I’m back from RARE London 2018!!! And I plan on liking and commenting on your posts later today!

I will also write a “book convention 101” post hopefully today!

 

How was it?

Fantastic! All that I could have wished for even if I did not get to meet every authors I planned BUT I met my unicorn authors!!!! Plus some others so I am a very happy girl!

My sixteen years old Julie alias Mini Me was attending the event as well as she wanted to meet some of these authors. She has been a real angel. carrying my jacket and bag when I was hugging authors, taking pictures, never complaining!

So a big thank you Julie!

I had five of my unicorn authors attending (if Leylah Attar, Beth Flynn and Brittainy C Cherry have attended all my favorite one would have been accounted for) and I met them all.

 

Other post about two bloggers friends that I got to meet in real life!!!

Here is now for each of them how I experienced our meeting in real life and what I can tell about them LOL

 

💕RARE London 2018: Unicorn Author:Suanne Laqueur💕

If you are interested more pictures are posted in “photos” they were taken by JP Suanne’s charming husband!

It really is a huge deal for me to show my face as I hate seing pictures of me (always feeling not this or too much that…).
BUT
I promised to be back with details so here I go with the first author I beelined to (I think I was the first without an early entry ticket to greet her ): Suanne Laqueur, Author

Honestly I can’t tell you how I felt FINALLY meeting Suanne!!!!!!!

I’ve chatted withe her and I’m stalking her on Facebook for months and months now.

She is all that you can imagine: warm, friendly, welcoming, really smart, generous, funny, artistic, sensitive and immensely gifted.

We hugged for a long time at least twice and I came back later to her table when nobody was in line to chat with her about her next book. I did not wanted to leave her. Really Suanne we need to chat more because I’m dying to exchange ideas with you and talk about everything!

I also wanted to catch everyone and “force” march them to her table just to have them discover how talented she is and what they were missing if they don’t read her books 😂😂😂😂

She was with her whole family and it was so lovely to meet them all! JP you are the best as your pictures are way better than mines!

👉If you ever go to an event with Suanne please, please, please go visit her! I promise her books are THE BOMB and they’ll leave you with a huuuge book hangover.

I want to push her books on everyone I know 😉

She signed my two books and a book I’m gifting to my Photoshop Fairy Godmother.

THANK YOU Suanne!

 

💕RARE London 2018: unicorn author: Emma Scott💕

Here is the second author I beelined to and conveniently just aside Suanne (they are best buds 😉 ): Emma Scott!

I’ve chatted for months and months with her too! About books, kids, health anything really.
You must know by now that I promote Emma’s books at every opportunity because I beleive in her and I FLOVE them all!💕💕💕

So far I’ve convinced two friends who became Emma’s fans.

So I’m small (5 feet two) and Emma is TALL!!!😂 She had to go down to hug me LOL

We hugged at least twice and I did not want to let her go either.

😲Best of all? She told me “I have something for you!”

Me: “Something for me? How so?”

Then like the magician she is she produced a …a…I don’t have words to describe her gift!
It was a rose in glass and gold!!!
A freaking glass rose. Blue green and gold!!!!😲😲😲💕

I tried to show you a picture but honestly it does not do it justice.

I was shocked and speechless. Not realizing or I would have cried!

Emma I FREAKING LOVE YOU!!!!

So Emma is tall, beautiful, generous (very very very generous) she cares about her readers, she writes insanely beautiful romance, she makes me cry ugly tears and end with a radiant smile. She is sensitive, caring, perfectionist, hard worker (I can’t tell you how many times she was raging because it was not good enough and she had not enough time to do it properly and ….).

She signed all my books and I came back a second time to buy two more books! I only miss Sugar and Gold and How to Save a Life to have a complete Paperback collection

So if you attend an event with Emma go give her hugs and kisses and buy her books!

Emma LOVE ALWAYS WIN 💋💋💋💋

 

 

💕RARE London 2018 unicorn author Amy Harmon💕

Here is my third unicorn author met at RARE: Amy Harmon!

Also very conveniently seated next to Emma Scott.😉

Amy… how can I describe what she means to me…

I follow her since May 2013 exactly. I had just read “Running Barefoot”and here is what I wrote by the end of my review: “A moving story. I think Amy Harmon just became one of my favourite authors.”

Well it turns out that I was so right as I’ve read ALL her books so far!
Making Faces is my “best of the bests” of my 1185 (so far) books that I’ve read since 2013.

