Solitaire Launch Party!

Tonight I went to Waterstones (Birmingham High Street) for the book launch of Alice Oseman’s debut novel Solitaire. This is the first time I’ve ever been to anything like this – and safe to say it won’t be the last!

The atmosphere in the room was lovely and relaxed and it was great to be surrounded by other people who loved books – and just surrounded by books. I can’t be the only one who feels completely at home in a good bookstore can I?

But anyway. Alice Oseman.

Alice started by reading an extract of the book (for those of you who have already read it/ reading it Alice read the second half of the fourth chapter). This was really good. I loved the characters just from that one little extract and Alice’s reading was full of expression and she didn’t falter once. Between the extract and her replies to questions about the book have me itching to get started on it!

She was then asked some questions both about her book, her experience writing and getting published. This was really interesting, especially when she mentioned about her age and was asked if she felt that was an issue for her (FYI she’s nineteen). I was surprised to hear that she didn’t feel that her age was an issue when she was looking for someone to publish her book, which personally I thought it would’ve been because in this day and age, age and experience seem to be what count rather than talent. She did say that some negative reviews (she admitted she shouldn’t have read them) that she read said stuff like “well she is only 19”, implying that she didn’t have enough experience of life to write about, which would annoy anyone. Add to that that the book is about teenagers so whoever wrote that review is a Class-A Tool.

There was food and drinks laid out for us including this epic cake, and then everyone started queuing to get their copies signed. It was great – everyone was talking to the people surrounding them even if they didn’t know them. This was especially awesome for loners like me who didn’t know anyone there. I didn’t speak to Alice much – the curse of the painfully shy! She is lovely though and we did talk about the colourful pens she had with her to sign all the books (I chose orange ‘cos its an awesome colour).

All in all it was an amazing evening. If you ever get the chance to go to something like it do it, don’t worry if you’re going alone, or if you’re too shy to talk to people, it’ll all work out and you may walk out of there with some new book loving friends!

Now I’m off to read Solitaire and devour a tub of Ben and Jerry’s! 

Night All!