YALC Tips for Coping with Anxiety

So a lot of you will know that I suffer from very severe anxiety and during the build up to YALC 2014 I got incredibly anxious and posted about it here. Last year I had a lot of people come up to me saying that they felt the same way and so I decided to share with you my tips on how to cope with YALC related anxiety in the hope that it might help someone who is currently feeling the same way that I did last year.

1.) Be Prepared 
About a week before going away I like to start getting organised. I plan out my outfits for the weekend, go shopping for anything I need and make a list of what to pack. I like to spread this out over the week so that I’m not flustered trying to get everything ready the night before or the day of. This also means that on the day I’m leaving I’m not in a rush and have time to take a breather and calm my thoughts. Leaving everything to the last minute just makes you stressed which you really don’t need on top of anxiety.

2.) Be Realistic
Create your own schedule for YALC listing the key things that you want to do over the weekend and the time and day that they’re on. The thing about YALC is that so many amazing things are happening all at once and it’s impossible to do everything you want to so don’t expect to. I think it’s important to be realistic about what you can do with your anxiety. Don’t put pressure on yourself to join a massive queue if you know that it’s going to trigger your anxiety. Know your limitations and do what you’re comfortable with and make time in your schedule for lots of chances to step away from the crowds and take a break.

3.) Arrive Early 
If you can, try to arrive at the venue early. The crowds waiting to get in are pretty insane and the sooner you can get in the less time you have to stand in them. It’s also a good idea to take some time before any events start to get your bearings. Know where the nearest exit, toilet and food stand is in case you need them. Try and find a quiet spot to set as a meeting point with your friends in case you lose each other in the crowd or go to different panels. The more I know about an area the more comfortable I feel.

4.) Be Comfortable
I love the idea of cosplaying and I love looking at other people’s costumes but for me personally being comfortable comes first. I know that if I was to dress up I’d constantly worry if my outfit was okay and I couldn’t deal with strangers looking at me or taking pictures. It also gets very hot in the venue and I know I’d feel more comfortable in my comfy trainers and a favourite t-shirt. On the other hand if you’d feel more confident taking on the persona of a badass character or want to represent your favourite fandom by wearing a themed outfit then you do that! Ignore what your friends and other people are doing and do what feels the most comfortable to you.

5.) The Power of Distraction 
Make sure you take with you something that calms you. This could be a book that you can get lost in, a favourite playlist on your phone to listen to or some soothing hand cream to massage into your hands. Have something with you that can be pulled out any time that you can feel anxiety creeping on to distract you from how you’re feeling and take your mind off what’s bothering you.

6.) Organization 
This tip also ties back in to being prepared. I like to make things as easy as I can for myself by being organized. A great tip I learnt from going to a lot of author signings is to pack your books in the order that you’ll need them for each signing. Then once they’re signed place them at the bottom of your bag. This will save a lot of time and saves you taking all of your books out to look for a particular book every time. I also like to place a post it note with my name on the title page of each book ready for the author to sign and dedicate your book to you. This is especially helpful to them if you have an unusual name or it can be spelled in different ways take Claire and Clare for example.

7.) The Reading Zone is a Safe Haven 
So anybody going to YALC who has anxiety should know that The Reading Zone is a safe haven from the craziness that is LFCC. I honestly don’t think I would have survived a day without it last year. The YALC organizers have already confirmed that it will be back again this year. It’s a quiet place to take a breather or sit and read for a while. I strongly recommend checking it out if at any point you feel like you need to take a break.

8.) Remember Your Goal
My last piece of advice is to try and remember why you are there. What made you want to come to YALC in the first place? Maybe it was to get a book signed by a favourite author, to get some invaluable writing advice from professionals or to meet online friends. Whatever your reason for attending keep that goal in mind. Keeping my goal in mind makes me more determined to push through those anxious moments and when you achieve your goal take a moment to celebrate! Be proud that your anxiety did not stop you from doing what you wanted to do. Enjoy your moment, trust me – it’s a big deal!

I hope that these tips might be useful to you and help you to have an amazing weekend at YALC! 

If you have anxiety and are attending YALC please don't hesitate to contact me at @JessHeartsBooks on Twitter and I'll support you in the build up to YALC in any way that I can. 

Know that you're not alone and that we can do this!

YALC Diary: Sunday Day Two

After being convinced that I’d sleep like a baby after the mania of yesterday I of course had another rubbish night’s sleep and woke up with a headache. I wanted nothing more than to roll over and go back to sleep and I would have if we didn’t have to check out of our hotel before 11am. Turns out this was a blessing in disguise as I had the most wonderful day at YALC today.

Before another day at YALC began I was invited to a blogger breakfast. The first wonderful thing to happen today was that lovely Debbie saw my tweet of pain and brought me in some paracetamol from home. After something to eat, lots of water and some medication I started to feel more human and really enjoyed the breakfast. Having our names on a guest list to get in meant no queuing and the book zone was lovely and quiet first thing in the morning so I had lots of time to chat to authors, bloggers and publicists and I could actually hear everybody, yay! I also had time to catch up with my friend Jasprit who came down for Sunday which was really nice.

We had authors Holly Black, James Dawson, Matt Haig and Non Pratt as guests at the breakfast and they each spoke about their books new and upcoming alike and signed our copies. We were also given an awesome Grisha tote bag full of swag and copies of This Book is Gay by James Dawson and Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I was only saying before the event how much I was looking forward to This Book is Gay so to have early copies there was amazing!

Queen of Teen James Dawson looking regal and wise

Once again there were so many lovely authors that I finally got to meet today. Comic Con was so much quieter and the showmasters team were there to structure queues and make sure there was some order which was so much better.

My author highlights for Sunday had to be James Dawson, Sarra Manning and Cat Clarke. James is doing wonderful things for LGBT teens and I’m so glad that he won Queen of Teen because he’s providing a much needed voice in UKYA. I’ve been reading Sarra Manning’s books since I was twelve years old and so I got all emotional when she knew me and my blog, if that wasn’t enough she then went on to give me two rare early editions of her books as a thank you for your support gift which meant so much to me. Cat Clarke was so lovely to talk to and gave me a hug and thanked me for supporting her books which was so nice. As for actors today I spotted Sibel Kekilli and Kristian Nairn AKA Shae and Hodor from Game of Thrones and had a little fan girl moment over that.

Meeting Sarra Manning

Cat Clarke hug

The only negative thing that I have to say about YALC day 2 was the lack of monitoring for the panels. They didn’t appear to be supervised at all and being right next to the Stan Lee booth meant that LFCC people would just sit there taking up seats for a break and something to eat or to wait for friends to finish seeing Stan. Not only did this take up seating but they’d chatter away to one another and once again I couldn’t hear what the authors were saying. As I stressed yesterday next year we really need our own hall!

At 5pm on the last day of YALC an event that shall forever be remembered as ‘The Great Book Giveaway of 2014’ took place. Basically the YALC team took down all of the books from the book wall and posters and gave them away for free. There were so many amazing books to choose from from YA classics to brand new releases that aren’t even out yet. Luckily I was there when the queueing began and so ended up being 5th in line and after a lot of consideration picked up Red Rising by Pierce Brown which I’ve heard amazing things about and am so excited to read.

After the great book giveaway it was time for Rach and I to say our goodbyes to people and catch our train home. It was actually really sad saying goodbye to all of my bloggy chums not knowing when I’ll next get to see everyone and when we will all be together again.

Me with the awesome Michelle

Me with lovely Faye 

I feel like YALC really picked a lot of bloggers up – myself included- and motivated us. There was a lot of love between everyone and it reminded me of how special our community is. Each of us is different and we all have something to offer but all of us together as a community makes our voices even louder.

I came away from YALC feeling like I’d found my people. It was a truly special weekend and despite all of my bad experiences I still walked away with some amazing memories. I only hope that if there is another YALC next year that the people behind it take on board what everybody is saying to ensure that YALC 2015 is an even bigger success.

Missed day one of my YALC diary? Check it out here.

YALC Diary: Saturday Day One

It’s Saturday which means it’s officially day one of YALC! Rach and I travelled to London last night and I have to say that the weekend didn’t start well for me.

After a hot and sweaty tube ride that involved carrying bags of heavy books up and down flights of stairs I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep so I’d feel rested and ready for a busy weekend. Unfortunately I had no such luck.

Our hotel is great in itself however I was given an unfortunate room located on the ground floor of a busy street. There’s no air con so if I don’t want to boil myself alive I have to sleep with the window open which not only lets in all of the street noise but all of the smoke from the guest smoking pit outside too. That along with my neighbours and their kids checking in next door to me at 4am left this asthmatic insomniac with only a few hours’ sleep. Needless to say this morning I was tired, flustered and running low on patience.

The first thing I saw before Earls Court itself was swarms and swarms of people queueing to get inside. I was immediately overwhelmed. We were standing in line and being moved around for what felt like forever under the beating sun and to make matters worse we had a group blatantly push in right in front of us. Luckily Rach and I had this nice guy and his young son behind us who wasn’t having any of it and told them so but unfortunately that led to them getting the hump and shouting at us which really put me on edge with my PTSD.

Me (left) and Rach (right) waiting to get in

When we finally got in thousands of people were literally packed in like sardines in a tin, there was no air con, sweat was dripping from people and I basically felt like I’d made a huge mistake in estimating how well I could handle this.

