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Tuesday 23 February 2016

#HowlerParty at Hodder Headquarters!

Last night, I went to Hodder to hang out with Pierce Brown.

Isn't that the most surreal sentence you've read on this blog?! But it's true!

Signs peppered the hallways announcing the Reaper's arrival
It was much more terrifying than I'd expected it to be, because I'd never done this kind of thing before. I've been running my blog for less than two years, so I haven't hit the big time yet! But this certainly gave me a taste of what it would feel like, with the table covered in munchies and glasses of wine and a breathtaking view of London from the rooftop. 

My phone camera struggled to capture the jaw-dropping sight
Meeting Pierce was brilliant: it felt more like talking to a fellow fan about the series rather than the author, because you could see how excited he was. We discussed our favourite characters (I chose Sevro, obviously, and Kavax with his jellybean-eating fox, Sophocles - the favourite of Pierce's editor) and our least favourites (Pierce agreed with me about Antonia, saying that he really wanted to hit her even though he'd never hit a woman). 
I thanked him for writing such a brilliant ending to the series - he agreed that the final book in a trilogy is normally awful, so I'm glad 'Morning Star' didn't fall into that category! He was happy to sign all of my books, which was great - I'd carried all three hardcovers and the two chunky ARCs of 'Golden Son' and 'Morning Star' with me, and they'll look really nice on my signed book shelf. 
If you get the chance to meet Pierce while he's in the UK, I'd sincerely recommend you go to one of the events - he's such a funny person, joking around about being drunk the entire time he wrote the book and saying that was how he wrote Sevro. I can guarantee you won't be able to stop laughing. He's just so genuinely lovely. 

Me and Pierce <3
After working the room and talking to a lot of people, Pierce did a reading from 'Morning Star', choosing chapter seven, 'Bumblebees'. A bunch of people needed to plug their ears to save themselves from hearing spoilers, and I was very grateful that I'd managed to finish it already! He tried to adopt an accent when he read a line from Ragnar Volarus, causing the entire room to burst out laughing: he apologised, saying "it's all in bold so I tried to do it, this is why I hire someone else to do the audiobook!".
Pierce reading from the ARC of 'Morning Star'
When he'd finished his reading he thanked everyone for coming, sharing the fact that at his first signing he had ten people and he was delighted, but then he only had six people attend his second signing and he felt as though he was sliding. Seeing how many people were in the room tonight, he's definitely come a long way from that point! He invited everyone to "please eat the cupcakes with my face on them, not my face!" and then it was time to mingle and snack with all the other Howlers in attendance.

I couldn't stay for too much longer because I needed to travel home, but I had time to pick up some postcards and posters with quotes from 'Morning Star' on them (I'll be posting pictures of those in my book haul at the end of the week, because they're too fiddly to spread out now!) and it was lovely to meet some fellow bloggers at the event.

The reason Pierce Brown loves the Red Rising trilogy...
Thank you to Becca Mundy and all at Hodder for allowing me to attend this awesome event, and thank you Pierce for writing a brilliant trilogy! 

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