Recap: Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs and Veronica Rossi Book Signing in Manila. #VTRinPH

Yes, there's really a hashtag for the event. How awesome is that?

I didn't sleep much the previous night, because this was easily one of the most anticipated events in my YA book blogging/ book lover life. THREE New York Times bestselling authors in one event? National Bookstore just keeps on arranging these awesome events and now they've brought the big guns out with this! I've met Tahereh and Ransom the previous year, but what upped the excitement for me was the fact that I'd also get to meet THE Veronica Rossi herself. Filipinos have always been enthusiastic about events like this, and if you don't believe me, let me show you this:

At 10 am, the mall was open for about 10 minutes and I see this. PEOPLE! TONS OF PEOPLE!

I arrived at the venue with Leslie @ The Bibliophile Kid before Powerbooks even opened! I always look forward to meeting these wonderful authors up close and interacting with them and despite the lack of sleep, that got be going throughout the day. And I am always thankful for the chance given to me to be able to at least ask them questions about their works and the way they write. Couple that with the fact that I get to see my blogger friends again and I knew it was bound to be an amazing event!

And then they arrive, and I start shaking because that anticipation to see them seriously gets to you and when you see them up close, larger than life, you think "Oh my God, I love this author's book and now he/she's in front of me."

A quick rundown of things that happened:

- Before the Q&A started, Ransereh opted to share a mic. MY HEART! A few things had to be rushed so we started asking questions almost immediately. Ransom and Tahereh's flight arrived here in Manila at 4 am and they were clearly jetlagged, but we still had fun!
- We prepared shirts filled with quotes from the authors books and as Ransom said, it was clearly okay to check our bodies out.
- I had a chance to ask V. Rossi a VERY LONG question, and it was this: "Perry's from Outside and Aria's from Reverie and they were initially at odds with each other, with their own prejudices for each other to deal with, but then they realize that they aren't really different. When you were writing the novel, did you intend for your story to explore this particular kind of "social/cultural differences"?" And V. Rossi said yes, it was her intention from the start, and she wanted her characters to eventually deal with their differences themselves.
- V. Rossi has a new adult book coming out under the pen name Noelle August, and for her it started with a Skype conversation with a friend and they decided to write it. For her, it was a fun book to write and when asked if she had difficulties in transitioning from writing YA dystopian to NA, she said it wasn't, because the UtNS series has more of herself in it than her NA book.
- For those who are wondering if Tahereh knows who Juliette was going to end up with while she was writing the novel, she said she did. Hah!
- When asked which characters Tahereh would like to be friends with in their books, she said Kenji in her series, who is like a combination of her brothers, Roar from V. Rossi's series and Emma from Ransom's Miss Peregrine series.
- Ransom had a hard time answering this question: If his books were made into a picture, what picture would it be? He said it'll be a real heart, beating and with blood. (Creepy!)
- Ransom said he didn't really write controversial books, so when people disagree with what he's written, he still reads those messages!
- When asked what message V. Rossi wants her readers to get out of her UtNS series it was that she wanted her readers to take away the one they wanted to hear the most, but in the end there are two ideas: treat others well, love and kindness and that one can be happy and find happiness. Home, and the idea of it. Is it a place? The people in your life? Home means you.
- Also, people tend to say how Juliette is weak and whiny in the books, but Tahereh intentionally wrote her that way because she wanted people to see how she grows. Tahereh likes this idea of women who are physically weak but strong mentally, and that's what Juliette was.

(Thanks to Louisse of The Soul Sisters & Kate from The Bookaholic blurbs for some of the points from the rundown)

We also had the chance to have our books signed and we also got to take our pictures with these amazing authors. V. Rossi is really nice, and I like how both Ransom and Tahereh were still chatting with us despite being jetlagged!

More deets while they were signing:

- There were literally piles of books on V. Rossi's feet because she had a lot to sign! And I like how she puts messages in every single one of them, including a temp tattoo and a bookmark!
- When Ransom ran out of books to sign, he was waving around his silver sharpie and he said he wanted to sign more. We offered our shirts.
- Ransom calls it "defacing humans". Tahereh defaces books, he defaces humans!
- I wanted to make small talk with Tahereh, but when I was in front of her, I forgot what I was about to say. So glad she recognized me and remembered seeing me last year as well. And she's got awesome shoes and I love her Kate Spade bag that looks like a typewriter! (Check out Louisse's recap so you can see Tahereh's shoes!)

Also! I was wearing a shirt with a Tahereh quote and she signed it! And I ran over to V. Rossi and she signed my shirt too! Behold the awesomeness:

I wanted to go to the public signing with my fellow book blogger friends but in between the crowd and waking up real early just so I can be there in time to give out the shirts and register for the forum, I was too tired to try and squeeze myself in and battle with the sea of people. But you gotta see it! What a sight. There was more than 2000 people waiting in line just to have their books signed. Amazing!

Photo from Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs

Overall it was a day well spent with friends, book lovers and fellow bookworms. Laughing with these people and discussing our mutual passion for the books that we read is what I'm really looking forward to doing whenever we have a signing to attend. The perks is just the icing to the cake, and we're lucky to be able to get this chance to meet and talk to our favorite authors! I cannot thank you enough, National Bookstore, for organizing this!

Check out other signing recaps here:

Louisse of The Soul Sisters
Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs
Chyna of Lite-Rate-Ture
Jesselle of The Lifelong Bookworm
Hazel of Stay Bookish
Lyra of Defiantly Deviant
Kazhy of My Library in the Making

As an extra, if you don't mind dizzying videos and hearing me say "awww" and basically swoon at the three of them, check this video with a lovely message from the three of them:

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway