Dystopian Tour: Lauren Oliver & Veronica Roth

As soon as I heard that these two were coming to Chapter's Brampton I knew I had to be there. These two authors have opened up the Dystopian genre to a new audience: young adults. I am ashamed to say that I have not read Lauren Oliver's Delirium yet. I know. It's a little ridiculous. The poor book has been staring back at me in my TBR pile and yet I have not found the time yet to pick it up. Don't worry though, it's next!
As for Divergent, I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from HarperCollins Canada. I immediately fell in love with Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago and Divergent soon became not only my favourite debut novel of 2011, but one of my all time favourites. I am so excited I was in attendance at this event and that I get to share that excitement with you!

The event got off to a great start as readers piled in to hear Lauren and Veronica answer questions posed by an interviewer. These questions ranged from those discussing their writing process, to others that exposed the author's hidden talents. To be honest, the talent question was probably one of my favourites during this discussion. Most of you have probably seen Lauren Oliver's talent splashed across YouTube, but I was in the dark. When she started to belt out Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid I couldn't believe my ears! Lauren is an incredible singer and I can totally seeing her making her Broadway debut someday! Veronica Roth's talent was just as shocking and I managed to get some of it on video. The talented young lady can take a piece of paper and turn it into a paper hat! How awesome is that? Veronica signed this hat and a lovely woman in the audience, who donated to Indigo's Love of Reading Foundation, took it home.

After this part of the discussion it was the audience's turn to ask the questions. This is always a wonderful part of any author event because it gives the readers the opportunity to ask those burning questions that keep them up at night. There were a few of those plot questions floating around but as expected they didn't get a response. Of the questions though there was one that I really liked and was something that I had been wondering myself. One of the readers in the audience asked Veronica, "Which faction would you choose?". What a fantastic question and the response was even better. Veronica said that she would probably be Abnegation based on the testing, just for the fact that she has been trying to be more selfless lately, but that she would choose Dauntless.  Her reasoning for choosing Dauntless is that she has issues with fear and anxiety. She explains that those in Dauntless are not void of fear but that they just choose to embrace it instead. I really love her thoughts on this and would have chosen the exact same faction for the exact same reasons.

Finally it was time for the signing! :) I brought my copy of Delirium to have it signed to myself but I felt so bad that A wasn't there that I had Lauren sign it to her. So as I was having Lauren sign it to Ashley I was asking her about her middle grade series Liesl & Po which is out this fall. Needless to say the message she wrote to Ashley in the copy of Delirium pertains to this. Since it made no sense to Ash, I ended up keeping it. ;) I now have a copy of Delirium signed to Ashley, with a message to me. It's kind of awesome. :)

When it came to getting Veronica to sign the books I brought I turned into a complete fan girl. I really tried not to. I really wanted to ask her why she chose Chicago but all I managed to say was, "I have two books." Really? Wow. I am a fail. If Ash was there she would have laughed at me. Scratch that. She is laughing now. In my copy Veronica signed what I hope she wrote in every one's copy of Divergent: "Be Brave!". I really love that this is what she chose to write because that is really what her entire book is about. As for the other book I had signed, well, it was a copy for a giveaway sometime in June. It's sitting in the swag box as we speak waiting to be given to one lucky reader. Stay tuned!

This event was ABSOLUTELY wonderful and I had so much fun. Thank you to Indigo Green Room for organizing this event and to Chapter's Brampton for kindly hosting it. Oh and I really need to thank Amy from Chapter's Brampton. Not only did she take the pictures of me with the authors, but she also took candids out of the kindness of her heart. This post wouldn't be the same without those photos so I am very grateful! Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for handing out swag bags to all of the readers in attendance! That was totally unexpected but much appreciated. Finally, thank you to Lauren and Veronica for making the trip to Canada to visit with their fans here. I know I speak for all the readers in attendance when I say we wish you both the best and can't wait for your next projects!

-C