Event: Launch Party for SECRET by Brigid Kemmerer

Hi there gorgeous people!  Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend Brigid Kemmerer's launch party for her new book Secret.  Secret is the fourth book of her Elemental series and if you haven't read it, you're missing out in a seriously good series and in a lot of hotness. I promise that the Merrick boys will not disappoint in any way!

The lovely Ms. Kemmerer is a really awesome lady.  She's funny, down to earth and always gracious.  I've had the change to see her before today at the Baltimore Book Fair, so I know this isn't a fluke.  She talked about her road to publication, other projects coming soon and answer questions from the audience in attendance. Brigid showed use the cover for Sacrifice (Michael's book) and it is gorgeous and still top secret (shhh).

I also saw the lovely bloggers: Hannah from The Irish Banana, Steph from Cuddlebuggery, and Jessica form Step Into Fiction; AND fabulous author Lea Nolan.

I got my copy of Secret signed (see proof to the right) and a few bookmarks. Oh, and you'll never guess what happened...  I won one of the raffles and my prize was an iTunes card! Thank you!  

Now, to wait for Sacrifice, the last book in the series...

Baltimore Book Festival 2013

Last weekend I attended the Baltimore Book Festival (BBF) for the first time and it was much bigger than I expected.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the event and by the amount of people that showed up.  Book lovers rejoice!

Here are some pictures from the event!

Jen from Jenuine Cupcakes / YABC, Hannah from The Irish Banana and I had lunch on Friday while waiting for the YA Paranormal Panel.

Diana Peterfreund, Brigid Kemmerer, Jennifer Armentrout, AND

Alethea Kontis, Dawn Miller, and Lea Nolan from the YA Paranormal panel.

The Blogging About Books panel:  Joy from Joyfully Reviewed, Jill from Read-Love-Blog, Steph from Cuddlebuggery, Hannah, Jen and Stacey from Fantasy Book Addict.  Amazing panel ladies!  We should be proud of our Maryland bloggers :) If you want to see the whole thing, head over to Hannah's blog.

Kudos to Lea Nolan, the moderator, and the awesome questions. 

I love meeting all the authors, see other bloggers and book lovers!

Event: Frederick Book Festival

Hi there gorgeous people!  Yesterday I was able to attend the Frederick Book Festival for the first time and I'm here to tell your all about it!  The festival was held at the Frederick Fair Grounds (in Maryland in case you don't know what I'm talking about), and although the day was overcast and a bit cold, it turned out to be a great day!

Hannah, Jen and me

There I met with the fabulous Hannah from The Irish Banana Review and the ever sweet Jen from Genuine Cupcakes and YABC.  The author line up for YA was: Jennifer Armentrout, Miranda Kenneally, Jodi Meadows  Amanda Brice and Diana Peterfreund. Awesome right?

Valerie Cole, me, and Jodi Meadows (I'm holding knitted versions of  Ana and Sam )

I was able to attend two of the YA panels: Emerging Trends in Young Adult Fiction and The YA Dating Game.   As the title illustrates, the first one was about emerging trends in YA, which includes contemporary, fantasy, aliens, and new adult.  It was really interesting to hear about their opinions of what the new trends are, how they compare to past trends and how the publishing industry has a lot to do with it.  The dating game was so much fun!  I haven't laughed that hard in a while (*I'm smiling right now as I write*)!  It was these fabulous ladies take on the dating show.  Our very own Hannah volunteer to be the first one (see picture below) and I'm sure she'll tell you all about it in her blog (head over there soon!).  The authors also talked about their favorite male and female characters and why they liked them.  

Miranda Kenneally and Diana Peterfreund

Lt. Jodi, Jennifer Armentrout and Amada Brice / Rt. Jennifer

Jen, Hannah, Jodi, author Valerie Cole and yours trully went out to grab a quick lunch.  I can't tell you how amazing it is to get together with like minded people.  I love my family, but to them my book addiction is like a foreign language and these book activities are a great escape for me.  I also enjoy these more intimate settings in which I actually have a chance to talk to these incredible authors. 

Hannah at the dating game

We wrapped up with the book signing and I got some goodies that I'll share with you next week for STS.  Enjoy the pictures and please be aware that, as my teenager loves to remind me, I'm horrible taking pictures!  Thank you ladies for making my day!

