On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the launch party for With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo. I have been anticipating this book’s release for over a year. (Last year, when my friends and I had the chance to help out with the “A Book for Every Child” charity event, we met Tess. At that time, we heard a little bit about her journey to become a writer and found out that her debut novel would be coming out some time in 2011.)

I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to go because I wasn’t feeling very well and I was in no condition to drive. Luckily, one of my blogger buddies, Diana from Diana’s Amazing Book Adventures, offered to go with me and drive. (Corey said he would’ve gone with me, but lucky for him his services weren’t needed.)

I was really impressed with the launch party. Tess read an excerpt from With a Name Like Love and answered some questions. I asked her if she was able to choose the title of the novel or if the publishing company did that. Usually, the author has very little say in the cover and the title because the publisher uses them as advertising for the novel. Tess, however, named her own novel. She said she patterned it after Because of Winn Dixie. She had a few criticizers along the way regarding the title, but she really wanted it to be different so that it would stand out more. Personally, I like it, and after hearing the excerpt from the book, I think it fits the story really well. I also asked her if she was working on anything else. She said she was working on a bit of a Western and she gets to use phrases like cowboy up. It will be fun to see that novel published as well.

The party was also set up like a carnival so it would be fun for the entire family. There was a prize wheel everyone got to spin, a candy counter, a station to make book thongs, and a signing line. She also had a poster showing the different iterations of the cover for With a Name Like Love. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it for this post.) And, The King’s English was there selling books for those who didn’t have a book yet, which included me.

I really enjoyed the launch party. It was so much fun to see all the love and support there is for Tess and her book. I’m also glad I was able to go to show my support. I can’t wait to read With a Name Like Love as it sounds like an incredible story of love, friendship, family, and overcoming obstacles.

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the book launch party for Emily Wing Smith’s second book Back When You Were Easier to Love at The King’s English in Salt Lake.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to go because my car couldn’t make the “long” trek to Salt Lake. Luckily, one of my fellow book bloggers Suey said I could hitch a ride from her and off we went to the book launch party with another fellow book blogger Jenny.

At the party, Emily talked about how Back When You Were Easier to Love came about. She said that it took her ten years to write (not non-stop as she already has another book–The Way He Lived–published). Back When You Were Easier to Love went through many different iterations, mostly in its structure and how the story was told. Emily tried to write the story chronologically at first, but it didn’t work. She wanted to convey the protagonist’s character (Joy) in a way that allowed the reader to experience her in the present and past but still as the present because in Joy’s mind the events of the book all happen “now.” (I hope that made sense. Emily did a much better job of explaining it.) Emily also said that, in some ways, Joy was based on her, but everything that happened in her own life was edited out of the final publication. Emily also read an excerpt from the book. You can listen to it here if you’d like.

At some point, the characters end up in Las Vegas and either see one of Barry Manilow’s shows or something happens that involves Barry Manilow in some way. Because of this scene, Emily and her writing critique group wrote a song (to the tune of Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”) to help promote the story and just to do something fun and different. (You have to know her and her critique group to appreciate the craziness of this. I’ve been friends with a couple of people in her group–Brodi Ashton and Bree Despain–for a while and I follow them on their blog. Brodi talks about all their crazy adventures as “The SIX”–the name of their critique group–and I’d been anticipating this performance for a few weeks.)

For the event, they named themselves the Barely Manilows (from left to right: Brodi Ashton, Valynne Maetani, Emily Wing Smith, Sara Bolton, Kimberly Reid, Bree Despain) and wore matching Barry Manilow shirts and matching shoes that match the book cover.

After the performance, Emily signed books. She had quite a following of friends, family, fellow authors, readers, and book bloggers. Utah is so great in its support for local authors and it’s always great to see that support at these events.

While waiting in line, I got to talk with Brodi and Bree for a little bit. We reminisced about the time when I referred to Brandon Mull as “He Who Must Not be Named” and that I meant to tell it to Matthew Kirby while he was at this signing because he actually is “He Who Must Not be Named” (at least on Brodi’s blog). At that point, Brodi couldn’t remember if it was Matthew Kirby she referred to on her blog as that or if it was James Dashner. James Dashner overheard us and wanted to know why we were talking about him and Bree told him it was because he was a name whore. He got a kick out of that after we explained what we were talking about. (You may have had to be there to appreciate this little tidbit, but I didn’t want to forget about it.) I always feel like I’m a part of the “in” crowd when I’m with Brodi and Bree.

Anyway, it was a ton of fun and I’m glad I could go to show my support for Emily. I can’t wait to read her book (one of these days when I catch up on my current reading).

I’ve been fortunate to attend two launch parties in the last month.  At the beginning of the month, I attended the launch party for Matched, a book by Ally Condie.  Yesterday, I attended the launch party for The Lost Saint, the second book in The Dark Divine trilogy by Bree Despain.

To say that I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of these books would be a gross understatement.  Fortunately, I was able to read Matched before it was released so going to the launch party was just so I could say hi to and get my book signed by Ally.

At the launch party, Ally revealed the purpose of the color scheme of the covers for the books.  Matched‘s cover is green because it focuses on the green pill.  (If you haven’t read the book, then this won’t make any sense to you.)  Crossed‘s cover, although not finalized, will be blue because the book focuses on the blue pill.  (This little bit of information kind of prepares the reader for what to expect in the next book.)  The third book’s cover will be red because it will focus on the red pill.  Knowing that the third book is going to focus on the red pill does little to calm my nerves about how this series is going to play out.  I’m excited for what is expected to be a roller coaster of emotion.

Yesterday, I went to the launch party for The Lost Saint.  First, I’m so excited to finally have my hands on a copy of The Lost Saint.  Now, I just need to reread The Dark Divine so I can read The Lost Saint.  Bree talked about how writing sequels are hard.  Before The Lost Saint, she had never written a sequel; she’d always written stand-alone stories.  There were times when she didn’t think she could deliver, but through the help of her critique group and author friends, she was able to stand up to the pressure she was feeling.

I was able to attend this launch party with a few of my friends.  It was fun to hang out with them.  I also met a few people that I had been corresponding with via Twitter, blogs, comments, etc.  One of the people I met was fellow book blogger Heather from Fire and Ice.  She’s also a jewelry maker and photographer.  In fact, she took the first photo below of some of my friends and me at the signing.

I feel really lucky to live in Utah where there are so many authors.  Other than living in New York or California, I don’t think many other states, or countries for that matter, have as many chances as Utahns do to interact with authors.  Not only is there a plethora of authors who live in Utah, the local bookstores and libraries do all they can to bring in authors from all around.  It’s so much fun to be a part of the literary world here!