YALC itself was a roaring success there’s no doubt about it but I have to be honest and say that I don’t think that LFCC was the right place to host it and I know that pretty much everybody I spoke to felt the same way. The majority of readers are quiet, introverted people and I know that for a lot of us Comic Con was too much.

Not only was LFCC ridiculously overcrowded but the Book Zone was placed in a small corner of the venue right next to Stan Lee’s event which were obviously massively popular. I attended one panel and one workshop and after that gave up on them because I couldn’t hear a thing that was said over the noise of the crowd which was really disappointing as I’m sure what the authors had to say was very interesting.

Another issue I had was that there was no clear queue’s for signings and nobody was monitoring them which lead to more than one queue waiting for one author and a lot of pushing in which was very annoying after waiting for a good hour for some guests.

To be honest it was absolute chaos which is completely understandable being the first ever YALC. I don’t think anybody was prepared for the popularity of the event but now that they know that there’s a big audience for it I hope that these issues can be resolved next year and I think the biggest change needs to be a YALC only venue.

The Book Zone had this lovely little chill out area with a book wall and beanbag chairs. It was the perfect place to escape to catch a breather and talk to other book lovers. I’m being completely honest in saying that I don’t think I would have stuck around all day if I didn’t have such good people around me. I was so touched by everybody who came up to me asking how I was finding it and I loved that so many of you shared your own experiences with anxiety, panic attacks and OCD with me. It was so cathartic to share stories and get through this crazy day together.

My biggest convention lesson learned is to talk to the people around you. After all you obviously share the same interests which are a great ice breaker! It was so lovely to not only finally meet blogger friends but to also meet new bookish people. Rach and I were queueing to meet Rainbow Rowell for a good hour and got chatting to some lovely girls in front of us which made the time pass really quickly. Funnily enough after that we kept bumping into each other in different queues completely by chance and so we dubbed ourselves “queue buddies.” What was even more surreal was when I gave Charlotte my Twitter handle only to find out that we already follow each other! Small world!

Queue Buddies!

A really random moment for me was when I accidentally bumped into somebody and turned around to apologise only to see that that person was Lena Headey who plays Cersei in Game of Thrones. Turns out that the Book Zone being right next to the Green Room definitely had its perks!

I met so many wonderful authors and bloggers today both at YALC and The Fringe afterwards. I’d love to give a shout out to every single person I met but there are just too many of you and I’m bound to forget somebody which I’d feel terrible about. I will say that everybody I met was absolutely lovely and if I met you please know that I had such a great time talking to you!

UKYA book bloggers at The Fringe

Today’s author highlights for me were C.J. Skuse, Holly Bourne and Natasha Ngan who all made plenty of time to chat to their fans. I also really enjoyed meeting Patrick Ness and Rainbow Rowell although due to their MAHOOSIVE queues it was only a quick “hi” and “bye” which is completely understandable. I was just so happy to meet them at all!

Rainbow Rowell signing books

The lovely Holly Bourne signing my books

Overall Saturday was a rollercoaster of emotions with plenty of highs and lows. It was chaotic and stressful but also wonderful and exciting. The lovely people around me really made today what it was and that has made me love the UKYA community even more, if such a thing is possible.

Check out Day Two of my YALC Diary here

For more of my Saturday adventures check out Rach's write up here

YALC is happening and I'm freaking out!

The thing about anxiety is that there is no room for excitement. If you think about it anxiety is pretty much the opposite of excitement and so it makes sense that even when I'm really looking forward to something my default reaction is to freak out and worry about it.

YALC is happening in a few days and my anxiety is really kicking in. I hate that anxiety takes away all of the fun in looking forward to something but I also know from years of experience that all of the worst case scenarios that my head is making up are very unlikely to actually happen. Today I thought it might be therapeutic to share all of my worries with you guys because who knows? Maybe some of you have felt the same way or are also having similar worries about YALC.

Anxiety and OCD
1.) Part of my OCD means that I need my days to be as scheduled as possible. I'm probably the least spontaneous person you'll ever meet. Although I have a schedule written up for YALC I know that this probably isn't going to go to plan. Panel's might run out of tickets, I might be queuing for longer than anticipated for signings, and with the workshop tickets having a lottery system there's no guarantee that I'll get into them at all. Knowing that my day won't be perfectly structured is a really difficult thing for me to deal with.

2.) I'm going to YALC with my best friend Rachel but there are a couple of things we want to do separately. There is also the chance that one of us will get into a workshop and the other won't. This means that there will be times where I'm going to be alone in a really busy crowd which can sometimes lead to a panic attack.

