Novels On The Run: MARISSA & MICHELLE'S TOTALLY EPIC RACHEL CAINE DOWN UNDER BOOK SIGNING ADVENTURES PART 1

Saturday, May 7, 2011

MARISSA & MICHELLE'S TOTALLY EPIC RACHEL CAINE DOWN UNDER BOOK SIGNING ADVENTURES PART 1

Rachel & Marissa

PART ONE

LOCATION: Astor Theatrette, Perth Western Australia

DATE: Monday 2nd May 2011

EVENT: Q and A + signing with Rachel Caine (Bite Club book release)

How exciting...the first ever author signing event I have ever been to.....and what a score it was. Rachel Caine...the wonderfully talented author of The Morganville Vampire Series.

I primped and preened and gathered all my items for signing....made sure the super camera was charged....off loaded the kids to a friend....and headed out. In my usual style I arrived early and was one of the first seated in the theatre. What a great intimate environment for an event like this. I must say I was a little nervous!!

Our friend Carolyn, who has guest reviewed for the blog, met me inside and we waited for the arrival of Rachel, the host of the evening Jess from The Tales Compendium and Felicity from Penguin Australia.

It was a lovely casual atmosphere. Jess gave us a rundown of the series (without spoilers!!) and then launched into some fantastic questions for Rachel to answer. This was Jess' first hosting of an event like this and my hat goes off to her - she did a great job and made the evening interesting, informative and enjoyable.

Rachel reading to us!

The signed Bite Club

Rachel, as I had expected, was so relaxed and was a pleasure to listen to. She is quite comical and shared with us a few tales! We were also honoured with her reading a "romantic" scene between Shane and Claire. Rachel gave us insights into her life before writing as well as life as a full-time writer.

Signed promo poster


Holographic bm

Afterwards we all headed out to the foyer for Rachel to bless us with signing our many items we all brought along. Rachel also came prepared with some goodies for us all. Not only is she a talented author, but she also makes holographic bookmarks - which she gave us each. PLUS.....a Bite Club/Morganville Vampire Series promo poster (which I had her sign) and the "Morganville Residents Registration Cards".

A4 poster by Book Blings

Suzi from Book Blings made us a stack of awesome posters and bookmarks for Rachel to hopefully sign. And yes....she signed every single one of them. My hand ached just watching her sign away!!! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog.....signed items will be up for grabs - and they will be VERY sought after.

As Jess was the official Blog host for the evening and conducted most of the questions, I have a extracted a couple of Q and A's from her site The Tales Compendium for you all to read. Jess has also posted footage and other questions on her site - so head on over and check them out.

In Bite Club, we get to see some of the scenes from Shane's POV. What made you decide to do this?
Bite Club has a lot going on with Shane -- and it stirs up a lot of his past, his issues, and we see some of the hidden anger that he keeps under such tight rein. I felt it was important to really get inside his head for some of what was happening, because Claire is so much on the outside of many of the events, and without his perspective I felt readers might get too much of a one-sided view of why he was behaving as he was. I also really like writing Shane's POV ... I've done it in short stories (most notably Murdered Out, a short story included in an early UK edition, as well as a few more) and it seemed a good experiment to do in the novel.

And when the time comes, do you already know how it will end? I don't know if there is an ending, a town like Morganville just goes on... but obviously I would wrap up the stories of the characters in it. There's bound to be another generation of people with whole new problems though!

Apart from Last Breath coming

out in November, you also have a new series that will be released in Australia. Can you tell us about that?
I have a new adult series coming out in August called The Revivalist. The first novel, Working Stiff, introduces Bryn Davis, who is a young funeral director discovering that her new bosses are reviving the dead, for profit, in the basement. That's only the beginning of Bryn's problems, which include tangling with a giant and sinister pharmaceutical company in the first book.

I HAD A BLAST!!!!

ENJOY!

MARISSA

MICHELLE AND LIAM'S ( 11YR OLD SON)

FIRST BOOK SIGNING EVER!!

IT WAS AWESOME FUN!!

RACHEL CAINE AUTHOR OF

THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES

BOOK SIGNING & TALK

BITE CLUB TOUR

DYMOCKS BOOK STORE AT NORTHLAKES QLD

AUSTRALIA

TUESDAY 3RD MAY 2011 4PM

Rachel Caine & Liam

Liam and I had a little over an hour drive to Northlakes (about half hour from Brisbane ) from our home on the Sunshine Coast. It wasn't so sunny on Tuesday. It poured the whole drive there. I picked up my little man from school after lunch break so I could fluff and buff him. He's never been a dude that stays clean at school, today was no exception, mud caked all over his legs. After a once over in the shower and a bowl of Chicken Crimpys ( savoury biscuits ) we were good to go. ( see he almost shines )

Camera charged..check!

Spare batteries ..check!!

Extra memory card...check!!

Suzi's awesome giveaways to be signed..check!!

Notepad with some questions...check!!

My whole set of the Morganville Vampires series, including Bite Club # 10, 2 copies ...check!!

Gift bag of Australian goodies complete with teeny Aussie flags and napkins...check!! ( Gift for Rachel signing all blog giveaways )

Spare black marker ....check!! ( incase Rachel's marker for signing runs out, as my husband would say, 'nerd alert', my motto, 'always be prepared')

Petrol..check!!

Liam....check!!

Driving down Liam was worried he would be bored for a couple hours......well, he had... the... 'best'... time. He loved the signing. He asked Rachel a question during Q & A time.

Liam: Who is your favourite character?

Rachel: Myrnin, he is such fun to write.

Rachel is a very happy , fun to listen to personality . We just all stood around , a very informal talk. I introduced myself to Felicity from Penguin Australia, Rachel came in the door, picked up the microphone and gave us a warm welcome. I think we were all rather timid at first, but she warmed us up with a speech and then it was Q & A time. I must admit I was a tad nervous with asking my questions, my fingers were shaking as I groped my notebook, but Rachel is very relaxed so I got over that by the second question, sort of.

Sssshh...this ones for Suzi.

Once Rachel signed all my books ( squeeEEEee) and I gave her the gift bag of Aussie goodies from us thanking her for signing all the giveaways over the last 2 days ( there was a bit) . Then I had a few items to be signed for blog giveaways , thanks to Suzi for making them, so I waited until she had finished all the signings, then Rachel started to sign them. Liam was sitting on the floor by the door and decided to say, 'Hey Rachel, do your books have rocket launchers in them and do you blow anybodys head off?'....hee..hee....( that's my son, far too many zombie games the dear boy plays, *looks at husband* )

Rachel: 'No, but there may be a tank'.

Josh , a nice lad came in near end of signings, he had driven 3 hours to get book #1 'Glass Houses' and book #10 'Bite Club' signed , as a surprise for his girlfriend. Awww, what a nice boyfriend:D

Marissa was lucky at her signing there were posters given out that Rachel signed. We didn't have posters at our signing, but we did each get one of Rachel's bookmarks she prints up herself, purple holographic one, complete with tassel and The Morganville Residential card.

Liam was my cameraman for the video's below. Thankyou little man for helping your mum out and holding her hand at her first ever signing. The footage I have of Rachel's talk and Q & A is a tad wobbly in parts, but he's only 11yrs old. You can hear it very clearly all questions and answers. It will be posted on the blog in 4 parts over next week as it's 34mins and 50 seconds long in total.

Part of amazing giveaways
Unofficial signed A4 size pics for framing
by Suzi

Thankyou Rachel for signing all our goodies and being such a nice person. We have whisked the signed bookmarks back to Miss Suzi for completion ( lamenating and cutting). Stay tuned for amazing giveaways coming up .