Tales Events – Electric Monkey Blogger Day 2015

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I was lucky enough to be invited to the Electric Monkey Blogger Day on the 18th February 2015 with some other fab bloggers and awesome guest authors.  Early morning on the 18th I set my alarm for a time when no alarm should ever be set *shivers* and headed for the train station!  London bound! Yipppeeeee!

Entering the Egmont floor of the yellow building was so lovely.  A huggggeeee Egmont sign filled the reception area as well as wonderful bloggers chatting and authors mingling.  I was immediately greeted by the fab Electric Monkey team who were super friendly and welcoming!  I also had a surprise guest pop and visit me and the other bloggers – Robin Stevens!  She actually works at Egmont so it was so lovely seeing her again….for the third time for me this month lol

Photo left by @cloverness with permission

Photo right by @cloverness with permission

Photo left by @cloverness with permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first talk of the day was from the inspirational Elizabeth Wein who talked about her books, her family and the inspiration behind her stories.  I was mesmirized by her completely and even following the event I am in awe of her.  She was amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After her talk she showed us some artefacts that she has collected and passed them around which was super cool!

Photos above by @kitkatscanread with permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wonderful lunchtime spread was laid on for all bloggers, authors and staff members and much chatting and fun was had by all! Complete with awesome mine craft pillows that my son would love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo below by @kitkatscanread with permission

We also got to hear from two wonderful debut authors, Lisa Heathfield who debut Seed is out in April 2015 (I’ve just read this and it was amazing!) and Rachel McIntyre who’s debut Me & Mr J is out now (which I am yet to read)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We got to hear all about their wonderful books, their inspiration and the love for their covers.  Lisa Heathfield’s inspiration for her book Seed, set within a cult, came to her via a writing spirit  and the book was written telling the story of this little girl called Pearl.

Rachel’s inspiration came from teaching a class at a school who all thought it was cool that a student who had left the school was dating a teacher.  Rachel explained that she wrote this book for them to say its really not okay for a teacher to do this.

They were both fascinating talks and both lovely people who I am so pleased to have met.

Photo on the left by @kitkatscanread & photo above by @cloverness with permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can check out my review of Seed here

Or check out my Q&A with Lisa Heathfield here

We then were given the opportunity to meet the graphic designer Ben who created the beautiful stunning cover for Seed who talked us through the cover designing process.  This was an absolutely fascinating talk and was really interesting to find out the thought process and work that goes into creating a cover for a book and Ben, given that he was not used to speaking in front of people, gave a brilliant presentation!

Photo above @kitkatscanread with permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last part of the afternoon was handed over to new debut author Katy Birchall who’s debut book The It Girl is out in May 2015 and with herself and the lovely Lindsey reading an extract dialogue from the book this book is set to be an hilarious huge it which I cannot wait to read!

Photo above @kitkatscanread with permission

Check out an hilarious guest post from Katy Birchall here

Or to read an extract from The It Girl here

Check out my review of The It Girl here

Or find out more about The It Girl 3 in this exclusive interview with, It Girl, Anna Huntley here

This brought an end to our day…but not before some tea and gorgeous cupcakes….and okay more chatting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above photo by @cloverness with permission

At the end of the day we were given some super awesome goodie bags full of wonderful books, bookmarks and treats.

Al the bags were personalised with a name tag and upon getting home and checking out all of the goodies I discovered why!  The proof copy of Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls was personalised and signed by the author herself who wasn’t at the event, Lynn Weingarten!  This was such a wonderful surprise and so lovely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was also lucky enough to witness Lisa Heathfield being handed a finished copy of her book Seed that came in later in the afternoon just before we were leaving and its so pretty and shiny!

A huge huge thank you to all of the staff at Electric Monkey / Egmont for inviting me and making me feel so welcoming at your offices.  A huge thank you to all of the authors who I met and who did talks and presentations  you were all lovely!  Also a huge thank you to the other bloggers for all being awesome and making me laugh (so much) and smile (a lot)!

Picture thanks to Electric Monkey

Check out more tweets and pictures from the day by checking out the hashtag #EMBLOGGERDAY on twitter

Happy Reading!