Queenie in Manchester – Event Recap

On Wednesday 10th April I attended an incredibly exciting event! I went to the evening with Candice Carty-Williams who is the author of the incredible debut novel Queenie! This was a slightly different event than the usual in terms of its format and I will get into that in the post. It was such an incredible event that I had to recap it! Here is my recap of the Queenie in Manchester event!

The evening started with my rushing from the car park to the event because I was worried I would miss the start! Thanks to my fast little legs I made it on time even if I was a little worn out. When I arrived at Waterstones I took a quick diversion into the YA section (as always) but walked away with no books! Then I went and met my friends Sarah and Fi in the events room of Waterstones Deansgate.

10 minutes later and the event was underway. This event had a different format to other events hosted at Waterstones before. It was an event open to the public but made for the Northern bloggers! It was formatted as a Q&A portion at the start of the event and then Candice got to mingle with all the people who attended the event and answer any questions we had, take pictures and sign books!

The event began with the wonderful bookseller Kimi asking Candice a few questions about Queenie. Candice talked about how the book is written from a first-person perspective and is inspired by events that happened in her life. One thing I found out at the event is that Candice actually wrote a lot of Queenie whilst in JoJo Moyes’ (the author of Me Before You) cottage! I thought that was such an interesting piece of information and an amazing story to hear!

After Kimi had asked Candice some questions, the audience were asked if they had any questions. A lot of the questions asked by the audience were about the age-range that Queenie was meant to target. Candice talked about how this book is all about a quarter-life crisis at the age of 25! I love that Candice brought the idea of a quarter-life crisis up because I think this is a real thing! Candice said that when you hit 25 you aren’t a kid anymore and you are meant to be a fully-grown adult, but you may not know what you are doing and where you are going. This is the book for anyone going through a quarter-life crisis!

After everyone had asked their questions Candice started mingling with the audience. She signed everyone’s books and chatted with us all about books, publishing and Queenie!

This was my favourite part of the event because whilst other people were talking to Candice, the Northern bloggers attending the event formed a little circle across the room and started talking about anything and everything. I love this group of people I have been introduced to  all because I blog about something I love and I love spending time talking to them. It isn’t often that we are all together but when there is a lot of us all at the same event it is a lot of fun!

After most of the other people attending the event had left, the events rooms was left with the Northern bloggers and the wonderful Candice. She came over and joined our little circle. We then all discussed what books we had been reading recently, book tattoos, books in general and being book bloggers. It was a lot of fun and such a nice way to end such a wonderful event.

We then all got a group picture of the Northern bloggers and Candice which is one of the first ever photos that we have all taken as a group and is such a wonderful photo. Candice is so wonderful and lovely and just an all-round bad-ass woman and it made us bloggers feel very appreciated that she took time out of her busy schedule to come and chat with us about her book.

Thank you so much to Candice and her publicist for coming to the event and letting us blogger chat with you! Also a massive thank you to my wonderful best friend Kimi for organising this wonderful event! Bring on the next book event!