It's Strange Up North - Hard Back, Paper Back

I love books, this goes without saying. But I also love to meet the authors that I love to read. This is something that is normally out of reach for me as I either don’t have the funds or it’s just too far to go to events that are more often than not, in London!

Some amazing authors got together to set up an event to celebrate Northern Authors. This was It’s Strange up North. I was lucky enough to find out about this and attend last night. The inaugural event was held at Waterstones, Leeds. A place I hadn’t been to this time last year but now have been several times for bookish events. As a location for the event Waterstones was a good one, it was a tad warm in there, but getting 200 plus people in there at the same time will do that but when the event started people were then spread out over the three floors and it got a bit better.

Once checked in you received your tote bag full of goodies. Bookmarks, Pins, etc, and an ARC of the new book by Lorraine Wilson, We are all Ghosts in the Forest which is due out November 2024. A sample of the fantastic “Book of Doors” from Gareth Brown.

You were then free to mill around and speak to other attendees or the authors who were speaking to people, There was lots of amazing food/cake and drinks for everyone to help themselves to, a truly brilliant spread.

I had a good walk around to check out the setup and see who I would like to chat to. I did feel a bit like Billy no mates here as I came on my own, but the organisers were all very friendly and the authors were great at putting people at ease and speaking to everyone. Nicholas Binge was on the mic letting everyone know what was going on and doing the housekeeping, a natural on the mic I thought, funny and great at putting people at ease. Once the store was closed the authors moved to their tables and the event was off.

A fantastic part of the event was a quiz with a fact from each of the authors. things like :

Who has the Bubonic Plague and lived
Who talks to asrontaughts
Who died several times
Who danced on stage with Michael Jackson as a kid

The goal was to speak to the Authors and identify which fact belonged to which Author. This was to win some pirate treasure but also gave us a great opportunity to speak to all of the authors that were attending. It was a challenge to get around all of the authors to get the information as there were queues at all of the tables. The Authors were great at chatting and answering questions while signing books. I got a bit worried halfway around as I was carrying an ever-growing pile of books, which were getting heavy. I managed to get my quiz in on time though, just…

A winner was then randomly picked from the bag. That random person WAS ME!!! 🙂 I was very happy!

I was looking forward to seeing R J Barker but unfortunately, he couldn’t make it due to illness, I hope he is feeling better. I was also looking forward to chatting with Stephen Aryan, an amazing Fantasy author. We were lucky enough to get a copy of his new novel A Blood Dimmed Tide book 2 of The Nightingale and the Falcon, which is due out 9th of July. I also had a chat with Gareth Brown, author of the Book of Doors, I didn’t need a signed copy as I already have one but spoke to him to let him know how much I enjoyed the story, I also grilled him on writing and outlining to try and help me with my own writing.

I really enjoyed the event and getting to meet and chat with so many great authors, I also managed to only buy a few books and not them all, some pictures below of my book haul, it was tempting to buy them all but I had to stop myself. I can’t wait for the next event.