London Film and Comic Con (& YALC) Recap

I was lucky again this year to be able to attend Film & Comic Con. Last year I went to the Winter one, but I was thrilled to be going to the Summer one, firstly because there would be so many actors attending from one of my favourite shows Game of Thrones, but also YALC would be taking place: The UK's first YA Lit Con. I was hoping to attend on Saturday, but wasn't able to, so had to make do with the slowest trains ever on Sunday and on top of that I hadn't purchased my entry ticket. Last year I bought my ticket on the day and was inside Earl's Court within a few minutes, even though the line was pretty long, but when I was checking Twitter on Saturday night, I read about people who had no ticket, waiting for hours and not getting in. So you could say I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get in at all, (doors opened at 9 and I would be arriving on the slowest train ever!). But when I was randomly going through #LFCC tweets on Twitter, I saw that someone had an extra earlybird ticket that they would be selling. This guy was super sweet too, as he went inside and then came back out to meet me, so I could buy his ticket! So I was able to go straight in! 

Queues inside for tickets weren't too bad, being the organised person that I am, I planned my schedule thoroughly, I had a nice mix of a GoT talks, cast meet up, with author panel chats and signings. So before my schedule was about to start, I had an hour or so to walk around and see how things were. This year I ended up going to Comic Con myself, so of course I had to man up a bit and actually talk to the cast myself. I saw Gethin Anthony (Renly Baratheon) from Game of Thrones and quite literally came to a standstill, I do admit to having a little crush on him in the show, but my gosh in real life, I was lost for words. But I took my friend's advice and actually approached his table, he was lovely to chat with and actually thought my name was lovely, I admit that I don't actually remember much of what was said after that! I also got to meet with Finn Jones (Loras Tyrell), Ellie Kendrick (Meera Read), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and see Kristian Nairn (Hodor), Sibel Kekilli, Kate Dickie (Lysa Tully) and Ian Beattie (Meryn Trant). 

 

So you can imagine I was in Game of Thrones heaven! The panel with the cast was also pretty amazing too, actors Finn, Gethin and Kristian were pretty hilarious. I have included a video of the panel which you can watch below!

The YALC part was also pretty amazing, they had a pretty neat corner just for them. There was also a cool book swap shelf, where you could take your old books and swap them for other books that people had left. They had publishers handing out awesome freebies, a little sitting area, where you could sit back and relax and workshops and authors panels throughout the day.

I was able to attend the I'm too Sexy for this book panel with James Dawson, Cat Clarke, Non Pratt and Beth Reekles. And having not picked up a book by these authors, this panel definitely made me want to. Here's a couple of tidbits from their talk:

Process behind writing love scene:
Beth's sex scene was more romantic, Non tends to write scenes that she likes best first, so scenes such as fight, love and drunk scenes. Cat tends to use Sex as a weapon, and she also keeps a sexy times playlist, which she made from her followers on twitter. She asked what got her followers in the mood and found a lot of people mentioned Prince!

All the authors would not put age ratings on books. 

Cat has been lucky, as she's never had to take a scene out of her book, she thought that a particular line in Undone would have to be taken out.

I also was able to meet Lucy Christopher (whose book Stolen I adored) and Sarra Manning for the second time, she actually remembered my name too! I was also lucky to meet many fantastic bloggers, such as Jess from Jess Hearts Books, (I loved how we bumped into each other so many times), Debbie from Snuggling on the Sofa, Kayleigh from K-Books, Lucy from Queen of Contemporary and Faye from a Daydreamer's Thoughts. 

Me and Jess.

Me and Lucy Christopher

Overall I had a fantastic time at the London Film & Comic Con this year. I was grateful to have met so many people, but wished I could have met the many more bloggers that I missed out on. But here's to next year or the Winter con if you're going!

ARC Giveaway & ALA Chicago

Hello readers! Our bookcases can't handle all the books we read, so we thought we'd giveaway a couple of ARCs that we've review here on the blog recently.  Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick, Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith and The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher.  You can read Jasprit's reviews by clicking on the titles.  

    

Just fill out the rafflecopter below for a chance to win. The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.

 

I've been a little scarce on the blogs and on Goodreads because I've been strategizing and planning my attack for the Chicago ALA!  By the time you read this post I'll should be in Chicago wandering with stars in my eyes, as I usually do at these events.  I'll be meeting up with some of my best book friends: Arlene and Crystal at Winterhaven Books and a couple of other friends.  If it's anything like the last ALA event, I know we're going to have a blast running around, chasing authors, fellow bloggers *stares pointedly at Arlene* and gossiping books! If I end up getting any postable pictures (most are blurry and are of the "what is that face I'm making?" variety) I'll share them with you here on the blog.