3.) What if I have a panic attack when I'm in a queue and I have to leave and forfeit my place? What if I have a panic attack because I'm in a crowd and feeling claustrophobic? What if I have a panic attack and I'm alone? I know I can always go outside for some space and fresh air and luckily our hotel is 5 minutes away if I feel like I need a longer break but when I'm in the midst of an attack I'm not always thinking clearly.

General Worries
1.) My brain does this thing where it likes to think of every worst case scenario that could happen and torture me with it: Missing a train, forgetting tickets, horrible hotel, lost booking, finding where we need to go etc; I'm especially worried about the things that are my responsibility such as looking after the tickets which links back to my OCD and having to check that they're in my bag several times.

2.) What if nobody likes me? It's one thing talking to bloggers, authors and publicists online but meeting them? What if I'm not who they expect me to be? What if I'm a disappointment? What if I don't fit in? I haven't been to a proper blogger event before and I'm really nervous to meet so many online people at once. Especially as I know that after years of blogging and going to events a lot of other bloggers know one another really well and although I've been doing this for a long time this will be my first time meeting everyone and that scares me. Should I approach people and say hello? Or would they rather be left alone?

3.) Being an anxious person I tend to be either really quiet or full of nervous energy and chatting away none stop. I'm very socially awkward and have always said that I communicate better through my hands and writing than I do with talking. What if I come across as a nervous babbling idiot?

Some of you might be reading this thinking "if you're that worried why bother going at all?" The thing with anxiety is that it's not fact. They're just thoughts and the worst case scenarios hardly ever happen. I know full well that I'll probably have one of the best weekends of my life but that doesn't stop my brain from ruining the anticipation. All too often in my life anxiety has held me back and my approach to dealing with it over the last couple of years is feel the fear and do it anyway. I also love these quotes from Just One Day by Gayle Forman a book that really changed my life.

“I think everything is happening all the time, but if you don't put yourself in the path of it, you miss it.” ― Gayle Forman, Just One Day 

“It's funny the things you think you're scared of until they're upon you, and then you're not.” ― Gayle Forman, Just One Day 

I think you do things that scare you, and that makes you braver than those adrenaline junkies who bungee-jump off bridges.” ― Gayle Forman, Just One Day 

“You thought too hard. Same with travel. You can't work too much at it, or it feels like work. You have to surrender yourself to the chaos. To the accidents.” ― Gayle Forman, Just One Day

These particular quotes for this particular event hold a double meaning as not only do they help me face my fears but they also remind me of why I love books and the whole reason behind this event in the first place.

I'm hoping that YALC will be one great and beautiful accident.

The YALC Readathon Sign Ups: Read the books before you meet the authors!

The YALC Readathon is a brand new readathon being hosted by myself, Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea, Carly at Writing from the Tub and Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies that will take place between the 23rd-29th June 2014 starting and ending at midnight in whichever time zone you’re in.
 

What is the YALC Readathon?
If you haven’t heard of YALC yet where have you been!? It’s the first Young Adult convention happening in the UK and in case you haven’t heard about it you can find out more here.

There are so many fantastic authors attending and I wanted to try to read as many of their books before I meet them at YALC. I noticed on Twitter that a lot of people felt the same way and so the idea of hosting a readathon was born.

The YALC Readathon is dedicating a week to reading as many books by YALC authors as possible. A list of the authors attending can be found here. We’re also planning plenty of fun stuff during that week and are collaborating with the authors and people behind YALC to bring you guest posts and a Twitter chat which will take place on Thursday 26th June at 7pm UK time.

If you’re attending YALC this is a great opportunity to read the books before you meet the authors and to discuss their books with other readers. However if you’re not attending YALC but would like to join in anyway then please do feel free to take part!

Sounds great, how do I join in? 
To sign up share your intention to join us along with our image on your blog, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Goodreads etc; then post the URL in the linky below.

If you have goals and a TBR in mind feel free to share them! This isn’t mandatory.

When talking about the readathon on social media please use the hashtag #YALCReadathon so we can all follow each other’s updates and progress.


That’s it! I hope that you’ll join us! If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments. In the meantime here is my own TBR, I doubt I’ll get around to all of these but I have an amazing pile to choose from and I’m looking forward to seeing how many I can read!

London Press Conference Write-Up: An Interview With The Cast and Director of City of Bones!

Last Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to an exclusive press conference with Lily Collins (Clary) Jamie Campbell Bower (Jace) Robert Sheehan (Simon) and City of Bones director Harald Zwart in London by the books publishing house Walker. I’m a huge fan of this series and of course jumped at this once in a lifetime chance! The interview lasted for about 30-40 minutes and although I was too nervous to ask a question I loved hearing everyone else’s and the cast’s responses.

