I love living in city because of all the awesome book launches that are within walking distance. This time it was Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff at Dymocks, George Street, and it was totally worth the race there from work, belting down the escalators to the bottom floor of the bookstore to join the fifty odd other fans hanging off Amie and Jay’s every word. They managed to orchestrate a Mexican wave with the audience holding up their newly minted copies without anyone taking a book to the face (though it was close) and their founding story involved a dream Amie had and a plot she couldn’t remember. Seeing authors in the flesh is always a treat!
I’ve been watching the hype about this novel on twitter for a while now and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. In fact I got two. One for a friend who has the misfortune of living so far away in Bathurst and let me tell you, these books are pretty dense and, waiting in line for them to be signed for over an hour (totally worth it), they only got heavier and heavier.
Both Amie and Jay are too wonderful. I’d already met Amie at a speculative fiction festival at the NSW Writers’ Centre back in July. She’d been kind enough to not only sign my copy of These Broken Stars, but also gave me some advice regarding the publishing of my own novel that was in the process of being submitted for my creative PhD. For someone whose own star has shot up so quickly, she’s incredibly down to earth.
At the Illuminae book launch, I was stoked that she recognised me though there was a moment she thought she knew me from a pony club. Both her and Jay offered their own stories of rejection as I admitted that I’d begun sending out query letters and had yet to be successful (and still haven’t as of this post, but that just makes me more like a real writer!).
Now I’ve a shiny copy of Illuminae, the cover a gorgeous fiery red and the fore edge patterned black and white from all of the epic graphics. I want to savour this story, yet I want to devour it in one bite. Either way, I suspect this book is going to be a favourite.
Updated 1/1/2016
Kaufman and Kristoff have put together a video of their tour! You can see the top of my head at the Sydney Book Launch (I’m the one standing next to the weird guy in glasses(also known as my hubby) right at the back).