I arrived at Indigo Yorkdale in Toronto a few hours early and found that there was already a very short line forming. Honey from Sniff Books, Not Drugs was there and she was so incredibly nice! I'd met her briefly before when Kelley Armstrong had a book signing at Indigo Yorkdale and it was so great to see her again! She had saved me spot so getting the chance to talk to a fellow bookworm made the long wait pass by so much quicker! As more time passed by, more people arrived to wait in line for the event including GeekGirl from Geek Girl's Book Blog whom I had first met when Lisa McMann had been in town awhile ago. It was so nice seeing her again as well!!
The event began at 7:00 p.m. and by that point, there was quite the turn out of fans waiting for the event to begin. I was able to get a seat at the front row, which was a first for me! The way the event took place was a little bit different than what I was used to but that didn't stop the loud applause when Lauren Oliver and Veronica Roth were greeted to the stage! The event was moderated by Ajay Fry, one of the hosts of InnerSPACE on the Space Channel, who asked the two authors various questions while a cameraman recorded the event. I'll admit, I wasn't processing their answers too much because I was too busy sitting in shock thinking to myself, "OH MY GOSH! I'M SO CLOSE TO LAUREN OLIVER AND VERONICA ROTH. PLEASE DON'T LET ME PASS OUT FROM BEING SO EXCITED!"
There were a few things that stuck in my mind though and the questions Ajay Fry asked ranged from writing habits, their own views on the dystopian genre, and the inspirations behind their successful novels. Lauren Oliver compared love with diseases, saying there were many symptoms they both had in common. She also thought that, in many ways, high school was like having your very own dystopian experience. When asked if she would ever receive a cure for love like those in Delirium, she answered that it would depend on the situation because there have been times where she's had her heart broken or lost loved ones, and it's during those times she would have agreed that receiving a cure would be best. I'm sure we all feel that way sometimes too!Veronica Roth told us she first got the idea for Divergent when she was studying in school. She thought of a person launching themselves off a roof and wondered why a person would do such a thing. She also spoke about how the novel is much about facing your fears and that she had originally started writing the story from a male perspective! When asked which faction she would choose, she first replied that her test result would probably be Abnegation but that in the end, she'd have to choose Dauntless. She also thought that a good book makes you think about what came before and what comes after!
When Ajay Fry finished asking questions, it was time for the audience to ask a few! The subject of ebooks came up, and both authors didn't have a problem with them as long as the story was somehow told. Lauren thought it could be written on some sort of a projection screen and it would still be all good! She tended to read ebooks more often, but if she really liked a novel, she would buy the actual copy. She also thought that, perhaps, in the future as things became more technology driven, that more special editions of novels would be released with special lettering and extras like that. Veronica liked ebooks but she much preferred the traditional feel of a book in her hands where she could flip through the pages. Someone in the audience also asked if any of the authors had tattoos becase in Divergent, those who belong in Dauntless tend to have several of them. Veronica doesn't have any tattoos but Lauren does! She said she had around 12 of them give or take, and that they were mostly names of certain people or phrases with meaning to her.
Soon enough, it was time for the book signing! They were both so nice and sweet when I went up front and handed them my books to get signed!! Lauren thought it was cute how I say "zed" instead of "zee" for spelling my full name because, I guess, in the U.S. they say "zee." So, of course, I had to ask Lauren and Veronica if they'd noticed other differences since they'd come of Canada! "Eh" and "about" were more noticeable as well, which I didn't find too surprising, but it was still funny to me! After I thanked them and said goodbye, I was handed a swag bag from someone working for HarperCollins Canada just for coming out to the Dystopian Tour which was so cool!
I was going to leave soon right after, but my Mom had told me to go look out the window to check out how bad the traffic was on Highway 401 while she sat for couple more minutes. I was just returning on my way back when someone suddenly shouted out my name which sure startled me! Zahida ("A Canadian Girl" as she goes by online more often ) from Musings of a YA Reader waved me over from where she was waiting in line after recognizing me from past pictures and it was so nice to meet her for the first time! We easily started chatting together and I guess we'd been talking for so long that my Mom came over since I'd kind of forgotten I was supposed to go back and tell her about how traffic was. Oops! After we talked some more, it was time to head off home while Zahida waited a bit longer to get her books signed.
It was such a fun night getting not only the chance to meet up with some fellow book bloggers, but also having the opportunity to meet two young authors I really admire! Thanks so much to Lauren Oliver and Veronica Roth for coming to Canada to meet some of your Canadian fans and hopefully, you'll return once again someday! And lots of thanks as well to Indigo Yorkdale and HarperCollins Canada for organizing and hosting the awesome event!!
*****
You can find my review Lauren Oliver's Delirium here or for Veronica Roth's Divergent here. If you haven't read either of these dystopian novels yet for some reason, I highly recommend you check them both out because you won't be disappointed!
Here are some other recaps from more Canadian bloggers you can read too! If I see more summaries of the Dystopian Tour stops in Ontario pop up, I'll be sure to add them below:
- Zahida's recap of the Indigo Yorkdale event on her blog at Musings of a YA Reader (She's giving away a signed copy of Delirium too!)
- Mel's recap of the recap of the Indigo Yorkdale event on her blog at He Followed Me Home... Can I Keep Him? (I just missed meeting her! *sad face*)
- Jackie's recap of the Indigo Yorkdale event on her blog at My Ever Expanding Library
- Ashley's recap of the Chapters Barrie event on her blog at That's Life...
- Christie's recap of the Chapters Brampton event at A & C Book Junkies
- Erika's recap of the Chapters Brampton event on her blog The One A Day Y.A. Project
- Jen's recap of the Chapters Brampton event on her blog at Lost in the Library
