OUP event with Joss Stirling, Rhiannon Lassiter and William Hussey

It was such a treat to be invited to an OUP event.  MFB turned up en masse - Sarah (Essjay) Mark and myself arrived at The House of St Barnabas in Soho and were shown up the grand staircase to where the event was being held.

We immediately zoomed in on old friend of the blog, William Hussey who wore a rather fetching demon familiar on his shoulder.  Or was it a growth?  We ogled the mock-up of his new novel coming out in 2011 called Witchfinder: Gallows at Twilight.  He let spill some info about upcoming books and a new series.  I got shivers.  Sometimes I wish I had a time-machine to go ahead in time, nab the books, read them and then be all smug about it in the present. 

William Hussey, author of Witchfinder

Then I abandoned Mark and Sarah to their own devices and tracked down Joss Stirling for a brief chat.  I finished reading Finding Sky just last week so the story is still pretty fresh in my mind.  Joss knew who I was (!!!) and knew of MFB (YAY!) and before I could even chat to her about her writing she said that she can tell how much fun we have on MFB reviewing books - she could tell that we did it for the sheer love it.  I have to say that this was the coolest thing I've had anyone tell me in a long time. 

I chatted to Joss briefly at first - it was a quick: I really loved Finding Sky and found that I really liked the setting.  I felt that the characters were really rich and different but I also thought that the setting of their town worked well as it gave us UK readers a definite glimpse of small town America.  Joss quickly agreed and mentioned that she fell in love with Colarado during their West to East trip across the States.

We had to separate at this time as more people needed to chat to her.  I discovered that the lovely Mr. Steve Feasey had turned up in the meantime and it was the funniest thing - having been a fan of his for so long, because of his Changeling books, and having emailed him for so many years, suddenly I see him several times within a few days.  That is fate.  Truly a charming guy - we'll be part of his blogtour for his fourth Changeling book! Aroo!

Rhiannon Lassiter reading from the pages of her new novel

A whole group of my bloggery friends turned up too - another Sarah, Lyndsey,  Becky, Sammee, and Caroline but sadly, we had no chance to chat!  Next time, for sure.  I am also really chuffed to have hung out with my good mate Darren from Bookzone for Boys. 

The lovely Michelle Harrison was there too, looking incredibly glamourous.  I introduced fan-girl Essjay to her and we got to chat to Mich for a bit before we oozed away to go mingle some more.

After the readings, I got to chat to Rhiannon Lassiter (whose mum is the amazing Mary Hoffman) and I confessed that I randomly bought a copy of Bad Blood last weekend.  The eerieness freaked me out.  What a lovely talented young woman (I can say this as I'm older than her) and we spent a good few minutes chin-wagging.  We discovered a shared love for David Gemmell.  Mark and I beamed at her like crazy people! Our estimation of her rose even more and bumped around the ceiling by then.

Joss Stirling showing off Finding Sky

Throughout the evening I got to catch brief chats with Joss.  And here is a bit of an exclusive:  turns out I've read Joss's other books in the past.  She also writes under the name Julia Golding.  Julia Golding of Cat Royal, Wolf Cry fame.  How cool is that?  It turns out that she wanted to write something darker for an older audience and purposefully chose Joss Sterling as a pseudonym.  It also makes life easier for her to wear her different names and keep her two different careers / personas separate.

I loved chatting to Joss.  She is wonderfully charismatic and you can just tell that she's a good storyteller.  You know how some people really just give off the storyteller vibe?  Joss has it in spades.

We were some of the last to leave, as usual and as we were waved farewell, we were handed a goodie bag... 

Here's the deal - we have one copy of Finding Sky to give away, which came from the goodie bag.  Like with Infinite Days competition, I want you guys to enter this competition and tell me names of dark fiction - adult or kids - in both book and film format. I am a seasonal reader and need to get some darker fiction to read.  Sadly, this book is NOT signed (I stupidly didn't think about that!) but it is still a stonking good read.  My review will appear over at WriteAway shortly.

Competition Rules:

UK only.
Enter by leaving comments telling me about darker fiction you've read - horror, urban fantasy, lit-horror, I want to hear it all.
Remember to let me have a twitter / website where I can contact you if you win.
The competition closes next week Friday, 5th November 2010.

GO!


And make sure to visit Jenny from Wondrous Reads to follow Joss's blog tour on the 29th.