Siege and Storm launch party!

Last night (or really this night as I am typing) was the launch party for Siege and Storm (Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo!  Out now folks, OUT NOW!  I had a blast at the party with fellow book enthusiasts and Ms. Leigh A. Bardugo (the A stands for awesome.  That may or may not be her real middle name.)  I've only been to a launch party for Legend by Marie Lu, and that was at a bookstore, so I was not sure what to expect from a launch party at the Hemingway Bar and Lounge, but it was an ingenious idea!  Especially because the bar is so gorgeous!  Literally wall to wall with books!  And lots of comfy chairs.

The entrance of the bar had a great photo set-up where we could take a picture in front of a backdrop similar to the book -and with props!  Then inside the bar proper, there were drinks to be had, books to be bought, and seats around the main little stage area.  My friend and I went to get drinks first (as you will) and they had lovely raspberry champagne on the house with cute little Siege and Storm flags.

David Peterson, the man who invented the language for the Game of Thrones TV series introduced Leigh and mentioned she had words named after her in the language.  Which I didn't know and apparently Leigh didn't either because she seemed really surprised and touched.  Of course the highlight was Leigh's speech which started with her reading from a diary she kept when she was a teenager.  She read an entry where she had written down the superpowers she wanted to have.  Flying, Invisibility, Mind Reading (with the ability to switch on and off of course, no one wants that all the time), Immortality ("with an escape clause") and the last: "The ability to write a book and get it published."

Leigh's speech after that was very inspiring.  How so many things seem attainable when you are young, but your optimism shrinks as you get older.  But with readers we can still feel that hope and experience those dreams that we so believed in when we were young.  I've never thought of it that way, but it is so true.  With all the terrible things that happens in the world today, books aren't just an escape but a way to connect with a part of ourselves that loved to imagine.  Which came so easily to us when we were young.  I couldn't be happier to be a book lover at that moment.  (Although holding "Siege and Storm" felt like a close second!)

Afterwards Leigh read a bit from Siege and Storm and there was also a short Q&A, in which Margaret Stohl asked if we would like to hear Leigh Bardugo sing (Answer: Yes) and Leigh sang the theme song to Charles in Charge.  Awesomely.  And then a giveaway of books and swag.  One prize was at least forty books, and they all went to one person!  So lucky!  There were some awesome books there!  And some of the authors were at the party and could have signed them!  Although I think I might have been hard pressed to choose between those books and another prize - that included Hebel designed Grisha jewelry!

The book signing was at the end, and there were lots of mingling (I suppose, I'm not very good at mingling) so my friend and I went and took a picture at the photo booth as our commemoration of the event.  With swords and cool hats!

It was a wonderful event, so full of enthusiasm for books, and for the Grisha series and for Leigh, and I was so glad to have been a part of it.  I hope for Ruin and Rising there will be a similar event!  And now that I know Hemingway Bar exists, I really must go and visit it again!

I posted more pictures and Vine videos on my twitter account: bookishwhimsy.  I'm a bit taken with Vine - the app where you create and share 6 second videos and I put three of them up.  Here's one of Leigh reading as the Darkling (with Margaret Stohl acting as her Sun Summoner).  Since it's 6 seconds, it's just one line really: