Monday, April 28, 2014

Out and About: #VTRinPH Book signing with Veronica Rossi, Tahereh Mafi+ Ransom Riggs + Giveaway!


Out and about is a feature here on Fragments of Life for events, book launches and movie adaptations. For the fourth Out and about, I’ll talk about the Bloggers Forum and Book Signing with Veronica Rossi, Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs.

The Basics:
Who:


The authors are: Veronica Rossi (bestselling author of Under the Never Sky, Through the Ever Night, Into the Still Blue), Tahereh Mafi (bestselling author of Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me and Unite Me) and Ransom Riggs (bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City).
The Organizer is: National BookStore.


When: April 26, 2014

Where: National Book Store, Glorietta 4

How aka details:

I have met Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs last year, you can check that out here. So I was really ecstatic to meet them again! It's a rare occurrence, so I'm really honored to be a part of these two events. Plus, it was really fun to meet with my co-bloggers, who happen to be my closest friends too.

Bloggers!

The actual forum started out with Chyna from Lite-Rate-Ture. Amidst people listening intently to the authors, commenting about bookish stuff and the authors answering our questions, I admit that I couldn't catch everything. If my memory serves me right, here are some tidbits from the forum:

Veronica Rossi
  • Veronica Rossi did not set out specifically to write about a certain message. But what she wanted people to pick up from her book is that, if you are kind and respectful and if you are good to the people around you, you would find happiness.
  • The sequel, Through the Ever Night, was the hardest book to write for her. She struggled writing that book. But now, thousands of fans devour and enjoy this pretty. :)
  • In writing books, some authors have to "kill" some of the characters. It's pretty much part of author life. Our V. Rossi does not regret killing some of her characters. It's natural and organic to the book.
  • Louisse from The Soul Sisters asked V. Rossi about co-authoring Boomerang. So, she is writing under the nomdeplume Noelle August. The book started out in a Skype chat with Veronica's fellow author. At the end of the chat, they were thinking: should we just write this? And they did write it. The story was like a sandbox for Veronica, all fun.
Tahereh Mafi
  • Kazhy from My Library in the Making asked Tahereh when she knew who Juliette would end up with. *Spoiler alert* She found out at the end of the first book.
  • Her first book, Shatter Me, is free-formed. So the first book was about exploring the lives and personalities of the main characters. I guess this is also the reason why Juliette started out as weak and became stronger throughout the series. There is so much room for growth.
  • In addition to the point above, Juliette's weakness in Shatter Me was intentional. It was planned out.
  • If one of her characters could be her companion, it would be Kenji. In 2013, she mentioned that Kenji is the conglomeration of her brother's personalities and characteristics. So she feels that she has already lived with Kenji. That is so sweet.
Ransom Riggs
  • I was one of the people who asked Ransom Riggs, here is my question: If a single photograph could represent Miss Peregrine's and Hollow City, what would it look like? At first, Ransom said that it could be anything but eventually decided that it would look like the inside of his heart, so it would be dark and red.
  • One of the bloggers asked what was his reaction to Tim Burton being involved in the movie adaptation for Miss Peregrine's, he screamed: I'm so excited! And of course, mentioned that Tim Burton was the man.
  • He mentioned that when it comes to criticisms and reactions to his book, he doesn't like being told he's wrong but that it was part of a writer's life. Also, he mentioned that he did not write a daring book so he didn't really get strong comments. :)
  • Ransom mentioned that Hollow City took a longer time to write as it depends on the photos he would be using. So he was literally traveling all over USA, meeting with collectors and seeing their photographs. The pictures became guides for him as he wrote.

Pictures with VTR! :)

Ending the bloggers forum with group photos!

Signed goodies :)

The next activity is the Book Signing in Glorietta 4. We heard that the early bird of the event came at 1:45 am. That is solid dedication, guys. Respect. There were around 2000 fans down there, each one waiting patiently to meet the big three: VTR.

Photo credit to Sab from Sab The Book Eater! ;)

Photo credit to Hazel, Kai, Louisse, Jesselle, Sab and Kate - thank you for the snapshots ;)

Big thanks to National Book Store for the awesome forum + event! Because I want to share the book love, I will be giving away a signed copy of Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi! You know the drill. This is open to Philippine residents only. (sorry guys!) ;) Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



23 comments:

  1. Well, I've read VRossi's and Tahereh's books ofc I got excited with all the books especially the last installment of their series Into The Still Blue and Ignite Me because I want to know how will the series end. I havent read Ransom's books yet and I want to, super. I've read a lot of good feedbacks about it. :) Thanks for the giveaway :) So jealous with your photos with the authors :(

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    1. *hugs* Hi Julie! Thank you for your comments. Goodluck on the giveaway! I can feel that you really want Ignite Me, my fingers are crossed for you. <3 Hope they come here again so you could meet them!

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  2. Love that you compiled all the answers per author! Haha! So great to see you again, Precious! :)

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  3. 1) I MISS YOU!!!!
    2) Woah...you actually had the extra effort to post all the author's answers! I'd be too lazy to do that, lol
    3) Your hair is so long!!!!!
    4) Your picture with ate Dianne and ate Cai is adorable

    See you in June, yeah?

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    1. See you in June, pretty! :) Yeah, it's long. ;) Might cut it soon. Thank you for the compliments!

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  4. Tahereh's Ignite Me is my favorite! ♥

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    1. That's good to know! I haven't read my copy yet so let's see if it becomes a favorite of mine, too! :)

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  5. WOW. Your post is so complete, seriously. Ma-effort, LOL! I really enjoyed reading about your experience, Precious (but I already know you had fun because hello, I was there. Haha!). See you soon-ish, Precious! <3

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    1. Of course I had fun coz you were there! <3 <3 Thank youuuuu! And thanks for the wonderful pics. ;) See you soon!

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  6. I was mostly excited about Tahereh's book , Ignite Me! Team Adam all the way (since Shatter Me actually) ! <3 p.s: ya'll rockin' those shirts huh :)

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    1. Wow, almost everyone I know is in Team Warner. <3 Nice to meet an adam fan! :) Loved the shirts. <3 Thank you for the compliments!

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  7. to be honest i havent read any of this :( , so this is really a pleasure if you i will win :)

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    1. Hi Trisha! If you win, try to read Shatter Me and Unravel Me first. Those are book 1 and 2. ;)

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  8. I do not know something about their books but if I will win surely I'll read them so that I'll know something :)

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  9. I love reading books and I've heard a lot of good reviews about Shatter Me trilogy. Hope to win. :)

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  10. Great write-up! I haven't read the books yet though but I have read a lot of good reviews about it so I might give it a shot sometime :)

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  11. Tahereh Mafi's Ignite Me is what I'm excited the most! :D AARON WARNER is ♥

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  12. To be honest all of them!!!!!!!!!:D

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  13. I was extremely excited about Tahereh Mafi's Ignite Me. The Shatter Me series is one of the best series I have ever read in my entire life. It kept me awake for days, and I unbelievably finished it within 3 days though I just read these in ebooks. I admire Tahereh's intelligence in making the plot of the story perfect, as well as its characters (Warner is so perfect). :D Still, Ignite Me was my favorite since the characters here had a big positive change, and I love every sigle bit of it. *PS: Your blog is so wonderful and interesting . I also love books, and your shirts are so gorg. :) Thank you for the giveaway! I'm looking forward to read more of your blogs.

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  14. I haven't really read any of their books, honestly. But I'm starting with Ransom's Miss Peregrine's. :)

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  15. Into The Still Blue & Ignite Me!

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