HarperCollins Meet and Greet: Joanna Goodman and Ellen Keith

Last month I had the chance to attend a meet and greet event at the new HarperCollins Canada offices in downtown Toronto. I live outside of the city so I can't often make it in to evening events on a weekday. However, I have a new job and we have a Toronto office so I made plans to work there for the day so I could walk a few blocks over to the event after work. Win all around!

I was excited for the event for all sorts of reasons. One was that I hadn't seen the new HarperCollins offices yet. A few fellow YA bloggers had been to a Frenzy event and I was a bit envious of the views they had. I settled myself into a window seat at the event, not really thinking about my fear of heights. Probably not the wisest decision as this was the view:

Pretty incredible though, right? I just kept telling myself not to look all the way down (after I had snapped this shot, of course) which was easier said than done as the windows were floor to ceiling. Amazing but a bit fear inducing for me!

The authors being featured at this event (which took place on May 2) were Joanna Goodman and Ellen Keith. Both women had recently published historical fiction novels. Joanna's, The Home for Unwanted Girls, released on April 17th and Ellen's, The Dutch Wife, on April 24th. The books were new but I had read both for Niagara Life, a magazine I review for. I really enjoyed both of them so I jumped at the chance to hear them speak and get signed copies of both books.

Check out the synopsis of each book on Goodreads:
The Home for Unwanted Girls
The Dutch Wife

I wasn't the only one who enjoyed these books either. Both women debuted on The Globe and Mail bestseller lists. Joanna at number 1 the week her book came out and Ellen, a week later, at number 2. How amazing is that?

I believe this is actually as Kaiti announced Ellen debuting on
the bestseller list. I love seeing how happy Joanna is for her.

One of the best things I learned from the talk was that both women fell down a bit of a research rabbit hole while working on their books. Joanna knew she wanted to tell a story of a woman giving up her baby in 1950s Quebec and Ellen wanted to give a Nazi a chance to tell their perspective of WWII. Ellen had done some traveling in Germany and wondered how they were being taught the history of the war compared to what we may be told over here in North America. Both women's vague ideas were made so much richer by the research they found. Joanna's research led her to Duplessis Orphans (check out Wikipedia for a brief overview). Ellen learned about what happened in Argentina during the Dirty War plus about the brothels at prison and labour camps during WWII.

Joanna said that she'd been working on this book for "half her life" and found it very difficult to find first-hand accounts of the orphans. She said it wasn't surprising because the children would not have received a formal education so their literacy would be limited. She did find one instance where a child had put together her story and talked to a journalist who, in turn, published an article. Joanna said that it was so helpful finding that book because it confirmed the perspective she had of the orphans.

Ellen answering a question either from Kaiti (right) or the audience.

The women were asked if there was a pressure to tell their historical stories "correctly" and they both responded with a strong yes. Ellen said she was terrified that someone would come and tell her that she got it all wrong. Joanna agreed. Joanna was less concerned with the factual errors or inconsistencies than with the emotional ones. She just didn't know exactly how the orphans would have felt. Ellen has a history degree and found herself getting too focused on getting every little detail right and she didn't know how to handle the gaps in the research. In the end she learned that the novel should be more about the heart and essence of what you're trying to communicate than cold, hard facts.

The authors also went into more detail on how, exactly, the first seeds of their story were planted. Joanna's novel was kind of her mother's story and Maggie was written almost entirely as her mother (apart from the giving up a baby part of the novel). It was bittersweet for Joanna as her mom passed away before the book was published. Ellen wanted to write an homage to her grandparents who lived in the Netherlands during the war. While Marijka is spunky just like Ellen's grandmother was, Ellen's heroine is not really based on anyone in particular.