It was quite a small environment so felt really personal and one on one. The cast were all so down to earth and after a while I kind of forgot who they were because it was just like chatting to any other person my age. Jamie and Robert were really funny but my favourite had to be Lily. She has such a calming presence, she’s very graceful and intelligent and I loved hearing her thoughtful answers. I think I may have come away with a new girl crush!

I voice recorded the interview but some of it got muffled and because there was so much footage I had to edit some of it out or this post would have gone on forever! But I decided that I wanted to type up and share some of the highlights of the press conference with you. I hope you enjoy the interview!

P.S: If you haven’t seen the movie yet this interview contains spoilers!!!

An Interview With The Cast and Director of City of Bones 

From left to right: Harald Zwart, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan and Lily Collins

Harald, you have directed coming of age stories before usually featuring a male as the lead was the idea of telling a coming of age story with such a strong female character in the lead role one of the things that attracted you to this film? 
HARALD: Yeah, you could say that The Karate Kid was for my son and this was for my daughter who needs good role models. She’s way too young to see the movie but she saw it before the monsters were added and she loved it then and now I think she’s going to be terrified!

The demon dog at the start is something out of a nightmare!
HARALD: Yeah, people asked me did you consider your audience? I just wanted to make a really great movie that I’d love to watch too. I think younger audiences today are much more sophisticated than when I was younger, people like to be scared. I was constantly thinking what would I show my own kids? I think that as long as it’s not too much gore and blood and girls in jeopardy which I think is a little boring after a while - they need to stand up for themselves. I was inspired by The Exorcist and the original movie The Thing I loved the idea of something cracking apart and reassembling itself.

Whilst we’re on the subject of a female character who isn’t in any way a damsel in distress Lily, she is I’m imagining a dream for an actress to play because she is a really strong female lead is that what attracted you to the part?
LILY: Yeah, Clary is very normal. She cries, she’s confused, she’s going through an identity crisis but she embraces that and she finds strength in her weaknesses and ends up kicking butt and hanging with the guys. But all the while still having those feminine, young girl, moments that make her very real so I think it was kind of this journey that she goes on but never losing sight of how she is very normal as well because I think it’s very easy to play someone superhuman but that’s not relatable to a normal person so that’s what really drew me to her.

She does kick butt alongside your character Jamie. Jace is a cool guy, I think he’s the kind of guy most guys would like to be. He’s a mysterious stranger who turns up, is incredibly charming and can slay demons with one hand tied behind his back he must have been a fun role.
JAMIE: Yeah he’s everything I’m not basically! You know performance is always a very cathartic process for me, I’m not particularly cool. He was a great character to play. It was tough; I put a lot of work and a lot of effort into it. A lot of the characters I’ve played before have been fairly soft or rounded. You have the book and there’s that guy there with his shirt off and he’s looking pretty buff and pretty hench and so I had to get into that physical shape. I’ve always liked to push and challenge myself I think without that I’d get quite bored I have a short attention span. It was fun and it was difficult learning how to hone my skills in terms of stunts and fighting was a real joy.

There were so many incredible sets in the movie, which one was your favourite?
LILY: The Institute library. The first time I saw it my jaw literally dropped just like Clary. Just the detail behind the props that you never even saw in the movie. There were bookcases filled with books that you’d think is just a spine but it was a complete novel and then there were all of the weapons that were made for it so really that set to me was pure magic.

What was training for the movie like? How long did you have to train for?
ROBERT: To me they were like “just have a sleep in, the rest of them are going to do stunt choreography. Just show up for the filming bit and put a t-shirt on.”
LILY: Or not. For the girls…
ROBERT: Or not.
LILY: I trained for three months just before filming out in LA every day before and after work along with our physical fitness trainer. I am an active person and I really enjoy getting down and bruised I guess especially with this one I have to hang with all the guys and keep up in heels and a very short dress for the guys.
JAMIE: Why are you two getting all sexy? (laughter)
ROBERT: I was just jealous of the heels.
LILY: Kevin got to wear platforms which was pretty cool, but yeah I guess the hardest part for me physically was that I didn’t train in the outfits except for the day before and then I’m thrust into it with these heels and this dress and as Lily it was very awkward but I could just pawn it off on Clary. I never twisted an ankle and I barely tripped I just bruised a lot.
HARALD: You’re going to do a lot more butt kicking in the second film.
LILY: Yes, but the heels will be lower.
ROBERT: What’s the vitamin that stops you bruising?
LILY: Arnica I take it every day. It doesn’t make a difference on me.
ROBERT: You’re like porcelain.
LILY: It’s a better word than pale, thank you.

