It was another one of those sleep deprived nights as I got up early for the three hour drive to Brisbane on Saturday morning for the Brisbane Writers Festival. With Brittany from Nice Girls Read Books, I had my first attempt at driving in the middle of the city. Fun. We made it home in one piece and that’s the main thing. We’d been waiting for a month or so for Maggie Stiefvater’s workshop. It was a ticketed event limited to 16 people, and not everyone turned up, so it was an intimate setting. The two hour workshop flew by extremely quick. It was really relaxed with Maggie throwing back and forth around the small meeting room, letting each of us talk about what we’d been working on and asking her anything we liked.

I took down a lot of notes as she discussed a heap of things from plotting to characters and the elusive gimme points. It was a lot of fun. She had so much energy bursting from her that it felt nothing like a lecture. It was just her and us. She had her boarding pass with her which she’d used to scribble all over with a sharpie, full of various discussion topics. She talked about writing as a roadtrip where you know your destination but if you come across somewhere random like Little Norway along the way, you just have to check it out, even it turns out to be something completely worth avoiding.

Melissa from Spellbound By Books was also at the workshop too, so we got to meet up with her again. She’s become our Brisbane blogger friend that we keep catching up with. It was weird, but when we walked into the State Library, even though it was packed, we stumbled right into her. It happened twice too, after lunch as well. We should probably exchange numbers instead of relying on coincidence. Before Maggie had to leave, she stuck around after the allotted time and signed everyone’s books. I’d brought eight with me since I have both UK paperbacks and US hardcovers of the Wolves Of Mercy Falls series. She even signed the front of the cardboard box that houses the hardcovers so I can display her signature without having to flip open the books.

After Maggie, the three of us got tickets and went into Super Natural Superstars panel. Australian authors Marianne de Pierres and Trent Jamieson were there doing a Q&A. They talked about Spec Fic and crossing over between genres. They also discussed things like the Australian book industry and developing a network of people for researching and critiquing. The main point seemed to be that you need to be willing to ask others, as they’re usually happy to help. Marianne said that you need to get the people around you to realise that writing is a part of your life and you take it seriously. Because if you really want to write, you’ll find the time.

After it ended, we dashed out of the room and got to the very of the signing line downstairs. Marianne was so easy to talk to, and has a very distinctive Australian accent. She reminds me of someone but I’m struggling to figure out who. She hopped out from behind the desk for each of us so we could take our photos, which was awesome of her. I can’t wait to finish off Burn Bright now!

We had to travel three hours to Brisbane today for the Maria V. Snyder signing, yet I stayed up until 3am for the IMM posts, not a great combination. Luckily Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books) came over and picked me up for the trip. The signing was at 5:30pm so we had plenty of time to waste. We set about finding the discount book store we went to after the Rachel Caine signing in May. Unfortunately, it must be invisible or something. We practically walked from Queen St to the Valley looking for it, but it was just gone. We couldn’t even find the building it was in in case it had moved. Needless to say, our feet, legs, ankles, lungs… everything was sore. We obviously don’t exercise enough. Giving up, we just went to the book sections at Big W and Target before heading over to Dymocks for the signing.

While we were waiting for the 5:30pm start, Maria lounged around in the store near the registers. Some authors are cool like that. We decided to take our seats early, and lucky we did, heaps of people ended up standing down the back during her talk. Maria had a chat for about half an hour, giving us a lot of anecdotes on all of her escapades she went through when researching for her books. She really gets involved with everything she does, making sure she gets the details right.

I have to say, Maria is one hilarious public speaker. She kept us in stitches with all of her sarcastic quips, it definitely made the talk fun. If you can, try and make it to one of her signings. You won’t regret it.

At the end, Maria took the time to sign our books. We were lucky to be near the front of the line, some people had brought huge stacks with them. I only had the two Insider books myself. I also picked up a couple bookmarks while I was there too.

I got up at 5:30am this morning to get ready for the three hour drive to Brisbane for the Lauren Kate Passion Tour – Brisbane Signing. Thankfully, I wasn’t the one driving. After a stop off for a Maccas breaky, Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books) and I arrived early at the shopping centre. Checking out Dymocks, we only found a couple people lined up outside, so we took off to scope out all the bookstores. Mistake. Half an hour later, a line had appeared and we ended up standing all the way outside the doors of the shopping centre for a good forty-five minutes. I’d just bought five books at the shops and had my three Lauren Kate books for the signing, so my shoulder was well and truly sore by the time we reached the front of the line.

It was actually fairly well organised and fast moving once things got going. Lauren would take your stack of books and you’d hop up on the stage with her while she signed them and get some photos with her.

While we were there, Brittany and I caught up with Melissa from Spellbound By Books again. It’s always fun to be able to catch up with other bloggers. Although, we didn’t get to check out the bookstores with her… next time.

Lauren was really nice and friendly, commenting on what good condition my personal library must be in based on how well my books were cared for 😉

I loved the vibe there, and it was fun watching all of the shoppers walk by, staring as they tried to figure out what’s going on. This was my second author signing so far, and definitely worth the trip. Although, right about now, I feel like crashing into bed for the next twelve hours. A big thanks to my little brother for driving us.

Today was a long day. Starting with maybe three hours sleep, I got up at 3am and left at 4am for the early morning drive to Brisbane. I was lucky enough that Penguin Australia allowed me to attend the Rachel Caine breakfast (author of The Morganville Vampires and Weather Warden series’) with my friend Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books) since I was driving her. Rainstorms, roadworks, strange coloured lightning and impossible to see through fog pursued, yet we managed to make it there in one piece.

After a little sightseeing up wrong streets and a painfully steep climb up a hill we panted our way into the lobby at the hotel. We spotted Rachel getting her morning cup of coffee while we regained our breath. Not long after Melissa from Spellbound by Books arrived we grouped in the hotel’s dining hall, plated ourselves a breakfast and sat around a cosy table while Rachel told us of her little mishap with the elaborate yet painfully slow toasting machine. A messy breakfast was destined for whoever was behind her in the queue.

Once Lisa from Badass Bookie got there our little breakfast group was complete. After today I have to say, Rachel Caine has to be one of the most amazingly friendly authors around (albeit this is my first author meet and greet). She took on any and all questions with ease. Being in such a small group I thought it would be daunting, but to my surprise it was very easy going and a whole lot of fun.

Me, Brittany (Nice Girls Read Books), Rachel Caine,
Lisa (Badass Bookie) and Melissa (Spellbound by Books)

She even took the time to sign our books during breakfast rather than lining up later in the day at the public signing. I only had my bind-up edition of Glass Houses and The Dead Girls’ Dance with me (still waiting on the other bind-ups to arrive in the mail).

Before we said our goodbyes we all got to take some photos with her by the couches. I’m so happy and thankful to Felicity from Penguin and Rachel Caine herself that I got to take part in this extremely fun event. As a special treat, she gave us each a shiny purple ‘Bite Club’ lenticular bookmark and a little Morganville Resident ID Card which she gladly signed on as my ‘Protector’.

On top of that we got to go on a tour of the Brisbane CBD with fellow blogger, Melissa, before she had to get to work. We scooped all of the bookstores we could find and each came away with our own heavy bag of goodies and lighter wallets.

By midday, I was running on empty, but we managed to make our way across to Dymocks (Bookstore) again and say another hello to Felicity and Rachel while she signed a load of books for her fans. One woman actually did have a load, a backpack with about twenty books from across her different series I think, and Rachel happily signed them all for her.

After the signing we made our way for the long trek home loaded with energy drinks and iced donuts. All in all it was a fantastic day.