Team Warner. And yes, Tahereh created Warner that way, with a little bit of bad and good inside of him, someone broken.

Q&A with Ransom as well

We also had a chance to ask Ransom Riggs, who was there at the back snapping some photos of us during the blogger forum for Tahereh, and who came up to the stage afterwards!

- The sequel for Miss Peregrine will be published 2014.
- Yes, Ransom is Ransom's real name. It's what's on his birth certificate! He once had an amazon 1 star review where the reader said he had the worse pseudonym ever.
- The Miss Peregrine movie will be directed by Tim Burton (WOAH!)

It was the best Q&A ever! Since we had some time before the official signing starts, us bloggers had the chance to have our books signed BEFORE anyone else could. Ransom signed some books too!

Ransom had to take a photo because he liked the name of Dianne's blog so much!

Tahereh signing books!

Us bloggers lining up for our own signing!

You wouldn't believe how much gift both Tahereh and Ransom got! Some gave cupcakes, some gave cakes, some gave souvenirs, someone gave Tahereh a Jane Austen lipbalm! and some gave them dried mangoes (because you had to eat it when you're in Manila!) and some AMAZING fanart for Shatter Me & Unravel Me. Us? We gave Tahereh our own version of a defaced copy of Shatter Me, thanks to Louisse from The Soul Sister's AMAZING idea!



I didn't get to take a photo of Tahereh the moment she saw the book, but it was such a priceless moment. Throughout the signing, dirty jokes were made, bad puns were flying everywhere, and we all had a great laugh. Both Tahereh and Ransom were so so funny! Tahereh was late for the official signing (which we didn't get to check out that much) and there were TONS of people. Our friend was 194 and the signing hasn't even started!



We didn't stay until the end of the signing, but I heard it went on until 8PM. Yes, Tahereh signed books for 4 hours! Ransom also announced that he will sign books, so copies of Miss Peregrine flew off the shelves faster than you can say 'what?'. I heard copies were sold out!

Me, Precious, Dani, Lyra, Kate, Dianne and Leslie bonded a bit more while eating these fab banana chocolate chip cupcakes that Dani (of Book Whales!) baked. They were YUMMY!

And yeah, me and my new BFF Tahereh Mafi. I was so surprised when she recognized me. When she said "Glad to finally meet you." I almost underwent spontaneous combustion (if it was even possible) right then and there. And some more group pictures!




It was such a fine event! Met awesome authors, bonded with my blogger friends, and had my books signed. Thanks so much National Bookstore for the opportunity! Until next signing! :)

Sorry for the really long recap! And because you, my readers, are awesome enough to read this to the end, I have a giveaway for you!

GIVEAWAY ALERT! WIN A SIGNED ARC of UNRAVEL ME BY TAHEREH MAFI!

I asked permission from the organizers if I can have my ARC signed by Tahereh since I didn't buy the book, and they said yes! The ARC had a scribble of the same words tattooed on Warner's hips: "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.". Yes, those words. And also, it's signed by Tahereh. And since I hated dogearing my books, I used a lot of post-its to mark the passages I really liked. I didn't remove them, so if you win this book, you get it signed, with the post-its. I promise the scenes I marked are all awesome!

Rules:

OPEN INTERNATIONALLY

Must be at least 13 to enter

Ends 4/14

No cheating! I will check the entries and I WILL disqualify you if I find you cheating.

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