Busting the Newbie Blues

I am participating in the Busting the Newbie Blues event hosted by Small Reviews, see the complete post here.  This event is designed to help new bloggers and I can certainly use all the help I can get!  There is also a sister event for more experienced bloggers, for them to share their infinite wisdom.

1. When did you start your blog?

I started Reading with ABC in May of 2011.

2. Why did you start your blog?

I love reading, sharing, and talking about books.  Only one of my sons shares my interest (and he is 11!) and I wanted to find liked-minded people to talk book.

3.  What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge is the technical component to blogging.  I am planning to take a class soon or maybe by a blogging (or HTML) for dummies book!

4. What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?

Getting loyal followers and also getting more comments.  I love to hear from my readers and it gives me a better idea of what I’m doing right (or wrong!)

5. What do you find most encouraging?

Other bloggers are really nice.  A lot of the “big” bloggers are willing to share their knowledge and inside with us.

6. What do you like best about the blogs you read?  Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

I like simple blogs and I go for the content of a post all the time. I try to keep my design simple and uncluttered and I try to keep my posts short and sweet.

7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?

I don’t like a lot of pictures with movement or widgets with sounds.  I also don’t like a lot of profanity/cursing and I try to avoid all of these.

8. Any advice for other new bloggers?

Stick to it, do what you feel is right, ask for advice and learn that Goggle is your best friend!

9. Any questions you’d like to ask newbie or established bloggers?

How many hours do you spend working on your blog? How do you organize your TBR pile? How do you organize your posts?  How far ahead do you plan you week/month?

10. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog?  Feel free to link a few of your favorite posts or posts you which had more comments.

In Reading with ABC I share by love for Young Adult books with all.  I like to recommend great books and I also participate in different memes and hops throughout the week. 

Here are some of my favorite posts:

Dust& Decay by Jonathan Mayberry

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Event: Maggie Stiefvater Forever Tour

On July 12^th I was fortunate enough to attend the first event on Maggie Stiefvater’s book tour.  The event was held at Barnes & Noble of Tysons Corner in Virginia.  First, let me get something of my chest: I have DC traffic.  I try to avoid it like the plague, but for author extraordinaire, Maggie Stiefvater I ventured out and made it there just in time. *End of venting*

Those of you who follow Ms. Stiefvater’s blog and tweets know that she has a great sense of humor, so you can imagine what a treat this was.  In my son’s words (who was sitting on the floor two rows away reading Manga)  “mom, that lady was hilarious.”  And she was.  One of her first questions to the audice was: Who know how to say my last name?  She talked about the Shiver series, about her April Fool’s Day prank (remember ‘Litter’?), on why she chose to write a book about wolves and about ‘The Scorpio Races’ (to be published on 10/18/11.)  You can really appreciate how confortable she is with public speaking and how appreciative she is of her readers.  She answered some questions from the audience and then proceeded to the book signing.

There were more than a 100 people there (I was number #75) to get book(s) signed, but I have to say that the line moved fairly quickly. There was also some swag to take home (for details visit Maggie Stiefvater’s blog.)   

I also have to mention that singer Sulaiman Azimi interpreted songs for us, one of them “Summer Girl”, the song that Sam wrote for Grace in ‘Linger’.  He has a beautiful voice and nice presence.

Note:  Sorry for the face, I was talking while B was taking a picture.

Event: Sarah Dessen Book Tour

This past Thursday, June 16 the great Sarah Dessen appeared in a book signing at the Bethesda Library. The event was hosted by Politics and Prose who had her books on sale right there.  I left work around 3:00 to get there before the event started at 5:00 (if you are familiar with the area it takes forever to get even near DC as traffic is awful.)  The wonderful Ms. Dessen was there on time and was greeted by a room full of avid readers.  She started the evening by reading from the first chapter of her most recent book and then continued to answer questions from the crowd.  She also had five trivia questions (sadly I new only two of the answers) and gave this awesome water bottles to the winners. 

I bought two of her books 'What Happened to Goodbye' and 'Along for the Ride' (that I had read from the library and didn't own) and had them signed to me (check out my IMM tomorrow.)  I also had my picture taken with her. 

I know that a lot of the teenagers thought that I was in line to get the books signed for someone else, but no, they were for me.  I may not be a young adult, but I just love this genre and I will probably read for years to come.  Thank you Ms. Dessen for your time, your enthusiasm and for the wonderful books you gifts us with.