Jamie previously you’ve said that you get a new tattoo done for every project are you having anything done to mark this movie?
JAMIE: Yeah I was meant to be getting it done today around the corner but it’s closed today and that’s where I get most of my tattoos done. I’m getting the quote “I am after all what you made me” a line from the book on my back.
HARALD: We need to cover them all up every day when we’re shooting.

Was it hard to cover you up each day? 
JAMIE: Yeah it takes about four hours to cover up and then to put on the rune tattoos over the top.
HARALD: Why don’t you just tattoo the tattoos we need on?
ROBERT: That’s the problem with these runes! 
JAMIE: I quite like having them there underneath the make-up. I like to know that I’m still Jamie underneath all that at the end of the day. That’s one of the reasons that I have them.

How are you dealing with the fandom and attention?
ROBERT: It’s been an eye opener! Comic Con was my first real direct interaction. When we turn up to premiers it’s kinda like Beetle mania, you know? We’re getting out of our cars and there are hundreds of people screaming.
JAMIE: When we were in LA you went “God I feel like the Rolling Stones!”
LILY: Yeah and then a fan said “Yeah, not quite.” I loved that! It’s very special to see fans up close and personal. I guess the weirdest moments for me are like in LA when I go to a mall that I’ve shopped at since I was twelve and now there’s like massive pictures of our faces everywhere. At my local coffee shops now there are billboards and people wearing t-shirts and stuff. It’s very strange but really exciting. I don’t think there’s ever a way you could fully prepare and I wouldn’t want to prepare for anything because I like the spontaneity of it all and I want everything to be as exciting as it should be because when you set an expectation it’s either above or below but when you set nothing then it is what it is and it makes it special regardless.
HARALD: My first meeting was interesting. I went to a book signing with Cassandra Clare at the LA Book Festival and we realised that that line were all coming for us and I was like “oh my goodness this is unbelievable!” Cassandra will talk to them and give them attitude - she’s a very cool lady.

The CGI in this film was fantastic what was your favourite part watching the film back?
LILY: What stuck out from my first meeting is that it wasn’t a movie about CGI or green screen it was character and emotion and you could wipe away all the other stuff and you’d still get the same story. It’s just as strong and the other stuff is icing on top. The two things that stick out CGI wise is the scene where I stop the demons and they all freeze in time. Robbie and I and a couple of others were bouncing around tennis balls on sticks it was very strange we were fighting for our life and he kept drawing pictures on them to make us laugh and I mean after the fifth take it’s not funny anymore. You’re just like can we just get this done?! It’s just not normal to be doing that obviously I don’t do that with my free time. And then the other scene I guess was the dog scene when it’s coming after me and changing shape and I’m setting things on fire there was nothing to look at. Harald just clapped and was like “it’s there!”
HARALD: I was just scaring her as much as I could.
ROBERT: You’d see Harald jumping out from behind the scenes.
HARALD: If you lower the sound then make a huge loud noise you get a natural reaction.
JAMIE: What a lunatic! It sounds like he’s joking but he’s deadly serious.
LILY: The parts where the body parts are moulding back together on the floor all he said to me was “okay they’re growing and now they’re merging.” The only time it made any sense was when I watched the movie. My look of confusion is me thinking “what is he talking about?” But it actually plays into “oh my god they’re merging! I don’t know what’s going on.” Luckily it played into it.
JAMIE: He’s out of shot but he’s there pushing the actors.
LILY: He’s like “you’re not reacting well enough!”
ROBERT: If Harald ever writes a book there will be a whole chapter on how to scare an actor without using too much CGI.
Harald: It’s true the cup…
LILY: Oh yeah the cup! When I have to pull it out of the paper? We had this amazing prop guy called Mario and every time I would go to pick it up he’d be holding the card and he’d just be like staring at me and in this moment of fear all I can see is Mario gazing up at me. It’s just not normal!
JAMIE: We had these wires down our entire arms and down our backs for the witchlight and stele and I went to this mall the other day and the merchandise is just a battery operated thing and I was like why didn’t we have that when we were shooting?
ROBERT: That was another luxury of being a mundane I had none of the shadowhunter technology that I was laboured down with!

If you could make up a rune for anything what would it be?
LILY: I created one the other day I was asked to draw one on someone and as I was drawing it I just thought of what it meant and I said it was the rune of grace and confidence so that you always carry yourself with grace and confidence and it turned out the girl’s name was Grace. Kinda weird!
ROBERT: The get up in the morning rune to help me be awake. That’s the one thing I could really do with just getting my motor running without heavy amounts of caffeine. Even after eight hours sleep I’ll still get up and after the first hour or two still have one eye closed, so if I could be one of those morning people.

