Ellen Hopkins - Joseph Beth Booksellers, September 28

It was 7:02 when Ellen Hopkins took the stage, greeted by applause and shouting girls who felt two minutes was too long.

I was one of them. :)

Ellen Hopkins is very down-home and nice in person. You can immediately tell that she could be angry and annoyed by her hardships, instead she just makes the choice to change peoples' lives. She's definitely an author that you'd want to call "Mrs. Hopkins" instead of by her first and last name.

The first topic of the evening was how a town in Oklahoma wants to prevent her from talking at schools in the area. The "grown-ups" want to ban her books because of the sexual content/drug addiction contained within the binding.

This made me very angry, seeing as Ellen Hopkins is pretty much the sweetest woman you will ever meet, and she's just trying to help people with her novels. They all contain little afterwords in the back that all but beg you to get help if you are addicted to drugs/thinking of suicide/a teenage prostitute.

After the short little explanation, she gave a brief summary of her newest book, Tricks (which I have already reviewed.) She took about a half hour of questions, and by then the crowd was worn out.

Most of the questions were things I already knew (because I stalk really like Ellen Hopkins.)

Is Crank really about your daughter?

What books do you have planned for the near future?

How did you come up with the idea for _____?

And the like.

By the time we got to the signing, I was super-excited. I was also in the B Section, so I got to get my book signed without waiting too long.

ACK! I also got a picture!

Before I left, I asked one last question that Tricks-virgin ears would not have wanted to overhear. And I got the ANSWER! :DDDD

When I walked away and opened my book, I noticed she wrote "Dream!" on the inside.

So Ellen Hopkins basically made my day. :) If you ever notice she's coming to do an event in your town or somewhere near, go!!

Seacrest, uhrm, Lindsey, out!

P.S. I'm really sorry this is a day late and I haven't reviewed anything lately. Don't worry - I'm still alive and plan to review a lot of books very soon. Right now, though, I'm working hard on midterms before Fall Break. Wish me luck!

I feel "snaps" are in order.

So, over at Hey, Teenager of the Year, Steph is doing 

something really interesting: Books Change Lives month.

She said that I was free to do a guest post, so I did! 

I wrote about Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend by

Carrie Jones, a book very near and dear to my heart.

Steph said the review will be up any day now, so go

check it out!

Thanks Steph!!!

:)

*squee* (x2) E.H. and what LEGENDARY Steph Bowe has to say...

Okay, well I have jumped up and down like eighty times today. Two are blog-related.

1) Ellen Hopkins will be doing a book signing Monday, September 28 at 7:00 pm!!! I am SO completely excited for this, and her new book, Tricks. My mother went to Joseph-Beth in Lexington today to get Tricks while I was at school, and while there she discovered this AWESOME event. I'm soooooo happy. Expect full coverage of that, the blog will be up September 29.

2) A few days ago, I emailed Steph Bowe from Hey, Teenager of the Year (you can find the link over this way -->) and asked her a couple of tips and her opinion of this blog. I thought you guys (which, well, I don't have any "guys" right now, BUT I WILL) would like to see what she had to say: 

Hi Lindsey!

 

Glad you like my blog :-) Your blog looks great!

 

what I'd recommend to you, since your blog is pretty new and you don't have many readers is

1. Add the 'follower' widget. Right away! It makes it easy for people to keep updated with your blog, and if a specific blog doesn't have a follower widget, I'll forget to add itto my blogger dashboard.

2. Regularly post content. Sometimes I won't post for a few days, and the number of visitors goes right down. Posting daily brings people back the most.

3. Email book bloggers and ask if you can do guest posts. This is mainly for exposure, so that people know about your blog. Say 'Hey, I love your blog. Would you be interested in swapping guest posts? I can write a post about [topic]' or 'Could I write a guest post for your blog about a book I love/a book that changed my life/somethign else bookish'. Guest posts are really rewarding to do, and attract readers to your blog. One blogger who might be interested in swapping guest posts with is weronika (http://weronikajanczuk.com). She's really nice. Also, if you don't heaps of book blogs yet, check out my blogroll. I have so many blogs there it isn't funny, and lots of them are probably willing to swap blog posts or let you interview them.

4. Regarding reviewing books... I don't like to ask for books, but read lots of author blogs and occasionally you can register your interest for a review copy. Once you get a bit of a following on your blog, authors and publishers might start to offer you books. Last month, I was sent three books from one publisher, one from another, and a couple from authors directly. But there are only really two Australian book bloggers, and I'm assuming you're in the US, so there's a bit more competition for review copies (though there are a lot more books being published!) Put a review policy on your blog once you have a handful of reviews up there, so that people can see your reviewing style.

 

It's taken me about five months to build up the following I have on my blog -- asnd it's SO slow at first. I'm doing a thing called Books Change Lives month at the moment, so if you'd like to write a guest post for that, that would be fantastic!

haha, I'm not famous at all XD

 

Anyway, there are a couple of other things you might want to read:

Presenting Lenore has advice for book bloggers, which is super-useful: http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-book-blogger-faq.html

Plus Persnickety snark has a guide to YA blogging too: http://persnicketysnark.blogspot.com/2009/08/guide-to-ya-blogging_07.html
 

All the best,

Steph

Well, that's all for now, be expecting a complete Tricks review by this Friday.