Event Recap: Veronica Rossi, Tahereh Mafi, and Ransom Riggs' Bloggers Forum

I am pretty sure that as soon as National Book Store announced that Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, and Veronica Rossi would be coming here for an event, every bibliophile in the Philippines fangirled and died. Having met Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs last year, I was really excited to see them again. They were such great and genuinely nice people; and they still are! I was even more excited to meet Veronica Rossi because I absolutely love her Under the Never Sky series! I was honored to have been invited to the Blogger Forum wherein we were able to get up close and personal with the authors.

The lovely book display at the forum.

Geraldine (yes, she was there) and I actually arrived at the mall around 10 AM and found out that the place didn't open until 11 AM so we just chilled with Nicole (The Twins Read) and chatted with each other. It was crazy because National Book Store tweeted that a fan was there at 1:54 AM. That is serious dedication, and she did deserve to get the first slot for the book signing.

This is how 500+ people look like, in the morning.

So once we had all registered at the forum, we reminisced and of course, selfied with our fellow bloggers. It's always great seeing each other and fangirling about authors. Haha!

Blogger peeps wearing their quote shirts!

Jesselle (The Lifelong Bookworm) and Kate (The Bookaholic Blurbs)
using my phone for their selfie.

A big welcome to Veronica Rossi from Veronica Rossi PH.

The Hardest Selfie EVER 3.0

And the time finally came when Tahereh, Ransom and Veronica would arrive. We were all at the edge of our seats, awaiting their arrival. And when they did, all hell broke lose (so to speak). The forum immediately commenced with Chad Dee, our always amazing host, presenting the three authors.

The always fabulous, Chad Dee.

Ransom, Tahereh and Veronica have arrived. WHOOT.

Ransom taking a picturing of his surroundings.

Tahereh taking a picture of Ransom. (SO CUTE.)

One of Veronica's super fans from Veronica Ross PH.

Them answering some questions.

Here are a few things we learned during the interview portion:

• Veronica Rossi says that Boomerang, her New Adult novel understand the pseudonym "Noelle August" (which she also co-authored), was a very fun book to write. It wasn't difficult for her to transition from one genre and age group to another because the YA books she's written has more of herself in them than her upcoming NA novel.
• Ransom has already seen a couple of scripts for the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children being directed by Tim Burton, and he is very excited. Also, castings will be starting soon so if you're eighteen, feel free to audition. Haha!
• Tahereh says that while she was writing Shatter Me, she already knew who Juliette would end up with. (We did too! ;D)
• Veronica says that she does not regret killing the characters she has killed and would not change anything. Also, when she killed off (SPOILER ALERT) Perry's older brother, her editor (or agent?) made a pun about how Veronica was very cutthroat about it. *pun pun*
• Ransom says that he really enjoys traveling different places to collect pictures, even going to flea markets just to scour their collections. He also loves talking about photography.
• Tahereh says that if she were to be best friends with one of her characters, it would be Kenji because he really is best friend material and he is based off of her brothers. Tahereh would also love to be best friends with Roar (from Veronica Rossi's series) because he reminds her of Kenji, as well.
• Veronica says that when she wrote Under the Never Sky, she decided to free flow it so that she would get more creative freedom while writing it. But in Through the Ever Night (which was the hardest book to write), she already had a set idea as to how the book would go.
• Ransom says that he hates being told he's wrong so don't do it. (Haha!) Also, if he were to describe Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City in just one picture, it would be his heart (all black and squishy)!
• Tahereh said that she intentionally made Juliette weak so that you can see how she grows. She is so inspired by women who may be physically weak but mentally strong, and that was what she was trying to go for.

Well, that's it! After the Q&A we immediately moved on to the book signing portion of the forum.

Ransom, Tahereh and Veronica signing books.

Just a group pic! <3 Love these ladies. Hehe.

Me with VTR. I die.

Geraldine with Ransom and Tahereh.
Tahereh's lashes, that is all.

Geraldine with Veronica Rossi.

Me with Veronica Rossi. Thanks for photobombing, guys. :))
And V. Rossi is so beautiful. I swear.

Veronica Rossi signing books. (Hi, Dianne.)

For those wondering, Tahereh's shoes. You're welcome.

Our creepiness knows no bounds. LOL

And after all that, we had to bid Tahereh, Ransom and Veronica farewell because they still had to get ready for the actual book signing which we no longer attended because we really didn't want to add more people to those attending. That's why we really admire all those who waited so patiently to meet their idols, you guys are the true heroes. All almost 2000+ of you.

How almost 2000+ people look like.

Bloggers loving up the authors. <3

Shirt quote peeps! WHOOT.

Rockin' my very Active Romance-y shirt.

Me with my other hald, Nina (The Book Confect).

Signed books! Love me some Roar. <3

My signed shirt. <3

Some awesome Polaroid shots! (Tahereh looks so beautiful!)

And here is a very special message from the three lovely authors (sorry if the quality in general sucks, I was not born a photographer. LOL).

Here are a few thank yous to some very important and completely amazing people, a BIG thank you to the National Book Store team who listens to our suggestions regarding authors to be invited. Chad, JB, Louis and the rest of the team, you all rock! Seriously love you guys. <3 Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs and Veronica Rossi, thank you, three, for agreeing to come here and get all loved up by your Filipino fans. Please come again! Haha! Kate, Jesselle, Hazel (Stay Bookish) for letting me snatch your photos. Also, Pinoy Book Tours for organizing the shirt thing, Hazel for designing them and The Dream Shirt for supplying! They turned out so great. :D I love you, my blogger friends because you never fail to make an event fun and exciting. So grateful to have you all as friends. #Kilig And last but never the least my parents for letting me go and God for obviously answering our prayers. LOL See y'all in the next event! And keep tweeting using #VTRinPH !

Event recaps you don't want to miss:

Kate (The Bookaholic Blurbs: Recap)
Chyna (Lite-Rate-Ture: Recap)
Jesselle (The Lifelong Bookworm: Recap)
Kai (Amaterasu Reads: Recap)
Sab (Sab The Book Eater: Recap)
Mari-Anette (Anette The Wicked: Recap)
Lyra (Defiantly Deviant: Recap)
Hazel (Stay Bookish: Recap)
Precious (Fragments of Life: Recap)
Leslie (bibliophilekid: Recap)
Ella (The Filipina Booknote: Recap)
Tiffany (Read, Breathe, Read: Recap)
Maricar (BLACKPLUME: Recap)