Event Recap: Victoria Aveyard Book Signing Event | #VictoriaAveyardinPH

Hello there friends! Did you miss me? It's been 9 months since my last blog post.  I can't believe my last post was about Leigh Bardugo's book signing event. And now I'm returning to the blogosphere by writing about Victoria Aveyard's book signing! I waited that long to finally be motivated to blog again lol. But let's save the catching up for later. Right now let's get down to blogging business.

Taken from National Book Store's Facebook page.

If you've been a reader of mine since I started attending book signings, you may know that I often read the books of the author only when National Book Store announces his/her signing, which means that I'm not usually a fan prior to their signing. It's the same old story with Victoria Aveyard. Once I got word of her event, I organized my daily budget (it ain't pretty) to save some dough for her books. And when I read her first book, Red Queen, holy cow I loved every page. It was perfect for my liking; a fast-paced fantasy book with a dash of sci-fi and a hint of dystopia. I found myself literally not putting down the book. I read it on my way to my uni, while waiting between classes, and even while eating! (Alone of course, which is sad now that I mentioned it.) I might post a review some time, who knows?

But before I go on with the rest of the BS story (BS=book signing, not the other obscene acronym), I want to share another story first. During these past blogless months, the only thing keeping my fanboy self sane was my humble little bookstagram account (an Instagram account dedicated to books). There I got to post pictures of my books, post my bookish rants and raves, and of course, meet other bookstagrammers. This one hot chick [;)] with the Instagram handle TheGeekyAuror reached out to me via Instagram chat and we sort of chit-chatted a few times, knowing each other just a teeny tiny bit in the process. And when the event was announced, I learned that she was going to the event too. So we continued to converse via Instagram chat and promised that we would meet during the event. *sparks* And on March 6th at 4 AM, after awkward descriptions of what were wearing, I finally spotted her and we met. She was already with another bookstagrammer that I've been following for a while but never actually got to chat with (because I AM an awkward penguin) with the bookstagram handle TheBookishHowler. We were casually talking to each other, knowing one another because it was our first time meeting each other, and before we knew it, our bookstagrammer group of three became a group of eight! 

The line.

Yes, I know there's only six of us in this photo.  That was because some were in pee breaks or were meeting other people in line. (L-R: Tin or TheBookMaiden, Ate Nicay or TheNerdySideOfAQueen, Marsh or TheBookishHowler, Angela, Khay or BiblioKhay, and whoever that hunksicle is on the right. Kidding.)

Because Angela (TheGeekyAuror) was so friendly, she knew a lot of bookstagrammers like me through IG chat, and for most of the bookstagrammers in our group, it was their first time meeting Angela in person too. But I loved how our personalities clicked and we kept each other company as if we were long time friends. It made the wait not too burdensome. After chit-chatting and talking about bookstagramming life, we were finally allowed to go inside National Book Store and register. And as usual, some kind of magic happens and my number is always my expected number+20 or so. And we weren't blessed with seats this time so for us it was the cold hard ground. I felt like that Taylor Swift goat all over again.

I was 96. Okay, it wasn't that bad. At least we were all still double digits. And of course, we were all still bookstagrammers, so we did what had to be done (Marsh and me) and searched for natural sunlight in which we could perform our bookstagramming duties.

Bookstagrammin' BTS.

Our chosen pictorial grounds was the floor outside NBS, which is why having a plastic bag under my books was crucial ("I'm having these books signed and I am not going to get them dirty"). We didn't care if people stared at us as if we were starting a ritual with our books on the floor. Yep, bookstagramming life is pretty hard. And after some major touch-ups with my best friend Vee (short for VSCO), and that well though of cropping, a bookstagram post was born. All we had to do next was wait for Victoria Aveyard to arrive, and the result of the waiting is the following selfies. Excuse my haggard face, I was up since 3 AM during that day.

