Wednesday, October 26, 2011

(Author Event) Evening with Stuart MacBride at Harper Collins Canada

Yesterday (thanks to the fabulous Nicole from All I Ever Read) I had the pleasure of attending a fantastic author event organized by the wonderful people @ Harper Collins Canada: an evening with Stuart MacBride, a bestselling author of the series of crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Logan McRae.

It would be a major understatement to say that I had a great time. I had a FABULOUS time. Stuart MacBride was simply phenomenal and I loved listening to him talk about murder weapons, forensic evidence, best way to dispose of a dead body and a dozen other things, equally fascinating and engaging! And the best part? His disarming sense of humor that kept me grinning and cracking up throughout the whole evening. Seriously, I didn't want to leave! In fact, I don't think any of us, attendees, wanted to leave - it was so entertaining and nice to be there! Our poor hosts had to make sure we're following the schedule, otherwise we'd probably stay there overnight (there were yummy snacks and drinks provided, so I wouldn't mind at all!) and just chat away! 

Highlights of the evening: 

We started off with Harper Collins Canada presenting a fab Halloween cake, made and delivered especially for Stuart MacBride. Here's a pic!

Isn't it gorgeous?
Do you see the inscription on the grave stone? It says "Birthdays for the Dead", which is the title of Mr. MacBride's upcoming novel (more about it below!).

And I'm not sure if you can see it, but the Death has a beard :) Exactly like Stuart's! What a nice touch! I wonder who thought about that?! I'd love to know if it had a ponytail, too! :D

Anyhoo - let me just tell you, the cake was freaking amazing. Yes, we all got to try! I know, right? Pure awesomeness!

Then we had Q&A with the fab author - lots and lots of hilarious jokes included! (Gotta love Scottish humor!) We got to learn a couple of very interesting things, like why he lives in the middle of nowhere (because he does!) and whether or not he has any plans to make his new novel into a longer series (that's certainly a possibility! so read it and make sure you'll let everyone know how much you love it!).

After the Q&A, Mr. MacBride did a little bit of reading to us. He shared a story called "The Princess and the Pervert" - deliciously dark, but also very disturbing and even frightening at times. LOVED it. Especially read out loud by Mr. MacBride it made a huge impression on me (and I dare say on everyone else, too). 
Here, you can read this short story @ Mr.MacBrides website : CLICK

Next, we had a chance to learn how to dispose of a dead body without anyone ever finding it! How educational! haha :) No, seriously, I know the secret now, so watch out! :D This was the best part of the evening for me (don't judge me), especially loved the hilarious drawing by Mr. MacBride! I took a picture and will definitely put it up as soon as I can access my camera (which means in 4 days, when I'm back in Vancouver!) - patience!

There was also a contest - to chose the best murder weapon. We all wrote down out propositions and Stuart picked two winners. I suck at that kind of stuff, so obviously I didn't win, but it's ok, because the winners - they totally deserved their prizes. Two best murder weapons: fiber glass in orange juice and (wait for it..) to make someone listen to Justin Bieber's songs for so long that he/she will finally kill himself/herself = brilliant! haha 


And last but not least, book signing! Because Harper Collins Canada was so totally awesome, they gave everyone an ARC of Stuart's upcoming novel - "Birthdays for the Dead"!!!

Thank you HP Canada, you guys rock! :D 

And Stuart MacBride was gracious enough to sign the books for everyone :) yaaay~

Can't wait to start reading it - check out the synopsis below!


Birthdays for the Dead
by Stuart MacBride

Hardcover, 496 pages
Expected publication: January 5th 2012 
by HarperCollins 
The gritty new standalone crime novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of Shatter the Bones and Dark Blood Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret! Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: homemade, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front -- Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last. The tabloids call him The Birthday Boy. He's been snatching girls for twelve years, always in the run-up to their thirteenth birthday, sending the families his homemade cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death. But Ash hasn't told anyone about Rebecca's birthday cards -- they all think she's just run away from home -- because if anyone finds out, he'll be taken off the investigation. And he's sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter's killer gets what he deserves!

I had a wonderful time! Huge thanks to Stuart MacBride, Harper Collins Canada (especially Shannon and Cory!), Nicole and Angel for a fantastic evening! :) We should do it more often! :D

Nic - I love you! Thanks for dragging me along! <3


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Stuart MacBride was born in Dumbarton, but ran away to join the circus at the age of nine, where he specialised in wrestling bears for money (Going on to represent Great Britain at the Atlanta Olympics). In 1975 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his revolutionary work on Irn-Bru, then went on to create the world's biggest ball of bellybutton lint. In 1989 he joined the secret intelligence service, but was later invalided out due to a back injury sustained while performing a reverse-overhead-piledriver on a grizzly bear. Now confined to his pyjamas, Stuart fritters away his time writing crime novels set in Aberdeen and lying to journalists.



Other books by Stuart MacBride:


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About the Author
Evie is the Blogger behind Bookish. She enjoys reading many different genres, especially YA, Paranormal, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy.
She loves talking to authors and is always happy to welcome them for interviews, and guest posts. She also likes spreading the love for awesome books and  chatting with fellow book-worms.
You can find Evie here: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Shelfari | The Library Thing

7 comments:

Nicole @ Nicole About TOwn said...

Awww...love you too! I am so glad that you had a great time. HarperCollins Canada seriously puts on some great events.

I really liked being able to freak Stuart out (the snake with no name), lol!

Evie said...

Hahaha the snake with no name lol! He even wrote this in your book! Hahaha so awesome! Thanks, sweets, it was great! ;)

Andrea @ Cozy Up said...

I really enjoy your review of the Harper Collins event. You should definitely schedule more trips to come here when they do events like that! It was great meeting you too, you were so awesome to talk to!

Evie said...

Heeeey, sweetie!:) Thanks for a comment! :) It was so great to meet you last night! And definitely let me know when your blog is up - I'll be the first to follow! Hugs!

Lalaine said...

That is so cool! wow. Also loved your blog its so cute. thanks for dropping by my page and giveaway Evie. I really appreciate that. See you around. :)



Lalaine @ ficbookreviews

Chrystal said...

I've actually never read any of this books, but the covers look amazing. I'll be adding his books to my wishlist. :)

What an awesome event! :)

Andrea @ Cozy Up said...

Hey, I actually just posted my first review on my new blog! If you want to take a look :)

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