As is inevitable at events such as this, someone asked what advice the women would give to aspiring authors. Ellen said to never, ever give up. She also suggests finding other people who love reading and writing and have them read your work. That really helped keep her going. Joanna absolutely agreed and added that you need to have a thick skin as you'll have to learn to ignore every rejection. She also said that writing workshops have been the best thing for her career. Both women shared stories that showed how finding people you trust can be the best thing for your writing as they have more distance from the work itself and can sometimes provide a better perspective.

The authors graciously signed all of our copies.

It was a wonderful evening and I'm very thankful HarperCollins Canada allowed me to take part in the event. We all got a copy of each book and had the chance to have them signed by Ellen and Joanna. It was nice to have a quick moment to chat with each other where I could tell them I really enjoyed their novels. Joanna also let me know, once she learned where I was from, that she should have a couple of events in Niagara in the fall so I'm looking forward to that!

Two more signed books to add to my collection.

Event Recap: Jennifer Weiner Signing

Way back in June I was lucky enough to meet one of my favourite authors - the amazing Jennifer Weiner. On June 23, my author friends, Lydia Laceby and Samantha Stroh Bailey, and I cleared our schedules and headed to Indigo Manulife  Centre for a signing. Whee!

Lydia and I made sure to get to the store early because we wanted to snag seats. Imagine our surprise when we arrived about an hour before the signing began and were able to get seats for the three of us in the front row! We had expected this event to be packed because it was the first time in five years that Weiner had been to Canada. All of the seats ended up being filled but I don't believe there were many people standing. So strange!

If Weiner is one of your favourite authors and you've never seen her in person, you need to change that. As soon as humanly possible. She is an amazing person, so real, and freaking hilarious. Case in point: the person introducing her almost screwed up her name (it's not weener, it's wine-er) so she told the story of when she was in New Jersey, exhausted after many events, and the MC mispronounced her name. She steps up to the podium and exclaims, "It's WINE-ER, motherf*cker!" A woman after my own heart...dropping f bombs without a care in the world. She also brought up The Bachelorette, as the signing was happening on a Monday night, the same time as the show. And if you're a Bachelor/Bachelorette fan, you have got to pay attention to her live tweets when the show is on. Priceless.

But it wasn't all laughs. She talked about gender inequality when it comes to book reviews in traditional published media. She also talked about how amazing it was to help author Sarah Pekkanen gain recognition when her first novel was published. There were a lot of other amazing parts to the signing but I foolishly made the mistake of not taking notes! I blame the drinks and food Lydia, Sam, and I had after the signing :)

As much as I adore Weiner myself, the best part of the signing (other than when she and I shared a little side convo about Chris from The Bachelorette - who will now be the newest Bachelor) was seeing how unbelievably excited Lydia and Samantha were. To them, Weiner is their idol. They love reading her books but they also love the way she writes. So, when this happened:

"Hey...are you Perfect Pen on Twitter?"

We thought we'd have to pick Sam up off the floor! She was so unbelievably thrilled that she was recognized!

I'm so happy I made the time to head into Toronto for this signing and I already can't wait until Jennifer Weiner comes back!

Event Recap: Rainbow Rowell Signing

Just over a week ago I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Long review short: I adored it (you can read my full review here). I immediately texted my friend Natalie, of Browsing Bookshelves, to tell her I had finished it as she had read it the week before. Once we shared our mutual love for the book, she let me know she was planning on heading to the signing in Toronto the following Monday and asked if would I like to go with her. I immediately said yes! We had both read the book from the library but loved it so much that we each bought a copy of it to bring to the signing.

I was already excited for the signing, who wouldn't be? I knew we were lucky because this was the only Canadian stop Rainbow was making. To make things even more exciting, fellow blogger Nicole, of Nicole About Town, invited us to meet up with her and the Raincoast publicist who was in Toronto to escort Rainbow. Fun! Crystal was fabulous and told us all about some new and upcoming YA books. I marked quite a few of them to look into later!

Because of our need to eat some supper and stop at David's Tea (Natalie and I don't have one where we live so we had to go hehe), we ended up being too late to get chairs. Drat! We were still pretty early though so we snuck in between the chairs and the shelves and sat ourselves down to wait.