L-R: Tin, Angela, Nicay, Marsh, Ate Mel or Bibliophile_Veterinarian, that hunksicle who keeps on popping up in these pictures, and Isabel or LuiannaaIsabel

L-R: Khay, Tin, Angela, Ate Mel, Marsh, that guy again (seriously why is this hunk of a man in all these pictures) jk that's me and I'm letting go of the jokes, Allen (another bookstagrammer who goes by the handle WishIWasABook), and his friend (whom I am ashamed of forgetting the name pls don't sue me)

We ate at this fancy colonel-owned restaurant that serves this tasty fried chicken cooked in 11 secret herbs and spices. It was too tasty I got oil on my forehead.

And we chatted some more as if we were old friends catching up with one another. And finally, after hours of sitting down on the butt-destroying floor, Victoria Aveyard arrived!

Photoception.

The interview was the worst. (Not as in worst interview ever. I meant that it was the worst part of the day for me.) During the interview I felt as if my energy was being sucked out of my body. That's what you get when you combine exhaustion with staying up since 3 AM + more than a thousand people stuffed in one teeny weeny National Book Store branch + sitting on cold hard floor for at least 8 hours + a thousand people's body heat + screaming. I did all I could to keep myself conscious. And because a thousand+ people attended, the interview was the shortest one I've witnessed (5 mins or something like that). I recorded the interview although I'm still thinking if I should transcribe it or just make a video with subtitles (because the screaming is too much). 

Guess what we did after that 10 minute(I think) interview. Our favorite hobby of course: waiting. We waited for our books to be signed and when we just couldn't take the heat inside NBS, we waited at the entrance where there was an air conditioner blowing cold wind powerfully at us or in other words, bliss. We took more selfies too, which surprised me because I don't normally do selfies, even just by myself.

You may or may not notice this but beneath those smiling cheerful faces hide tired, exhausted souls. When we were cool enough (but then again, we ALWAYS are *puts shades on*), we entered NBS again and found a space between some shelves in which we could sit.

When in doubt, find a bookshelf. (But seriously I think this is the cutest selfie I took during that day.)

Our numbers were finally called and it was time to meet Victoria Aveyard! Angela was so nice for letting me borrow her iPhone to take pictures with when i met Victoria because it totally beats my Android camera lol.

VA: Hi how are you!
Me: I'm good thank you! Thank you for writing Red Queen I loved it so much!
VA: No! Thank you for coming today!
*photographer takes picture*
Me: Thank you have a great day!
-fin-

And after that we finally decided to go home. But not before we took another picture lol. Although we were incomplete in this one. We were never complete in a photo I think.

I never knew that book signings were so much more fun with friends around! (No offense, Mom!) I kind of enjoyed their company more than the actual signing itself lol. But still, thank you very much to National Book Store for hosting this book signing. I could really tell that you were trying to outdo your past signings (the big scary bouncers were new to me lol but they kept everything organized for as long as they could). And thank you to Victoria Aveyard herself for gracing us with your presence! It was such an honor meeting yet another #1 New York Times bestselling author! And finally thank you to my brand new bookstagram friends. You really made this day special. Please check them out if you can! I didn't take pictures with all of them but now's the opportunity to get to know them! :)

Ate Mel - @bibliophile_veterinarian

Tin - @thebookmaiden, thebookmaiden.wordpress.com

Marsh - @thebookishhowler 

Gela - @thegeekyauror, thegeekyauror.wordpress.com

Ate Nicay - @thenerdysideofaqueen, queennicaybooks.wordpress.com

Isabel - @luiannaaisabel, luiannareads.wordpress.com

Khay - @bibliokhay 

Allen - @wishiwasabook 

Ian - @bibliophilemusings, ephemeralwriting.wordpress.com

Shea - @bookishwanderlust, bookishwanderlust.wordpress.com

And of course, my book signing buddies from #JamesFreyinPH, @marykatedejesus and @trixie_keepcalm! I hope I did not forget anyone but if I did please let me know in a comment!

The Epic Reads poster was from NBS's live Twitter contest during the event. I also won an ARC, although I claimed it during Sarah J. Maas's book signing (which is a blog post for another week ;) ), I wasn't able to claim it in this event. I hope I can make the video with the interview soon! And until then, have a great week and welcome back to the blogosphere to me haha!

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