Book Event: Queen of Teen After Party, Waterstones Guildford

On a very rainy Friday evening I finished work and made a mad dash to Guildford. As soon as we got out of the car we got caught in a freak 10 minute downpour, Neil and I headed to Weatherspoons our meeting place with other bloggers before we all walked to Waterstones.

  Soaked and desperately trying to dry out my books (Night School took the brunt of the rain) we waited with Lily for Caroline and Jess to join us, despite them actually living in Guildford it took them well over an hour to get parked (tip: never drive in Guildford during rush hour)

 Once they arrived we quickly caught up and then Caroline headed to the station to meet Bella, Cicely and Rhys. We then walked the short distance to Waterstones and then waited patiently outside.

Finally we were allowed in, the shop had put out tables of books for each author and more importantly lots and lots of cake - most handmade by the lovely Jess.

The authors made their big entrance down the stairs with the Queen of Teen winner Maureen Johnson going first, Maureen was actually wearing her original prom dress, she couldn't turn round incase of indecent exposure and was in fact holding it up by keeping her arms tightly against her body. Maureen's speech set the mood for the evening, having the crowd in fits of laughter especially with the line "My dress is falling off, my crown is falling off, everything I have on except my shoes is falling off me". Maureen then made a quick exit to get changed whilst the other authors introduced themselves.

Very blurry photo of the prom dress!

Once the introductions were made it was finally time to meet everyone. I queued up to meet Maureen first, who was as quirky in real life as she is on Twitter, she was completely lovely and she had us in fits of giggles, I adore everything written by Maureen Johnson so it was amazing to finally meet her. I think I was probably the only person who took The Bermudez Triangle with me, one of her first books and my favourite, I am so happy to have it signed.

Maureen posing in her crown

After meeting Maureen I headed straight over to see James Dawson who's debut novel Hollow Pike is a must read so if you haven't yet, you need to soon. James was as lovely as I hoped and was really happy to talk to us and had lots of kind words for us bloggers, I can't wait for the release of his second book next year. Definitely an author to watch.

James posing with Hollow Pike

After all of this excitement I also got to meet C.J Daugherty the author of the amazing Night School, who was so lovely and happens to live nearby so decided to pop along to see everyone, as I mentioned my copy of Night School got ruined by the rain so I brought another copy and CJ very kindly signed it for me, we chatted for a while (unfortunately I couldn't get any clues about book 2!) and now I am so excited for its release it will definitely be a preorder for me!

Here is the pile of books I got signed, they are now take pride of place on my bookshelf.

A massive thank you to all of the authors and to Guildford Waterstones for holding the event, I can't wait for the next one.