Tales Events – Meeting E Lockhart

Last Friday, the 5th December, I had the absolute privilege of meeting the wonderful E Lockhart at Waterstones Birmingham High Street who were hosting the event which included a talk, question and answers and a book signing!  I also got to finally meet up with fellow blogger Rosie from EatReadGlam – it was lovely to finally meet someone I’ve been chatting to on twitter and have a good bookish chat in real life and trying to resist buying more books!

E Lockhart was visiting the UK from America after being invited over by her publisher, Hot Keys Books.  A lady full of confidence she started the book talk off with a bang welcoming us all and telling us what she has been up to whilst over in the UK which involved visiting schools and book stores for book events just like this one.

E Lockhart took us on a wonderful journey firstly talking about We Were Liars.  She talked about how her own childhood growing up in the 70’s in a communal house influenced her writing.  When E Lockhart was younger she used to catch a boat with her Mother over to a place in America called Martha’s Vineyard and she described how the scenic views of the remote islands with the private houses inspired We Were Liars as she always wondered what was going on on those islands where no one could see.

E Lockhart also described childhood memories of some illustrated books that her Mother had kept for many years having received them off her Father.  The wonderful illustrations in the books helped inspire her as well and also gave the influence of the treasured possessions idea in We Were Liars.

E Lockhart explained how We Were Liars is her first book to have a map in which she has always wanted in her books.

Check out my review of We Were Liars here!

E Lockhart spoke about her new book that has been released in the UK – The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.  She explained how in America this book came out before We Were Liars.  As the book is set in a college she began to reminisce about her own college years, about the fact that after being accepted on a writing course she ended up hating writing with a teacher who gave little feedback.  Once finishing college she and her Father, who is a playwright began writing things back and forwards by the good old fashioned snail mail back then which was fun and she started enjoying writing again.

Before writing YA E Lockhart explained that she wrote a few adult fiction and essay guides before finding her niche in YA writing.

E Lockhart read out a passage from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Questions and Answers then followed which were initially started by Alice from the Waterstones staff and then the audience.  Some great questions were asked and it was nice to hear no spoilers.

It was also announced that E Lockhart’s next book, How To Be Bad which is written with two other authors, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle  is due for a paperback release by Hot Keys Books on the 4th June 2015.  It sounds amazing and I cannot wait for this release!  The kindle version is available now by clicking here.

E Lockhart also revealed that she is writing her next book but is unable to release details although she gave away one tiny clue….that it involves a little murder!  Literally cannot wait!

It was then time for the book signing and hand stamping time!  If you haven’t read We Were Liars (see my review here) there are some motivational quotes in the book that are truly lovely and E Lockhart explained that everyday throughout her UK book tour she has been writing a different saying on her hands (hence the black marker pen on her hands in the pictures above).  The hand stamps were these quotes taken from the book We Were Liars and I was over the moon that they were still working – thank you Rosi from Hot Keys (It’s the little things in life).

I was even given a fab poster which E Lockhart signed too!  So as well as taking over my husbands office with books I have now begun with posters!! (Evil Laugh)

It was a great evening and a big thank you goes out to the team at Waterstones Birmingham High Street, Hot Keys Books and the wonderful E Lockhart who it was an absolute pleasure to meet.

I also have a little give away to commemorate the event.  I purchased an extra copy of We Were Liars and an extra copy of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks whilst I was at the event to do a giveaway on twitter and I am over the moon to announce that the wonderful E Lockhart signed these for me for my giveaway and also stamped the copy of We Were Liars with the hand stamp!  I will be running two seperate retweet, follow and win on twitter which will end at 11:59pm on 16th December 2014 with winners announced on the 17th December 2014!

Please note that if you win I will need your address to enable me to post the book out to you and if your quick I may even be able to get it to you before Christmas although I cannot guarantee this.  This will be requested via private DM on twitter.  The winners will be selected at random for each competition and my intention is to enter all entries for each book into a hat and draw the winners out – the old fashioned way! 

Please be reminded there will only be one winner of each book and I only have one copy of each book to giveaway all you have to do is follow me on twitter and retweet the tweet for whichever book you would like to win or retweet both.

U.K. and Ireland Only

Good Luck

@chelleytoy

Click here for the We Were Liars – Signed Book Giveaway

Click here for the The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Giveaway

You can buy E Lockhart’s books here

If you would like to know more about E Lockhart and her other books check her out on her website http://www.emilylockhart.com/ or follow her on twitter using @elockhart

Don’t forget to check out my review of We Were Liars here

Happy Reading