{Event Recap} Victoria Aveyard Bloggers' Forum + Giveaway

My signed copy of Red Queen.

It was such a huge honour to have been invited to meet and interview Victoria Aveyard. Personally, I was really fascinated with the idea of the Red Queen series and it definitely got me all kinds of excited when National Book Stored announced that they would be bringing Victoria Aveyard to the Philippines. But even more than the excitement of meeting the talented New York Times best-selling author, March 6th was another chance for me to see my dear blogger friends (I had not seen them for more than three months!). It was such a fun and chill day and I enjoyed every minute of it. (It was a great break from the pressures of college life.)

Victoria Aveyard was gracious enough to let us put her on the hot seat and grill her about her writing and creative processes, book 3 and other fun things.

My lovely blogger friends looking beautiful and glamorous.

V. Aveyard answering questions.

Here are a few things we learned at the bloggers' forum;

• Victoria's advice for aspiring writers is to finish the first draft, no matter what and how long it will take as long as you get to the end. Also, just keep writing and don't edit yourself.
• She also mentioned that action sequences and high tension moments are her most favourite parts to write (being a screenwriter, explosions and battle scenes are pretty much in her blood) and that she'd love for someone to teach her how to write romance because those are difficult for her.
• Instead of starting with characters or the plot of the story, Victoria first started with the image of a girl in an arena about to be executed but instead kills her captors with lightning. To her, world-building is the most important aspect of a story and she asked herself "What world would this place take place in?" when she saw that image of Mare. Also, to Victoria, characters are extremely important because they give the story a personality.
• In terms of different exciting sequences in her book, Victoria learned every story-telling trick in film school. To her, she has to constantly up the ante per book to keep that excitement because first and foremost, she is an entertainer ready to act for her readers.
• Her top 3 Fantasy book/series are: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (carried around a battered copy of the book), the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (she grew up with that series), and The Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (because of the way he twists fantasy tropes, has no distinct protagonist/antagonist and the shades of grey morality he depicts in his books, Victoria tried to reflect that kind of value in Red Queen).
• If she were to choose between writing a book or screen-writing, she would choose whichever she's not working on at the moment.
• A lot of the names in Red Queen came out of thin air but Victoria also wanted to add a Roman twist to them. She usually translates words online.
• In regards to the different powers/gifts featured in the book, she Wikipedia-d a complete list of superpowers and chose which ones she liked best/worked well with the plot.
• The origin of the powers will be delved further in the future books.
• There's no title yet for Red Queen 3 but it starts immediately after Glass Sword and is a revelation book for Mare. She learns to trust not only others but also herself.

And that's it! I would have loved to go to the official even but holy crap, there were 1,200 attendees. It was such a huge shock to everyone but I'm glad that it turned out to be such a successful event. So just keep scrolling for more photos + a giveaway!

The infamous Kai selfie with the bloggers +
V. Aveyard!

Me with the beautiful V. Aveyard.

Group photo!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! (Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for any questions regarding the rules or feel free to tweet/email me if you need anything.)

I will never get tired of the amazing and tireless National Book Store team for being so selfless and so generous. I am so honoured to call you my friends. Shout out to Chad, JB, Miss Malou, Louie, Sheza, Miss Maan and whomever else I may I have missed, thank you for bringing Victoria Aveyard over here and for everything. Huge thanks to Victoria for signing everyone's books and for all the fun! So much love to my blogger friends, I love you all! (Thanks to Kai from Amaterasu Reads for the Kai selfie photo + audio). And last but never the least, my parents for always being so supportive. I love you to pieces.