You got to wear some cool costumes. What was your favourite item of clothing?
ROBERT: Before they get into all the complex shadowhunter stuff I want to say my Nike high tops. Grey, pink, very cool, very sporty, very vintage.
JAMIE: The leather trousers are great. Everyone’s always like “oh the leather must be really difficult to wear because it’s constricting” leather’s actually a really versatile material!
LILY: You ripped yours!
JAMIE: Yeah I ripped mine a few times, that’s true. That’s because I was doing like superhero jumps and then I’d go into costume and they’d be like “we’re going to need a clean-up on aisle three over here.” If you look very closely in some of the stunt scenes you can see that there’s rips appearing and disappearing and it’s just like our continuity is brilliant.

How did you find developing the love triangle? Did it take a lot of work?
LILY: When Jamie walked into the first audition room that was pretty much just it. Right away it was created and then we both walked into the room with Robbie and they are so different in real life that they embody their characters perfectly in different ways and I’m just in the middle of these two characters. I don’t think there was any work needed to be done when it came to this triangle situation. My Clary’s only the Clary that she was because Jamie was his Jace then enter Robbie and he became Simon. I think it’s important for Clary because it’s like having the angel and the devil on your shoulder. She’s just figuring out who she is and sometimes it takes figuring out what you don’t like to know what you do or what you do like to know what to avoid. She sees pros and cons in both Jace and Simon and she finds pieces of herself within both people and I think it’s really about her. The romance never defines Clary which I really liked about this particular franchise. It’s not just a girl stuck between two guys it’s a girl who finds herself in this situation but she never lets it victimise her or define her journey. She finds pieces of herself in each person and I think to have that physical choice is just a metaphorical exploration of herself.

END 

I hope you guys had fun reading this! If you met the cast what question would you ask them? And also what were your thoughts on the film?

Thank you to Casey from Dark Readers for the photo's! It was great to finally meet you!

Letterbox Love (31) A Quick Catch-Up!

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking for UK based book bloggers to showcase the books that they’ve received each week.

So I've been MIA from the blog this past week because I had a bout of terrible insomnia and was just so exhausted all of the time and hardly read anything. I go through phases like this every so often and fingers crossed I seem to be coming out the other end of this one now. It's *so* nice to be able to sleep again! Only now I have a lot of blogging and reading to catch up on! I received quite a few review books whilst I was away and I also took a trip to London to attend a press conference with the cast of City of Bones which the publishers very kindly invited me to - it was awesome! Needless to say I did some book shopping in Foyles (one of my favourite book shops in the world!) I can never resist! Especially their cheap US imports...

I have a lot of books and e-books to get through so this will just be a quick catch up meaning I won't go into as much detail as I usually would about the books. If I did that would take me a while and this post would be huge and nobody would want to read it. So this will be short and sweet - I hope that's okay! As always I'll link each title up to Goodreads in case you'd like to find out more. Now, on to the books! :)

 For Review

Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
Fire With Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
Stay Where You Are And Then Leave by John Boyne (proof copy)
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma

Twisted Perfection by Abbi Glines
Wait for You by J. Lynn
Rule by Jay Crownover (proof copy)
Coco's Secret by Niamh Greene
Another Way to Fall by Amanda Brooke
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
A Heart Bent Out of Shape by Emylia Hall

 Bought

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown

On My Kindle 

For Review 

Once We Were by Kat Zhang 

The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine 

The Returned by Jason Mott 

 The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell 

The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman 

Swimming Pool Summer by Rebecca Farnworth 

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes 

The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle 

 Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott 

 These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner 

Bought 

The Redemption of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen 

My Favourite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron 

These are all of my lovely new books! Now I just need to get reading because I have some absolute gems here that I can't wait to get on to! As always thank you to the lovely publishing folk for the review copies. If you decided to do a Letterbox Love, Book Haul, IMM, Showcase Sunday, Mailbox Monday or whatever else featuring the books you got this week leave me a link as I’d love to check out your books too! ^_^ 

Happy reading till next time!

The Fault in Our Stars Tour Live: Meeting John and Hank Green

Despite being a book blogger and getting invited to a lot of cool events I’ve never been able to actually attend one with them all being based in London and more importantly me having anxiety and panic attacks over traveling alone. I’ve always said that if I could meet any three authors they would be J.K Rowling, John Green or Richelle Mead, heck meeting any admired author would be fantastic, but these guys would be a dream come true. So when my best friend and fellow Nerdfighter Rachel text me all of a quiver because John Green and his brother Hank were touring the UK and did I want to go? My excitement and the prospect of traveling with a trusted friend far outweighed the anxiety and so we got straight onto booking tickets praying we’d get through to a busy box office and we did! The tickets were booked, the time and place Cadogan Hall, London, February 3rd 2013, 12pm.

