Event Recap: SimonTeen Blogger Party + Giveaway

This year I was lucky enough to attend Book Expo America. It was an incredible experience and I want to share my gushings with you, hence this post and its successors, which will all go up soon. This one is just about the first non-BEA event I attended, though: The SimonTeen Blogger Party. I was so terrible about taking pictures on this trip, so please forgive the lack of photos in this post. I was too busy gawking and whatnot.
So, without further ado...

SimonTeen Blogger Party

I was so lucky to have been invited to this party, so huge thank you to the SimonTeen/Simon Pulse team for the invite!

We started off the evening with some mingling and some drinks (for those of age, anyway... they looked so good!). Soon after we got there, we were invited to sit down for the author chats. Suzanne Young, author of The Program and the upcoming Just Like Fate with Cat Patrick, was the host for the evening and interviewed the other authors, including Corey Ann Haydu (OCD Love Story), Amy Butler Greenfield (Chantress), and Jason Reynolds (When I Was the Greatest). Then she brought out her co-author, Cat Patrick and chatted about their book for a bit, and then also brought out co-authors Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Fire With Fire), and they all discussed their co-authoring process.

I'll admit that I took some pretty lame notes because I was enjoying the chats so much, but here are some fun facts from the notes I did take:

Corey Ann Haydu:
~ Researched OCD Love Story with a lot of documentaries and memoirs.
~ If she were to re-write a classic, she would choose The Bell Jar or The Giver.
~ If she could take anyone to the premiere of the movie of her book, she would take Paul Rudd.
~ Her hypothetical karaoke song choice was Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (Suzanne acted like it was "authors' night out" and insisted they would sing karaoke on such a night).

Amy Butler Greenfield:
~ For Chantress, the line/idea "Sing, and the darkness will find you," came very quickly to her. She wanted to write about someone who gets swept away by the power of music.
~ Suzanne called Amy's life a "Hugh Grant romantic comedy" after she told us a bit about meeting her British husband while in the UK.
~ Amy loves the cover for Chantress (says the girl on the cover looks like Lucy to her) and has already seen a draft for the sequel's cover. She's happy with it so far! She also just recently turned in revisions for book two.
~ Her karaoke song would be Take a Chance on Me by ABBA.

Jason Reynolds:
~ His first book was co-authored with a college friend and he said that experience taught him that the greatest gift you have is intuition.
~ The original title for his new book, When I Was the Greatest, was Jerk.
~ Two major things that went into his book:
1. Family is a major part of his life, and he explained that just because your family is broken or different doesn't mean it's bad.
2. Where he grew up, mental illness was never discussed. He wanted to show how communities can come together and love these people who are suffering.
~ He also discussed how he taught in a rough school in New York and that the experience showed him that the human will is an incredible thing and helped teach him persistence.

Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young:
~ There are two love interests in Just Like Fate (because of the split storyline). As a teen, Cat said she would have gone for Joel, the bad boy you pine after forever who doesn't give you the time of day. Suzanne said she would have gone after Chris, the jock you swoon over when he walks in the room (but said there would be a lot of pining on her part, too).
~ One of Cat's favourite parts of working with a co-author is that it was like reading and writing a book at the same time.
~ Their song is Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp (they replace "Jack and Diane" with "Cat and Suzanne").

Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian:
~ They met in David Levithan's writing class and bonded over Siobhan having a car, a mixtape that Jenny made, and a magical shopping day.
~ They explained that when it comes to co-writing, one is good at what the other isn't as strong at. Siobhan is good at making the plot work, whereas Jenny is good at the characters and their development.
~ They spent almost a year working out the structure for the Burn For Burn trilogy.
~ They promised that Fire With Fire is juicy and involves romance and lots of secret-telling. They also promised that all is revealed about Mary, so get excited!
~ They finished their interview by performing part of the Dirty Dancing dance for us, which was made all the more entertaining by the fact that Siobhan is very pregnant.

After the chats we had some time to mingle with the authors, which was so fantastic. I spent some time chatting with Siobhan Vivian who was the sweetest and most excited person. It was just a wonderful evening. Then, on our way out, we were spoiled by the SimonTeen staff, who sent us each home with a tote bag filled with each of the books featured that night, plus a bound manuscript of Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano. I feel so privileged to have been invited and I cannot thank the SimonTeen staff and all of the authors enough for a wonderful time.

I was lucky enough to find an extra copy of Just Like Fate by Suzanne Young and Cat Patrick in my goodie bag at Teen Author Carnival the next night, so I got it signed and want to share it with one of you!

Some Rules (aka the not so fun but important part):
~ This giveaway is open to residents of the continental US and Canada only.
~ No P.O. boxes.
~ Must be 13 or older to enter.
~ Winner will be chosen randomly and contacted via email. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise they forfeit their prize and I will choose another winner, who must abide by the same rules.
~  I am not responsible for lost or damaged packages.
~ No cheating! In this case, I have the right to disqualify entries as I see fit.
~ By entering the giveaway, you are agreeing to these rules.

Good luck!

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