Smart Chicks Kick-it Aftermath - interview and contest sneak peek

OK followers, so you aren't going to want to miss this one. I'm not sure why it took us so long to get out stuff together but here it is. Get ready for a lengthy post! We went to the Smart Chicks Kick it signing on September 25th. It was the last leg of their tour, the only stop in Canada and we were the ONLY bloggers to get a one-on-one interview with all of the authors!!! I can't even begin to tell you how freaking amazing this was!!

So let's just start with our day...Curlypow arrived at my house and we drove out to Brampton together. I think it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. We arrived at around 11:30 for the 2:00 signing and believe it or not, all of the seats were taken. People were already lining up.

These girls didn't manage to get seats but were at the very front of the line up and they went all out in their Smart Chicks attire. They were all very sweet to pose for me and they had Smart Chicks Kick it plastered all over their tanks and bottoms.

This was how the store was laid out. It was like a maze set out for people arriving to get books signed and listen to all of the authors. Craziness. We were stuck in the line and it took us about 2 hours to make it through. Worth every minute though!

So as I was saying, we arrived early, got ourselves together, had a list of questions ready and then waited...and waited...and bought some books to be signed for YOU as a giveaway...and waited some more. The anticipation was just about killing us. The Smart Chicks had flights that had been delayed and needed to stop for lunch. I actually tweeted Alyson Noel on my Blackberry when she said she was in the car, on the way over! When it was our time to finally meet them, it was around 1:30pm. Jennifer Shannon, Marketing Manager for Chapters/Indigo was on-hand to help us out and even took a picture of us and tweeted our interview. What a sweetheart! Author visit officially started at 2pm. We didn't want to take up too much of their time with the interview since they had arrived so late, but we were able to ask them a few questions. Not all of the authors answered every question but we tried to get down as much info as we could.

Do you read genres other than those you write?

Jennifer Lynn Barnes reads about a book a day (OMG) and she will read just about anything.

Kelley Armstrong - She reads just about anything as well but prefers YA, and Historical Adult Fiction.

Melissa Marr had no TV growing up so she read just about anything she could get her hands on.

Margaret Stohl is a science fiction afficando. She likes to read Johnathan Safran Foer, Adult Fantasy and Historical Fiction.

Best fan experience so far on the tour.

Melissa de la Cruz and Melissa Marr both felt that everyone has been so amazing on tour. They were stunned to hear that readers had been getting flights and hotels just to come out and see their favorite authors. The longest commute they heard of was an 11 hour drive!

What inspires you when you write?

Melissa Marr is inspired by both Irish and Scottish folklore. She draws inspiration from personal life experiences and gets sparks from folklore.

Melissa de la Cruz uses her experiences from high school. She was raised Catholic and likes to incorporate myths in and outside of religion.

Jeri Smith-Ready is inspired by music. Songs can tell or recreate a feeling that is inspirational for her.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is inspired by things in everyday life. She has a background in animal cognition and has spent a lot of time doing research as a human living around monkeys. She used her experience from this research to create the survival background in Raised by Wolves.

We didn't feel comfortable asking the girls to sign our books (ummm...all 26 of them) while everyone else stood in line so we thanked them profusely for the interview and took our places in line....WAAAAAAY at the back, in the stacks where we could hardly hear them speaking. It was still an enjoyable experience though. The authors introduced themselves and told us what they were working on. They gave away some swag and they even played an awesome game created by Sarah Rees Brennan called Marry, Shag or Cliff. You choose characters from their books whom you would Marry, Shag (kiss passionately for those of you who are under the age of 16) or throw off a Cliff. What a great game! I think the general consensus was that Keenan (from the Wicked Lovely series) would be thrown from a cliff by most of the authors.

So here are some tidbits to look for in the future -

Jeri Smith-Ready has written a short story for Eternal - More Stories with Bite an anthology to be released in December 2010


Kelley Armstrong just agreed to extend her YA Darkest Powers series through to 9 books (yay!)

Margaret Stohl + Kami Garcia's Beautiful Darkness release is coming up on October 12th. They started touring right after the Smart Chick's Kick it Tour ended. Unfortunately, Kami was sick and unable to make it to the Brampton stop but we hope she is feeling much better now and wish them both luck with this release. Look for our upcoming post of Beautiful Darkness since we were able to score an ARC!!

Melissa Marr - Wicked Lovely is going to be a movie! Kimberly Peirce is going to be directing and Caroline Thompson will be adapting the novel.

Alyson Noel - Radiance is currently ranked #4 on the NY Times Best seller's list (Beautiful Creatures is #5). She has signed on to do a new series called Soul Seekers out in 2012.

The authors had an extremely full day because after wrapping up the signing, they had to be downtown in Toronto for the Indigo Teen Read Awards. Congratulations to Kelley Armstrong for winning Best Canadian Read - The Summoning!



Here's a picture of all of the books we got signed from the visit. That's 26 books. See the pile to the right? That's for YOU to win. Keep watching for our next giveaway, coming up soon.



Smart Chicks Kick It Tour...feeling like a rockstar....

We arrived at the Chapters store in Brampton around 11:30am on Saturday after about 1 1/2 hours on the road. All of the seats had already been taken and they had started a line. Lucky for these Princesses, Curlypow had secured a one-on-one interview with all 8 authors prior to the main event. Thank you to Karen Wadsworth, the publicist for the tour, who made this happen.

Unfortunately most of the Smart Chicks didn't arrive until almost 1:30. This was due to engine problems in Chicago. At least the problems occurred before they left the ground! We're just glad they arrived safely. We were so nervous that we were shaky - it's a bit like having a backstage pass at a rock concert! We asked as many questions as we felt we could without delaying the event.

As we were wrapping up our interview, we felt it only fair that these Smart Chicks leave with a parting gift. Everyone got a box of SMARTIES! And a high 5, so hopefully they'll remember us Canuck bloggers.

As tempting as it was to ask for all 26 books to be signed right then and there, we felt we should line up with the rest of the fans. So we did....and it only took about 2 hoursto get to the head of the line. But we made some new friends....and got to closely scrutinize the history section of Chapters as we wound our way through the stacks. We did have a video clip for you here, but technical difficulties have resulted in a what appears to be blank video - if we manage to solve the problem we'll post the video at a later date, along with our interview.  For now, all we've got is a picture with the Smart Chicks ...

The sound wasn't great in the store because we were in the stacks and couldn't see the authors, and some customers were talking during the speeches so we couldn't catch much of what was being said, but we didn't mind too much since we'd had the chance to meet them all beforehand.
We have to add here that Kami Garcia didn't make it due to illness - so sorry Kami. Hope you're feeling better. We missed you. Hope to catch you the next time you are in the Toronto area!

All in all, Saturday was the best book day we've ever had. Curlypow and I had such a fantastic time and it truly felt like a once in a lifetime experience. A very special thank you goes out to Margaret, Kelley, Melissa, Melissa, Jennifer, Jeri and Alyson for being so gracious in our interview and sticking it out to sign everyone's books. We hope that Canadian fans have made an impression with you and cannot wait for Smart Chicks Kick It 2.0. We'll be booking the day off work as soon as we get the date! To the authors who didn't make it to Canada, we're sorry we weren't able to meet you all, but the strength of your writing and following is shown in your fanbase. Smart Chicks really do Kick It! Here's to Kicking it with you next year!

Keep your eyes open for our post with the interview.