One of the greatest pleasures of being a book lover and book reviewer, as well as a frequent customer to my favourite bookshop, is finding out about exciting events, and being able to attend them. This weekend I got to attend one such event at my local bookstore, BookFace, my favourite local bookseller. It was a book signing with Australian author, Stephanie Parkyn, whose novel, Into the World was released in December of last year, and that I had the pleasure of reviewing on this blog for publisher, Allen and Unwin.

An invitation from Merril at BookFace prompted me to attend this event, where I met Stephanie, had my book signed and chatted about my reviewing – she was very interested in what I do and how, and when reviews have to be in, and how many books I read per month – which can vary, and how I manage to keep on top of it all. Nervous at first, Merril introduced me, and we had a delightful chat, and took some photos.

Stephanie’s first question to me was “Are you a writer?” and of course I answered “Yes, I would like to be but at the moment, I’m a writer of book reviews.”  It was this answer, and Merril and Alison’s interest and contributions that prompted the reviewing conversation.

I watched a few other people come up to Stephanie – of all the groups and people who came up to her over the hour she was there, most of them went over to see what it was about and listened to Stephanie talk about the book. and her plans for other characters in the book and their own stories – which will be interesting and enjoyable to read. As I had read the book, and Merril was half way through, we had chats about books in general and what we liked to read, and some of our favourite authors.

Having met a few Australian authors, and interacting with several others on social media, I have found them all to be generous and kind, happy to answer questions and chat. And their generosity does not go unnoticed by readers – these are authors whose books I will always read and whose new releases I eagerly await year after year.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Stephanie and would like to thank Stephanie, Merril, Allison and BookFace for hosting this event yesterday.