I follow Amy for years now and I’ve interviewed her when I began blogging. I was virtually unknown as a blogger (let’s be realistic here I’m still a small fish 😂) yet she took the time to answer all my questions, being very generous in her answers.
She also recently took part in my event All About Love and wrote a fantastic piece about the reasons why she writes romance.

At every turn in my reader and blogger’s life she’s been present and ready to help.

So when I was face to face with her Saturday I was in Heaven!

Let me tell you something: Amy Harmon is beautiful! Delicate like a doll. Really gorgeous. More than that she is one of the sweetest persons that I know.

She is generous with her readers, lovely, she took the time to write a quote in each of our books because… my sixteen year old daughter Julie is a fan! She came with her stash of translated books (four books in French so far) and she was overjoyed when she read all that Amy had written for her.

I bought The Smallets Part on that day, the last book missing in my collection Running Barefoot excluded (I own it on Kindle only).

Amy’s writing is elegant, graceful, delicate, thoughtful and loving all what Amy’s proved to be this Saturday at RARE London.

THANK YOU Amy for all that you’ve done for us!

 

 

💕RARE London unicorn author Jane Harvey-Berrick💕

One more post about another of my unicorn authors !

I had to go further into this immense room to find her but I hightailed to Jane Harvey-Berrick ‘s table right after leaving Amy!

I had already met Stuart Reardon Jane’s accomplices in her latest book outside of Olympia. He chatted amicably with all of us in the company of Franggy as in Franggy Yanez – Fracrox. You had to keep us ladies waiting patiently as it was freezing cold outside!

I fell in love with Jane’s books reading The Traveling Man! I’ve followed her for nearly three years now and when I read her latest book “Undefeated” co-written with Stuart Reardon I was blown away!
So much that I contacted her on messenger asking for an interview because I had so many questions to ask!

In real life Jane is really friendly and welcoming. My daughter even told me she had a delicate beauty and that’s true!
No shy at all after the big hug we soon 😂😂😂were chatting about her books, about the writing process of a “four hands” book, about…. well I wanted to have another interview as the conversation flew effortlessly!

Jane is a sunny person as in she radiates passion and you feel it!

😲I had to literally run after Stuart later in the day as he did not attend Jane’s table and he was charming using a silver pen to sign my book.
I thought I would be intimidated by such big man but to my great surprise he was so welcoming that I fell at ease immediately.

Once again it’s been a lovely and remarkable meet and if you ever attend a book event with Jane as a listed author do pay her a visit. You’ll be warmly welcome.

THANK YOU Jane and I can’t wait to read your next book!

I hope to see you again at another event 💋💋💋

 

💕RARE London 2018 unicorn author Jaimie Roberts💕
 
 
Conveniently close to Jane Harvey Berrick I had a long awaited rendez-vous with Jaimie Roberts !!!
 
You see I’ve beta read and edited some of her books. It began with me reaching for her after having read Deviant in 2015. I loved this book so much that we chatted some time about it then about writing books and Jaimie asked me if I was interested in beta reading. Later on we chatted about our kids, about some traumatic experience she had lived and put into one of her books… we became friend!😁
 
I think I can honestly say that we both could not wait to meet “in real life”.
 
So once we were face to face it was a big strong hug followed with …bookish talk of course!
 
Jaimie in real life is sweet, I would say a little shy too and really welcoming. She loves meeting her readers and hearing about them. She is lovely with long blond hair and all willowy (Jaimie you are gorgeous LOL). Just know that she can write sweet books or really dark, sick and twisted ones depending of her muse.
 
VERA IMPORTANT FACT: she has the utmost respect for her readers opinion and believe in freedom of speech. If you don’t like her book she will never berate you for it, never try to silence you either. On the contrary she’ll be curious about your reasons as she wants to improve. I can say it because I’ve experienced it😂
 
Jaimie it was so lovely finally meeting you! Let’s do it again!💕
 
THANK YOU for everything.💋
💕RARE London 2018 Unicorn author Meredith A. Walters💕
 
The last unicorn author I met on Saturday was A Meredith Walters!!!!
 
I fell in love with her books when I read in January 2015 “Find You in the Dark”.
It’s been a revelation!😍
 
I wrote: “I loved this book. It’s intense and heart wrenching.
It also demonstrates love can’t cure everything and is not enough to solve all the problems. But at the same time, without love you can’t flourish. Especially without parental love and support.
Maggie’s love grounds Clay and is his “light in the dark”. But as essential that love is, it’s not enough to save him.”
 