The day came around and on the train to London Rach gave me some amazing Nerdfighter birthday presents (it was my birthday the week before) a ‘This Star Won’t Go Out’ bracelet, Nerdfighter Pin and Let it Snow the only John Green book I didn’t own as well as paying for my ticket to the event, needless to say I was spoiled! As our luck would have it our train was delayed by 1 hour so we we’re really worried we’d arrive late and wouldn’t be allowed in. It was a proper Cinderella moment as we flanked a cab and rushed to the other side of London before the clock literally hit 12 o’clock we got there just in time and sat down with moments to spare before John came on stage.

Maureen, Hank and John on Stage

The event itself lasted about an hour or so and was a mixture of John talking about The Fault in Our Stars, Hank singing his wonderfully dorky songs, the brothers teasing each other, answering questions and goofing around like in their Youtube videos. There was also a guest appearance from the wonderful Maureen Johnson who happened to be in London and is an author friend of John’s – as if this day wasn’t perfect enough already! I pretty much stalk John so knew a lot of the answers to the questions he was asked and I found myself mouthing the answers along with him but it was so brilliant to see him talking in the flesh about his incredible book which I already read when it was released in the US last year and loved. Hank sounded amazing live and I had his songs in my head for days after particularly “Accio Deathly Hallows” which is one of my favourites. It was so funny to see John mouthing along to “The Anglerfish Song” in the background; he knew all of the words! Maureen was so much fun and I loved how all of them were just as quick, intelligent, brilliant and funny in real life as how they appear online.    

Meeting John Green

The show ended with us all singing “The Proclaimers- 500 miles” which was an amazing experience. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to that song again without being reminded of that day. I knew from following the Twitter feed from the Swindon event that waiting to meet them could take hours but Rachel and I were determined not to leave the building without meeting our heroes and I think we waited for about an hour and a half which wasn’t all that bad. We passed the time talking with nerdfighters in the toilets and squeeing over what we’d just seen. Up until that point I was feeling pretty calm, I think because it felt familiar to me, it was kind of like watching another one of their vlogs but without the screen between us. When our row got called up and I edged closer to John and Hank and could hear them talking that’s when it really hit me that they were there right in front of me and I was about to meet two people I greatly admire and that’s when I started to get the sweaty palms, can’t stop shaking, is this actually real life? Feelings of nervousness and anticipation.

Meeting John Green went as follows…

Me: It’s nice to meet you Sir (why did I call him Sir!? *headdesk*)
Him: *Shakes hand* Hey thanks for coming along and waiting *noticing me wearing Esther bracelet* I like your Esther bracelet.
Me: Thanks *nods at Rach* my friend got it me for my birthday.
Him: Pretty awesome birthday present right?
Me: Yeah.
Him: *Hands books back signed* thank you.
Me: Thanks it was nice to meet you. *Shuffles off*

I then went on to meet Hank who I didn’t end up saying that much to which I regret because all that was buzzing through my head was I JUST MEET JOHN GREEN AND HE SHOOK MY HAND!!! I was also watching Rachel’s reaction to meeting him. With Hank it went a little like this…

Waiting to Meet Hank

Me: Can I get these Hanklerfished please?
Him: Of course! *takes books*
Me: Thank you it was great meeting you.
Him: You too sweetheart, thanks for coming.

After that me and Rach moved off to the side and fawned over our books and compared our signatures and what our hanklerfishes looked like. Then on the way out I bought one of the tour t-shirts which I wanted to get before but the line was MAHOOSIVE there wasn’t anybody there by the time we came out so I decided to snatch one up and also found some tattoos of Maureen Johnson which she randomly dispersed around the venue because she is awesome.

J-Scribble and Hanklerfish

We came out at half three and had enough time before our train to get some dinner in London and go to Foyles - a bookshop I’ve always wanted to visit. I was pretty sad that Maureen wasn’t available to sign books so you can imagine my glee when I found a signed copy of The Name of the Star in Foyles which I happily purchased along with some other bookish goodies.

Maureen Tattoo and Signature 

With achy feet, full tums, and happy hearts we caught our train home and the next day I woke up sad that today was just a normal day and every day couldn’t be like yesterday, I couldn’t hang out in one of my favourite cities with my best friend, oodles of Nerdfighters and our nerdy rockstars every day. Then later on I signed into Youtube and found videos of the day and new vlogs from John and Hank, and then I realised that the beauty of what John and Hank have created is that I *can* hang out with these awesome people who share the same interests as me and the same morals. Even with time and space between us the Vlogbrothers have created a safe and happy place for us nerds to talk and create and inspire one another to do awesome things and be true to ourselves and that was the beauty of it, of us, of them. I clicked on a video, and re-lived one of the best days of my life all over again.

Goodies from the Day!