Midnight Bloom Reads

Indigo Teen Read Awards (plus the After Party) - Part 2!

12:30 PM

Welcome to Part 2 of my Indigo Teen Read Awards experience!

After several months and over 330 000 votes by Canadian teens, these are the 2010 winners of the Teen Read Awards!

(I can't take credit for this pic. It's a screenshot from the Chapters/Indigo website here.)

Were you surprised by any of the winners? When Prophecy of the Sisters won for Best Villain, a few people gasped aloud and there was some murmuring from the crowd as they realized Lord Voldemort had not won. Everyone applauded soon but if there was one major upset of the night, many people probably thought this was the category. As for myself, I've never read Prophecy of the Sisters but I'm glad it won since HP has to share the wins sometimes, lol. There were also some really close calls like in the Best Writer and Best Hottie category that had me guessing who just might win!

Unfortunately, not all of the winning authors were able to attend, but they had made videos for their acceptance speeches which were still cool to watch! Seeing authors such as Cassandra Clare and Suzanne Collins thanking us for voting for them and reading their novels made us feel all giddy, but you know what was really special? J.K. Rowling had written a letter to express her thanks and gratitude to the Canadian branch of Dumbledore's Army. YES, THE J.K. ROWLING! Dan Levy joked that the letter he was holding was probably worth a lot of money, lol.

While some authors weren't able to make it to Toronto, many others were! Here's Kelley Armstrong accepting the Best Canadian Read award (right pic above). Some of the authors also ventured downstairs from the VIP Author Lounge to mingle with fans and take pictures too, including Melissa de la Cruz, Aimee Friedman and Kelley Armstrong!

All too soon it felt like, the TRA's were over and all the winners were announced. Time just absolutely flew by! After the awards had officially ended, my sister and I lingered for a little while longer as more and more people began leaving for home. We happened to be at the right place, and at the right time, when one of the organizers approached us and - I'm not joking- literally handed us each a book... for free! And the book I got also happened to be one I really wanted to read but never had a chance to get- The Maze Runner by James Dashner. It. Was. So. Cool!

Afterwords, we received our swag bags and headed to Indigo Yonge and Eglinton where they were throwing a little After Party for the awards! Some of the authors were there signing stock and also chatting with their readers! Among them, Alyson Noel!

There was also a raffle where some gift cards and a couple Kobo eReaders were given away once again. There were also some yummy-looking cupcakes for sale!

*happily sighs* The TRA's were an experience I'll never forget and I can't thank Chapters/Indigo enough for holding such an a successful event to celebrate YA novels, and giving readers an opportunity to meet some of their favourite authors! And a huge thank you also goes out to all the authors who made their way to Toronto to celebrate the event with us! It was such an honour.

I'll be too old to fit the age limit next year but I'm definitely going to have to ~~force~~ ask my sister to take me along to the next TRA's. To me, the TRA's were so much than a cool award event- they were a chance to really feel the excitement and joy that reading brings to all of us, and it's something that I don't think I'll be forgetting all too soon.

P.S. If you're curious to find out what was in my swag bag, the contents will be included in IMM post later. And if you'd guys like me to, I could also search up some of the acceptance speeches and Monster Factory videos showed that night...

Becca Fitzpatrick

Indigo Teen Read Awards - Part 1!

12:00 PM

I'm sure you all know by now just how excited I was to get the chance to go the first annual Teen Read Awards just over a week ago, so I finally had some time to write a post about the experience! In one word, it was AMAZING! I had a fun night with my sister and it was such a cool experience getting to celebrate some of our favourite books with other readers and authors!

My sis and I began to line up around 5:30 p.m, a half hour before the red carpet actually began, outside a club called Six Degrees... which also happened to be practically across the street from Indigo Yonge & Eglinton, where I attended the signings earlier.