Rainbow reading from Fangirl

After Rainbow was introduced, she told us a little bit about her book (which I think everyone there had read, judging from the applause and cheers) and then proceeded to do a reading. I loved that she explained things along the way. For example, her husband says that Fangirl is eyebrow erotica as Levi's eyebrows are often mentioned! After the reading she answered several questions and it was so interesting to learn about her books and her process. I wish I could expand more but I'm writing this almost a week later (I intended to get it done right away...sigh) and I can't recall specifics. Sorry! Basically, Rainbow is a fabulous author and person. She writes real characters and relateable scenarios that you can't help but love.

Ahhh, I can't believe I got to meet her. I smile every time I see this picture! I bought a copy of Attachments at the store because I've been meaning to read it for ages (it's her adult novel...why haven't I read it yet? Silliness!). I can't wait to dive into it! Rainbow was pretty impressed when she found out Natalie and I had travelled so far to see her (hence the inscription in Fangirl, below). I say it was totally worth it!

Whee!!!

Have you read any of Rainbow Rowell's books? What did you think of them?

Recap: Meeting Emily Giffin

That's right my friends. I got to meet Emily Giffin!

I was so excited when I found out she'd be coming to Toronto at the end of August and knew I had to make the trip to see her - no matter what! I'm a couple of hours away so I knew it would require some planning to get there. Luckily, my coworker, who was just as excited about this event as I was, grew up in Toronto and would be able to show my small town self where to go. However...she ended up having to cancel as she had plans for the Labour Day weekend. Hm. Ok, not to worry! I decided to hook up with some of my fellow book bloggers to see if any of them would want to attend. Happy days - two of them wanted to go as well! But THEN...they both ended up having to cancel as well. Seriously?? Is there something wrong with me that no one wants to hang out with me at a super awesome signing?

I'm pretty sure this picture was taken as I was telling Emily that I was there by myself as I got bailed on three times. She felt sorry for me and made sure I got a t-shirt. So, ladies who missed out (who shall remain nameless to protect the not-so-innocent... ;) kidding! love you all!) thank you for making me seem like a huge loser as I got a pretty adorable t-shirt out of it! Also, I babbled like an idiot when I got up to get my books signed. Anyone else experience complete stupideness when faced with someone famous and awesome? Ugh. Mildly embarrassing. Anyway...enough about my pathetic self!

All my goodies - plus a Starbucks treat!

Emily was amazing. Right off the bat she took photos of the crowd which we were to tag ourselves in on Facebook (if you're a fan of her page you can see the pics in her Toronto album). After telling us that she loves coming to Toronto, she spoke for about 20 minutes or so and we got to learn some fun tidbits. The one that stuck out the most for me was that Kirby (the teenager in her latest novel Where We Belong - you can read my review of this one here) has overtaken Darcy from Something Borrowed/Something Blue as her favourite character. She also shared that when her brother-in-law told her that he hated Marian (she's heard that a lot) her sister told him to be quiet. Emily said it was alright as the characters aren't actually real. She also told us that she relates most to Ethan (SOBO/SOBl) and Claudia (Baby Proof). She chatted with us for a bit longer before signing books for the insane number of fans who showed up at Indigo to see her.

My signed books! Could only manage to bring a couple with me :)

Thanks to Twitter, I got to share a wave with Michele from Just a Lil' Lost (check out her recap post here!) and Andrea from Cozy Up with a Good Read as well as a quick chat with Anum from Paper Wings and Ink. Love our book blogging community :)

Even though I went by myself, I'm so glad that I decided to go. Emily's one of my favourite authors and I would have been kicking myself if I didn't go see her while she was in Canada. I'll probably even go see her again the next time she's here so I can get a couple more books signed!

Here I am with the gorgeous Emily Giffin - note how crouched down I am :)
(Yes, the pic's blurry...stupid no flash rule and useless camera)