I’ve been a fan from that moment on and when she published One Day Soon she tore my heart. I so loved Yossarian! To this day he still is one of my favourite book boyfriends.💖💖💖
 
Some months ago I dared asking for an interview and she agreed immediately! I loved reading about her writing process her love for these flawed teenagers about…
 
So last Saturday it was once again a big warm hug. Meredith is not shy at all and loves talking books or about flawed characters. She also works with troubled teens and we soon began chatting psychological troubles and how important it is to love and help these young people. Her husband was charming and easy to talk to.
Once again an author I did not want to leave! Meredith let’s do it again around a cup of tea and some scones!
 
If you do attend an event with Meredith go visit her and talk to her. I promise you won’t want to leave.😉
 
THANK YOU for everything Meredith!💋💋💋
Sorry it’s been a long post and I’m gushing about all these authors but I love them so much. They are hard worker. Living from its craft is a difficult choice and I’ll support these fantastic ladies again and again. They are truly and honestly fantastic human beings.
I’ve met other lovely authors at RARE: Kate Sterrit unknown to me but a friend convinced me to try one of her books while we were in the queue outside Olympia building, JM Darhower, BB Reid so young but so …strong and LH Cosway.
I wanted to meet Mariana Zapata, Penny Reid and Colleen Hoover with Tillie Cole but they were ticketed authors and we never got the chance. Despite this my dream came true. It’s been years that I’ve witnessed many readers and bloggers meeting authors and it was on my “reader’s bucket list”.
I hope I did not bore you to death!

Have you attended book events? Who are your unicorn authors, the one you are dying to meet or have already met?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie

 

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37 Comments

  3. It looks so awesome! I’m happy you had a great time and got to see your unicorn Authors. And it’s so sweet that Emma had a gift for you. I hope I’ll be able to meet her next year in Philadelphia. <3
    Now I'll be sitting by the mailbox, ready to jump the mailman every time I see him carrying a book-like box.
    As for who are my unicorn authors? Well, I got to meet Cambria Hebert last year at the Big Apple Author Event and she was really sweet. Her whole family was there too! One day I know I'll meet Jeaniene Frost, even if I'll have to camp outside of her house or something. I just finished reading the last book of her Night Prince Series last night at 3 am and I'm a mess right now. All these feelings!

    Reply

    1. Hahaha I know Jeanine Frost is your favorite Talia 😉 And I sent your book Monday so now I cross my fingers that it will get to you as I have no means to track it!!!! But I’m burning candles every day since LOL

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  8. This sounds like it was an amazing experience Sophie…so very glad you got to go! I’ve never been to a book signing event before but hopefully soon…! BTW: love all your pics!

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  11. Yay! I’m so glad you had such a wonderful time Sophie!I haven’t been to a book event since my library days, but they were always such fun.

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  12. That’s so awesome! I really like Amy Harmon’s books too so nice to finally see her in a pic and you as well! I have not met any authors yet but we only have one event a year here and there’s a lot of people waiting to see authors. I would love to really meet a real author (Jojo Moyes came last year) but I’m afraid I don’t have the patience to wait two hours or so in line… Great post!

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    1. Thank you Inge! And yes the Brussels Book Event but with few English speaking authors unforunately…
      I don’t know where you live in Belgium but if you don’t want to spend too much money on a stay it would be possible to go just for the day with the train. It took 2 hours from Brussels to St Pancras and add 40 minutes from St Pancras to Olympia (tube and walk included).

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      1. I work in Brussels so it would be possible to take the train but I could never go somewhere (anywhere) alone. I’d love to attend Harrogate too and meet authors there but same story, I have too much anxiety and I’m too shy to go. Fortunately I can live it through you

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        1. Well Inge if you ever want to go to a book event I plan on attending we could always meet in Brussels as I work there too 😉

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          1. I would LOVE to go to an event with you some time in the future! That would be 2 things in one that could happen: meeting another blogger and going to an event :-). I had no idea you were so close ;-). I work almost next to Brussels Central trainstation btw 🙂

  13. Sophie! You look so happy! I adore your smile. I wish I put my ass in gear could have met you there. I promise next year I will do better. I can’t wait to hear about everything. You won’t be able to skip one detail.

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  14. I was there!!! My unicorns were el James, Colleen Hoover, tm frazier and Jodi l perry. I got to meet all four of them and am over the moon. Was a fantastic event!

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    1. Really???? Oh we could have met! You were so lucky as they were nearly all ticketed 😉 I’m so happy for you and I’m over the moon too. Still not landed LOL

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  17. Happy you got to meet with your unicorn authors!
    Penny always has a line in front of her table so I think this is the first time they started giving out tickets for her. I love her though, she’s super-funny.

    I’m glad you had fun at RARE!

    Reply