Simon & Schuster Blogger Event - 3rd February 2011

Last month I was extremely lucky to be invited to attend Simon & Schuster's 2nd blogger event and get to meet some of their authors.  I went up to London early to meet up with Sammee, Lyndsey and Vicky (you should know by now that I can never resist a trip to the massive Waterstone's in Piccadilly for a little book shopping!) and then we joined up with Carly, Becky & Dwayne for coffee and a catch up before the event.  Luckily Jenny was able to meet us and direct us to the S&S offices as I don't think I'd ever have found it otherwise.

The event was split into 2 parts the first being a Q&A panel with authors Helen Warner (RSVP), Craig Robertson (Random), Michelle Harrison (The 13 Treasures series), Justin Somper (Vampirates series), Sophie McKenzie (Girl, Missing), Milly Johnson (A Summer Fling) and Kevin J Anderson (Hellhole).  All of the bloggers had been given the opportunity to send in questions and it was really interesting listening to the authors chat about how and when they find the time to write, how they come up with their ideas and what they're going to be working on next.  I wish I'd thought to take notes about what was said but I was too busy taking pictures and just enjoying listening to the panel.

After the panel we were taken through to what I'm guessing was the conference room where S&S had laid on a fab spread of drinks and nibbles for us to munch on while we mingled.  There may also have been a large selection of books that we were allowed to raid and I may possibly have got a little carried away and ended up practically pulling my arms out of their sockets trying to drag my haul back to the train station but I'm not going to either confirm or deny those rumors!  It was lovely to get to spend time chatting with the bloggers I knew, unfortunately there were so many people there that I didn't get to meet so I'm sorry if I missed you.

The nicest thing was how approachable all of the authors were, I was able to spend a few minutes chatting to each of them and got all of my books signed.  I've already started reading the 13 Treasures series by Michelle Harrison and the Vampirates series by Justin Somper but I'm looking forward to reading books by each of the other authors who were there.  I'm sure I'll end up adding a few more favorites to my list!  As you can probably tell by the slide shows I got a little carried away with my camera, if you'd like to look at all the pictures I took you can find them online here

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Kat, Ally, Catherine and everyone else from Simon & Schuster who worked so hard to set up a wonderful event.  Thanks also to all of the authors too for taking the time to chat to us crazy bloggers (we aren't really crazy fan girl stalkers honest!).

Who Was There:

Kat, Ally & Catherine - Simon & Schuster
Craig Robertson - Author Page on S&S Website
Helen Warner - Author Page on S&S Website
Justin Somper - Vampirates Website
Kevin J Anderson - Blog
Michelle Harrison - Website
Milly Johnson - Website
Sophie McKenzie - Website

Amanda - Floor to Ceiling Books - Event Report
Becky - The Bookette

Carly - Writing From The Tub

Dwayne - Girls Without a Bookshelf

Jenny - Wondrous Reads

Liz & Mark - My Favorite Books
Lyndsey & Vicky - Heaven, Hell and Purgatory Book Reviews
Lynsey - Narratively Speaking
Matt - Teen Librarian
Sammee - I Want To Read That
(There were a lot of other bloggers there & I didn't catch all of your names so if I've missed you off let me know & I'll add your link)

Winners: 1st Blogoversary Giveaways for 9 signed books

With the help of random.org I can now announce the winners of by 1st blogoversary giveaways!  There was such an amazing response to the giveaways so thank you all for entering and helping to spread the word.  Congratulations to all of the winners!

Giveaway 1 - Fallen & Torment by Lauren Kate:

I had left it up to you to decide if there would be 1 winner receiving both books or 2 winners receiving 1 book each.  I took the following screen shot of the poll results after the giveaway closed and as you can see the result was 1 winner

So I can confirm that the winner who will receive signed ARC copies of both Fallen and Torment by Lauren Kate is:

Laura Soucek (email address starting noevus32@...)

Giveaway 2 - Entangled by Cat Clarke:

Winning a signed ARC of Entangled by Cat Clarke along with a cover flat is:



Julie Renaudin (email address starting pique.a.chou@)

Giveaway 3 - A Summer Fling by Milly Johnson:

Winning a signed copy of A Summer Fling by Milly Johnson is:

.Ambur. (email address starting ambiepie_6@)

Giveaway 4 - Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie:

Winning a signed copy of A Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie is:

Alice Reed (email address starting ccs_bm@)

Giveaway 5 - Randon & Hellhole:

This giveaway was UK only unless international entrants were prepared to pay postage costs because of the weight of these books.  If you are an international winner of one of these books I will let you know how much postage will cost when I know your address, I will pay the postage cost if you are a UK winner.

Winning a signed hardback copy of Randon by Craig Robinson is:

NatD23 (email address starting natlovestoread@)

Winning a large paperback of Hellhole by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson (signed by Kevin J Anderson) is:

Melodie (email address starting ashlinn_riddle@)

Giveaway 6 - Shiver & Linger by Maggie Stiefvater:

Again I left it up to you to vote on how many winners there would be and as you can see from the screenshot below you voted for 1 winner

So winning signed UK copies of Shiver & Linger by Maggie Stiefvater we have:

Nina (email address starting nina.happyendings@)

 

Congratulations to you all!  If you can email me at sarahsreviews at ymail dot com with your full address I will get your books posted to you.  If I don't hear from you within 48 hours then new winners will be chosen.

1st Blogoversary Celebration Giveaway: A Summer Fling by Milly Johnson - NOW CLOSED

* UPDATE - THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED - Winner announced here *

Since it's Valentine's Day (well it should have been when I posted this but I'm running a little late so apologies for that!) I thought I'd give away a romance novel for today's giveaway.  I've not read this one yet but I had the chance to meet Milly Johnson a couple of weeks ago and managed to get her to sign an extra copy of A Summer Fling for this giveaway. 

These girls are about to have a summer they'll never forget!

When dynamic Christie blows in like a warm wind to take over their department, five very different women find themselves thrown together at work . . .

Anna, 39, is left reeling after her fiance's departure with a younger woman.  Can she ever learn to trust again?  Then there's Grace, in her fifties, trapped in a loveless marriage with a man she married because she fell for his motherless brood.  Can she prevent 33-year-old Dawn - orphaned as a teenager and engaged to love-rat Calum - from making the same mistake she did?

At 28, Raychel would seem to be the happiest, with a loving husband, Ben, and their cosy nest for two.  But what dark secrets are lurking behind this perfect facade, that make sweet, pretty Raychel so unwilling to open up?

Under Christie's kindly hand, the girls know they have some difficult choices to make.  Indeed, none of them quite realised how much they needed the sense of fun, laughter, and loyalty that abounds when five women become friends.

I'm having problems with my camera so haven't been able to upload a picture of the signed book but I'll try and update the post to include one later today.  Good luck & don't forget to check back every day this week for more chances to win signed books.

I finally got my camera working so here is a picture of the signed book in this giveaway.

Giveaway Details:

• This giveaway is international so anyone can enter no matter where you live.
• The winner will be chosen at random from all entries received.
• To enter the giveaway all you need to do is fill in your name and email address in the form below (please have permission from your parents if you are under 16). Extra entries are available but they are entirely optional.
• Only one entry per person please, any duplicate entries will be deleted
• You have until the 28th of February to enter the giveaway and I'll announce the winner soon afterwards on my blog. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with their postal address or another winner will be chosen.
• Winners addresses will only be used by me to send out the prizes and will be deleted afterwards.