Daughter of Smoke and Bone LAUNCH PARTY!

Last night, in a small bar in the city of London, Hodder did a launch party for THE DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor. It was filled with the author (and her amazing pink hair!), people from Hodder and the PR company Hot Cherry, booksellers, bloggers...

... and myself.

Yep. I was there! And it was one interesting and slightly random evening.

As you know, I don't see myself as a blogger (still waiting for the day when someone goes "Hey! You're faking it! GET OUT!" but still... no one notice!) so getting invited to these events and ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO GO is kind of a big (and surreal) thing for me.

So, after turning up at the location (getting lost while trying to find the place), I bumped into bloggers I have met before (HELLO!!!) and bloggers I haven't met before and only know through Twitter and spying on their blogs (HELLO! Have you survived meeting me?). And after we got our hands on a special cocktail made for the event (it was PINK! And a video of it being made is at the bottom of the blogpost), everyone went and chatted to everyone else. And there was a lot of people at this event that loved the book - basically, people who love books and get excited over books!

And then, we all met the author. Laini Taylor. She's lovely! Really nice and smiley! She was on Woman's Hour that morning (here it is - start around the 25 minutes mark!) and looked like she was enjoying herself at the event to celebrate her book's success so far in the UK! She chatted and signed copies of our books and, while she signed mine, I asked if her hair grew out pink (if you have no idea why I ask that, I suggest you read the book...) and the answer was yes (though don't look too closely to the roots)...

And with that, everyone chatted. We chatted about the book and other books (that was cool. Expect when I said I didn't get and didn't finished Delirium by Lauren Oliver, and one of the people I chatted to was from Hodder and the look of shock on her face... yeah...) and onto random stuff (One chat random went from Harry Potter to Twilight to Hobbits to big feet to... yes, it was THAT random).

And we had food. I have decide that to please book bloggers, you need three things. One: books. Two: drink. Three: food. And the food was something else. It was smoking! Seriously! As you can see from the pic, it was eeire yet cool! With this and mini delights like Chocolate Air, it was a fun evening for food. My random fave was the little meringues that, when popped into your mouth, made you look like a fire-breathing dragon as smoke came out of your nose and mouth!

The most random part of the night was discovering that, in the main room where this launch party was placed, there was a side-room which had (for no reason), a iron bathtub. Don't believe me? See below!



Told you! Anyway, it was a fun night so I have to thank Hodder and Hot Cherry for inviting me and everyone who turned up and made the event a right laugh!


And now, as promised, the video of the Special cocktail made for the event last night...


Oh, By the way! I'm hosting a competition to win a copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Well, last night, I got it signed. So, it's now a chance to win a SIGNED COPY OF DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE! You have till 7pm Friday to enter! Go! GO!

(Also, there are pics of me meeting the author, Laini Taylor. But I don't have them - other bloggers do. Once I see them, I will retweet on Twitter and share on Facebook).