Sunday, February 17, 2013

In Which Louisse Becomes Famous: A Recap

Back in November 2012, my mom received a super cool e-mail from Fully Booked (a local bookstore here in the Philippines) and she called me during my debate training to tell me about it. A lot of screaming and maybe even some jumping ensued during this phone conversation. There was a lot of this:
This:
This:
And maybe even a little bit of this:

Yup. And my debate teammates being insanely reasonable people who cannot handle crying or emotions in general (I'm kidding) said something a little bit like this:
And this:

So yeah, it was a pretty eventful afternoon in the debate room. And when I got home after that, my mom and I discussed said e-mail and we talked about a lot of books (Fifty Shades of Grey may have been mentioned during this chat.) We were asked to pick our Top 3 books (Three books! It was like Mission Impossible for us to pick our Top 3.) for an interview with the people from Fully Booked. It was insanely shocking (and flattering) to be invited to be a part of such a project.

So the day came for our interview and what I had were three books, a dress and lots and lots of nerves. To say I was nervous I would have been the biggest understatement of the century. Okay, I was excited too but mostly nervous. I was afraid that I'd mess up but the lovely people from Fully Booked (Hi Miss Victoria and co!) were so nice and welcoming that I couldn't help but feel comforted when it began. Here's a stolen shot my mom took during the photoshoot:
Thanks, Mom!
So yeah, it turned out pretty well after I got over my initial shyness and nervousness. After it happened, I just felt relieved that I survived. Haha! But it was definitely a great experience and I absolutely felt honored being a part of such a project. In the end, all there was left was to wait.

After some time, I got another e-mail from the lovely Miss Victoria (not much screaming happened since my mom was in Hong Kong when we were contacted again) with some details about the final product so we were was pretty excited to see it in real life. My mom and I's solution to this? We stalked the Greenhills branch of Fully Booked every other day to see if they'd put it up. And when we finally saw the poster, my mom and I almost took it. Haha... Kidding! Or maybe not. The poster itself is very pretty. I love the simplicity of it and everyone looks so happy! Here it is:
(Source: Taken from the Fully Booked website. Thanks!)
There she is! Hee! I think it turned out really great and it really shows a sense of diversity because of the fact that there are so many genres being presented in the picture. (And if you're wondering, I'm the one at the bottom holding up a copy of Pushing the Limits by Katy McGarry. Just saying. Haha!) And here's the interview we did with Fully Booked about characters:

(Source: From the Fully Booked YouTube channel.)

It's really cool hearing about how others relate with characters even in such fantastical stories. It's amazing when you hear a reader tell you that they found a connection with a character in a book, even if it's the villain of the book or the weirdest of characters. There's a sense of belongingness you won't find anywhere else but within those pages. I feel so deep right now. And did you hear me gush about Unspoken and Kami? Yes, the Kami who is my girl crush. (Check out my review of it HERE. Read Unspoken! Eeeee.) The other ladies in the video were so lovely too. I loved hearing about their experiences with their books and their connection with the characters in them.

Well that concludes my post. If you want to watch more videos of the people in the What's Your Story project click HERE. I would like to send the biggest THANK YOU to the lovely people at Fully Booked who made this all happen and who are generally just wonderful people. Big hugs! Oh and thank you so much to the lovely authors who wrote those books because I wouldn't have been able to fall in love with them if you hadn't written them. Big kisses!
This is probably the corniest gif I have ever used in my whole gif-using life.

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