Stripes #Equali-tea

Yesterday was a bit of a manic day. First Saturday off in a while and was going to London for a blogger event. My first ever Stripes Blogger Event (this is their third or fourth, I believe) so I was excited and a little unsure of myself. Yes, I know, I’m in my thirties, I have been for over 8 years this October just gone and still I am worried about going to blogger events because a tiny voice in my head is still telling me “They’re going to find out your not meant to be here…” for the first few minutes. 

Anyway, after turning up and bumping into cool bloggers of Beth, Jen, Layla, Stacey, Michelle, Steph, Janay and a ton of others (who are far too cool for me to list (You know who you are. And you know my memory sucks), the event began. 

As this was Stripes #Equalitea, the five books they showed us has a cool connection with diversity. 

The first is one you might have seen on the Pewter Wolf as the author did a tiny guest post which is Whiteout by Gabriel Dylan. Gabriel explained how this story came into being (aka how he always wanted to write and then, one school ski trip in his early teacher days, he and his class got snowed in and he wondered “What if something is out there in the snow drift and it doesn’t want us to leave…?”). And that question is a the bases of Whiteout. Now, Whiteout is part of Stripes’s Red Eye range so it’s horror (Point Horror for the modern age - anyone remember Point Horror?) and, while I am not a fan of horror, I really want to read this. Whiteout follows Charlie and his classmates who go on a school skiing trip. This is perfect as Charlie is having an unhappy home life of late. But when a snow storm cuts off the resort from the rest of the world and strange things begin to unfollow at an alarmingly rate, Charlie and his classmates realise that something is out there in the storm, watching… waiting… 

And now, the main reason for the event: PROUD. This is getting a lot of buzz and noise so, hopefully, you guys are aware of this collection. If not, let me explain super quick. This collection is a mix of poems, shot stories and art that all tackle the theme of Pride within the LGBTQIA community. With authors and illustrators ranging from Simon James Green, David Levithan, Tanya Byrne, Moïr Fowley-Doyle, Alice Oseman, Priyanka Meenakshi, Fatti Burke and many more, this is going to be a hugely important book. The collection, also, has four stories from 4 previously unpublished authors - Kay Staples, Cynthia So, Karen Lawler and Michael Lee Richardson. Three of these were at the event (Michael couldn’t come due to him living in Scotland) and the three chatted about why they decided to write their stories, what Pride meant to them and read a teaser of their stories: a modern-day Pride and Prejudice retelling, teens on the run (and hiding in their local Travelodge) and a Chinese-inspired fairytale about phoenixes. You guys are going to love these!