Meet HQ's First Blogger Event and Author Meet and Greet

HQ is a exciting and very new imprint from Harper Collins. They publish a mix of Women's Fiction, Thrillers and also some YA and non-fiction. I have already been lucky enough to read two of their titles which were The Light We Lost and Sometimes I Lie, both of which have been fantastic reads. The MeetHQ event was a chance to meet and hear from authors Alice Feeny (Sometimes I Lie), Felicity Everett (The People at Number 9) and Sara Alexander (Under a Sardinian Sky).

The main event

Upon arriving at the #MeetHQ event with my friend Zarina, we were greeted with a beautiful array of books. My eyes instantly went wide especially over the stunning finished copy of The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo. We also got to have some delightful canapes and a bit of a mingle before we got to hear from the main authors and focus of the event. I was honestly really looking forward to hearing from them, especially Alice Feeney as Sometimes I Lie is one the best thrillers I have read this year. 

The event was chaired by the wonderful Lucy Richardson, Publicist and BookTuber extraordinaire. If you aren't already following her Youtube channel, I recommend you do so now- The Book Belle. 

To give us a bit of background into each of their books, our authors were asked to describe their book in one sentence. Sara started off and said "A girl becomes a woman set in 1950s Sardinia", Alice described hers as "A book about how if we spend too long pretending who we're not we forget who we are"- literally the perfect description as I have read it! Lastly Felicity described The People at Number 9 as "Neighbours from heaven who become neighbours from hell. I have been wanting to read Felicity's book for a while now and now I am even more intrigued.

A question that is always asked of authors and one that I always am fascinated by was where do their ideas for stories come from. Alice said that she actually "...dreamt about the main character Amber and then couldn't stop thinking about her. Eventually she got so loud she had to be written." Sara said that for her "...it usually starts with a setting." Similar to somewhere that she has been before and within that setting she begins to picture the people that would be there. 

Onto favourite scenes in the book and Sara said it was where different worlds collided. Alice said it was writing the scenes where Amber was in a coma as it felt both liberating and terrifying at the same time. I personally loved those scenes too as it's rare to hear from the perspective of a character who is in a coma. Felicity said it was when her main character, who was so desperate to keep her background hidden from her new friends ends up in a bit of a car crash as she has to get her Mum to help out and the two worlds collide.

The next question was an interesting one and it was what scenes were the hardest to write. Alice said it was an unpleasant scene in the hospital and I of course know exactly what scene that one was about!  Sara said it was the ending as the original one she wrote her editors hated and said that they felt betrayed and would never read anything of hers again if that was the ending she was going to go with! 

It was such an insightful and engaging discussion and Lucy asked some brilliant questions, which of course in turn got some fascinating responses. Afterwards we got to have more of a mingle and our books signed. It was also an opportunity for me to ask Alice about the ending of Sometimes I Lie as I wasn't sure if I had missed something or not. She said that I hadn't and that she had left it like that deliberately for us to make up our own minds. There is going to be a TV series of the book coming very soon, which I most certainly will be watching and there is also going to be a second TV series based on that ending. Alice said this won't be anything that she writes so I am interested to see what the TV producers come up with.

There was of course a brilliant goody bag at the end with some exciting proofs in and we were allowed to take some of the books on display home with us. I instantly picked up The People of Number 9 and Milly's Real Food. A huge thank you to the team at Midas PR and Lucy for organising this brilliant event.