We had a pretty good spot, probably among the first 30 or so attendees, but because we were all lined up along the sidewalk, we didn't actually get to see any of the authors arrive on the red carpet. We did hear a little shout when Richelle Mead arrived, but other than that, everyone was entertained by the magician and mime hanging around. There were was even some trivia questions for the Books-to-Film nominees and I ended up winning 4 Cineplex movie passes for answering a couple questions correctly!

And then before we knew it, 7:00 p.m. had arrived and we got to go inside. As we walked upstairs to the club, we were greeted by the hosts, Jessi Cruikshank and Dan Levy, plus Becca Fitzpatrick! (The picture may be slightly blurry because I took the pic quickly while I was walking by...) When we reached the top steps, were greeted again by the organizers, handed TRA bracelets and then our eyes kind of bugged out at the sight of the TRA swag bags to be given out later.

Soon enough, the place was packed with over 500 people! People were dancing, taking pics at the instant photo booth, checking out the free drinks and snacks (from Mac and Cheese to spring rolls), chatting away, and basically having a good time. There was just so much excitement in the atmosphere that it was hard to contain it! A girl walked away with a new laptop after winning the dance-off, a couple Kobo eReaders were given away to parents, and I even managed to catch a Hunger Games t-shirt after several were thrown out into the crowd!

The TRA's were finally kicked off with the appearance of surprise guest Emily Osment, who happened to be in town to promote her new album. You know how on Hannah Montana she can't sing? Well, in real life... she sure can. Her voice is sort of deeper in person, and she definitely had the crowd cheering her on! After she sang a few songs, the hosts of the night, MTV's Jessi Cruikshank and Dan Levy came on stage!

Soon, the winners were beginning to be announced but in between, there were also a couple more performances as well! Alyssa Reid and Alex Lacasse took to the stage to perform some of their singles, and once again, the crowd loved them! I still don't really know who they are except that they are both Canadian and that their singing skills were pretty good... though I still think Alex sounded like he couldn't make up his mind between singing like Jesse McCartney or being in a boy band, lol. As well, to introduce the novels nominated for the biggest award of the night, Best Read, Monster Factory made some videos to share their 'interpretation' of each novel.

And the night was still not over with more awards to be given out!

I didn't want to make one super-long post, so I'm going move on to Part 2 where I share more pics of the night and announce which novels won in their respective categories (in case you still don't know...).

Carrie Jones

Indigo Author Signings - Part 2!

12:05 PM

Let's now begin Part 2 of the Indigo signings at Yonge & Eglinton! (In case you missed Part 1, the you can click here.) When 2:00 p.m. arrived, everyone (there was quite a good crowd!) was getting excited because we would be shortly meeting Richelle Mead and Carrie Jones! (I even had to hand my camera to my sister for awhile because my hands kept shaking- that's how nervous/excited I was...)

Once again, there was a little Q&A before the signing. We heard a few more details from Richelle about the VA spin-off series and the possibility of a movie, and I got to ask Carrie what Entice will be like. She couldn't give too much away though since it would mean spoilers for those who haven't read Captivate yet, but it definitely sounds like it will be exciting! (Nick is nice and all, but sorry, I'm supporting Team Astley now.)

And then it was onto the signing! While we waited in line, the Indigo staff gave away some VA prizes for the quickest person to answer some of their questions, and I actually won a keychain! (I'm so surprised I could even think to answer in the first place.)

Here I am with Carrie Jones!

And here I am with Richelle Mead! (I still can't believe it really happened...)

Thank you so much Carrie and Richelle for making the trek North and meeting us! And of course, a huge kudos goes out to Chapters/Indigo for holding events such as this one!

So, that pretty much sums up my fun time at Indigo Yonge & Eglinton. It was such a cool experience and I felt so fortunate to get the chance to actually meet them. All of the authors were so nice, friendly and open to everyone! This is only my first year actually attending events like this, but with positive experiences such as the one that day, for sure, I'll be making my way to more if another opportunity presents itself!

And oh my goodness, the day was still not over because I was going to be heading to the Teen Read Awards later that night!

I'll be posting my TRA's post soon and I even have my very first giveaway in the works, so stay tuned for more! ^.^