A few weeks ago I was very excited to be invited to Mira Ink's first blogger event at their offices in Richmond. It was a bit of a trek to get there but Sammee & I made the most of it by arriving early to have a look around the area and we met up with Viv for a delicious pub dinner before the event started.
When we arrived at the offices we were treated to lots of delicious nibbles and given the most amazing goodie bags full of some of Mira Ink's current and upcoming releases, there were a lot of squeals and some very excited book chatter around the room as we dug through them! After some time spent mingling with the other bloggers and the Mira staff we got to find out more about some of Mira's 2012 releases.
- My Soul to Take - Vanity
- My Soul to Save - Greed
- My Soul to Keep - Gluttony (Addiction)
- My Soul to Steal - Envy
- If I Die - Lust
- Before I Wake - Sloth (Depression)
- With All My Soul - Rage
After watching the book trailer we were all very excited to have the chance to chat with Julie through Skype. That was something I've never done before but I thought it was a fantastic idea and I'd love to see more publishers try something like that with their international authors at events.
Julie Kagawa
I made loads of notes as Julie was talking so I'm just going to include a list of bullet points here:
- Julie said she has no plans to come to the UK at the moment but would like to visit in the future.
- She had always promised herself that she wouldn't write a story about vampires but was asked to consider the idea by her publisher. She had another idea that she had been playing with and was able to combine the two to come up with The Immortal Rules.
- There will be three books in the series and she is currently writing the second one.
- When asked how long it usually takes her to write the first draft she said it varied from book to book - The Iron King took 2 months but The Immortal Rules took 5 months.
- The first book Julie ever wrote was a fantasy story set in feudal Japan with a Japanese kitsune as the main character. That book was the one that got her an agent but it wasn't picked up by a publisher, she still hopes that one day it will be though.
- The job Julie had before she started writing was as a dog trainer although it sounded like she has had a very varied career.
- When asked if she had given her chickens names she said no because they all look the same. She did hold one of the chicks up to the camera to show us though and it was adorable (see the picture below)
- When asked what she thought of her covers Julie confirmed that like most authors she has no say in what they look like but she has been really happy with them. Her first reaction to The Iron King cover was "oooh pretty"
- When asked for advice for unpublished authors Julie said to learn everything you can about the business. She also said that it's important to keep writing, as with any other skill the more you practise the better you will get - writing is not a skill you're born with so you have to learn it.
- When asked what 3 things her characters would take to a desert island she confirmed that Ash would only need his sword as he could use it for everything from chopping down trees to cracking open coconuts! Puck would be more likely to take something completely random like a supply of candy, a how to survive a desert island book and of course a row boat (he is obviously a bit of a cheat!).
- When asked what 3 books she would take if she was stuck on a desert island Julie picked Building Canoes for Dummies, A Coconut Cookbook and Harry Potter.
- Julie confirmed that the kind of books she usually reads for pleasure are usually YA fantasy, dystopian or sci-fi. Mainly fantasy though. She recently read and enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and is currently reading two arcs that she is thinking about giving blurbs for.
- Asked if she could tell us anything about the Iron Fey spin off series she confirmed that the first book will be called The Lost Prince and will star Meghan's brother Ethan, although he will be older than he is in the Iron Fey books because the story takes place several years later.
- Finally when asked about her daily routine Julie said that she writes from 10am until 5:30pm or until she hits 2500 words, whichever comes first.
Julie Kagawa with one of her chicks
It was lovely to get so speak to Julie and ask her so many questions and I'd like to thank her for taking time out of her day to chat with us. I'd also like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Mira Ink (and Midas PR) for arranging a fantastic blogger event and for the wonderful goodie bag! We really did have an amazing time and I'm very excited about all of the books we talked about!
Who was there:
Claudia, Elise & Anna - Mira Ink
Becky & Fliss - Midas PR
Alice - The Reader Room
Bella - Cheezyfeet Books
Casey & Hayley - Dark Readers
Dani - Pen To Paper
Donna & Jessica - Book Passion for Life - Event Report
Julianne - This Fleeting Dream
Laura - Sister Spooky: Book Fangirl - Event Report
Leanne - District YA
Lynsey - Narratively Speaking
Mist - Bookaholics Book Club
Sammee - I Want To Read That
Viv - Serendipity Reviews - Event Report
Great round up and lovely to see you there. Thanks for the link at the end too :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing, sounds like you had fun.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to go, how do you get invited to these things?
Awesome book selection too.
@ SisterSpooky - it was great to see you too Laura & you're welcome for the link :o)
ReplyDelete@ barmybex - It was a fab event & Mira have some awesome books coming out! As far as getting invited to things like this goes I think that is something that just comes over time as you build a relationship with the publishers. I feel very lucky to get invited to events like this & it was never something I expected when I first started blogging! I'll keep my fingers crossed I get to meet you at something like this in the future :o)
Cool, hope it happens for me someday and I look forward to meeting you too. :D
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for some of their books, my TBR pile just keeps multiplying. ;D
Fingers crossed Bex! It's the kind of thing that happens naturally with time :o) One of the downsides of being a book blogger is the ever growing to read pile (although that is also one of the main positives so I'm not complaining lol)
ReplyDeleteTell me about it! so many books, so little time. Think i need to go into hiding for a year with just my books and then I might just catch up. lol.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right too, it is great seeing so many fab books. :D
@ barmybex - I know the feeling but there are always so many good books coming out that I just can't resist them all :o)
ReplyDelete