Indigo Launch Party

(aka The Day of the Car Tyre)

Oh, I have a story to tell you about Tuesday when Orion Books had a launch party to celebrate its new YA imprint, Indigo. Because, for several hours, I thought I couldn't go! Basically, the story is this: I somehow hit a kerb on a country lane really badly and, because of this, one of my front tyre went flat. Luckily, I was near work (and a car place) so I could get it fixed, but I wasn't sure if I could go to the launch party as the earliest they could get a new tyre was 5pm. No time to get there as the event start around 6. So, sent email and tweets, explain the story and saying sorry. Then I started to worry about how much the tyre will cost. So, lived through a haze of worry, panic and guilt till about 3:45pm when I was phoned and told that, by some booky miracle, it was fixed. After quick mental maths (I hate/am useless at maths, BTW) and did some last minute begging, asking if I could still come (which Nina from Orion said I could still come - she's lovely, BTW!), rushed to my car, drove to the nearest train station (I work in the middle of nowhere!) and trained it into London. And I got there in loads of time! Morale of the story: life is twisted and sometimes, you have to expect the unexpected.

So, after rushing in and hugging Nina as a thank you and a sorry for the whole confusing mess that morning (I don't know if she was surprised for this or was scared witless of this mad young man hugging her…) myself and other bloggers (who are "real" bloggers - I'm sure I told you guys in an earlier blog that I felt like an imposter blogger, waiting for someone to realise that I shouldn't be there), Nina and Louise from Orion chatted through about Indigo publishing "teen fiction with style and poise" and chatted through the titles that will be released when Indigo is release to the world this September. There was a lot they chatted about so am grabbing a few at random (including those of the authors who actually were there!):

Dark Parties by Sara Grant - Debut novelist Sara's novel is a dark dystopian thriller (Immediately, I like this) where identity, trust and freedom must be questioned and fought for. But will the outcome be a happy one or will you become The Missing… people who vanishes and everyone pretend never existed.

The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner - "Reading this book is like reading a film noir" claims Nina and after discovering that this book is based round the turn of the second World War and seeing the dark elements of mystery & terror, you can understand why she claimed that. If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise…

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick - Ever had the feeling that you have met someone before? Or gone somewhere that is familiar but you've never been there before? This book follows two soulmates through seven lifetimes, where it has been called a "epic tale of love and sacrifice". Don't worry, loyal fans of Marcus, the book still promises to be dark and twisted.

Soul Beach by Kate Harrison - This is Kate's first novel for YA (she write romantic comedies for adults), and this is the darkest she has ever written. It's a dark murder mystery which could be called a dark social network thriller… You'll never look at Facebook and Twitter the same way again…

Shelter by Harlan Coben - this is Harlan Coben's first book for teens and, according to Louise, he wanted to write one for ages! And now he has! Fans of his adult books will love this rollercoaster of a book with cliffhangers and twists at every turn…

By Midnight & Darkness Falls by Mia James - The first book in the Ravenood Mysteries series, By Midnight, took the blogosphere by storm and the sequel, Darkness Falls, will continue the dark supernatural mystery. Beware the cause…

The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish - This is out in paperback early next year and we were told "This is McNish at his best. And because of that, his most terrifying!" I only read a few of Cliff McNish's books but this like one I have to add...

We also were told that My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece will have a new cover which will be "brave" and "different from anything we've ever produced". Also, we EXCLUSIVELY saw the cover for Hollow Pike by James Dawson (it will hopefully be revealed to the Internet soon!) - I wanted to read the book anyway, but I adore the cover! Must show you it when it's revealed and I must figure out how to get James to do a guest blog. Maybe try and get Nina & Louise too… *begins to plot*

Sorry, where was I?

Then, we had the lovely authors come out and chat to us. We had (in order of who spoke) Marcus Sedgwick, Sara Grant, Kate Harrison & Sally Gardner. Now, I have some bulletpoints about this so, enjoy:

1. The picture of Marcus Sedgwick that was on the promo is wrong. He looks like a indie rockstar!
2. I swear nearly every female in the room fell madly in love with him…
3. Sara Grant revealed that Dark Parties started life as a short story and was originally called Beige.
4. Kate Harrison used her jounalism skills to inspire her to write Soul Beach and finds the photographs used for teen deaths in the media quite unnerving as nowadays, the photos are taken directly off Facebook.
5. I demand that Sally Gardiner to read an audiobook verison of one of her books. Her voice is AMAZING!
6. Sally also said that Double Shadows was "difficult to write" and was her most "controversial" novel to date.

After hearing the four authors chat and read a few paragraphs for their novels, we went outside on the Orion balcony to chat to other book bloggers - people I've met before at the Atom Books Bloggers Event & those who I haven't. I chatted to Matt from Teen Librarian, hugged Carly from Writing from the Tub and we started plotting if we could hold a booky event in Bath in the near future so we can have a cocktail out of a jam jar (seriously), chatting briefly to Liz from MFB about Game of Thrones series, FINALLY met Jenny from Wondrous Reads (ABOUT TIME TOO!) and randomly chatted about the US version of Queer as Folk (us bloggers can chat about random stuff) and spotted, chatted briefly and waved to a few others who I didn't have time to chat to. With this, we nabbed books (actually, I think we were encouraged! I got all bar one author's book - Kate Harrison [which were all gone!] [and Marcus Sedgwick's Midwinterblood came in a binder. A BINDER!] and I grabbed a copy of By Midnight which looked unloved), ate cupcakes (delicious!) and drank some fizzy.

Basically, to please us book bloggers (even fakers like myself), do 3 easy steps: give us books, cake and alcohol. And a catch for us to chat. Four things, really. But the first 3 are quite important!

I also manage to chat to Sara Grant (and she signed my copy of Dark Parties) and Sally Gardner (was basically bowing at her feet and scaring her). And after that, we all went home. It was such fun after the stress and panicking of the morning! So, I must thank Nina, Louise and EVERYONE at Orion & Indigo who set this up, and thank the authors for coming to the event. THANK YOU!

Now, here is group of us all (expect Nina who took the photo - traitor):