Bookography (36)

Bookography

Bookography is a fun new way to share the beauty of books with photography. Take a picture with the book being the focus or inspiration and share the picture(s) you have created for the week.

Book 

Death Sentence by Alexander Gordon Smith

Death Sentence

This picture was taken for another prompt for the dpreview.com photo challenges. The challenge is "Evil Book"  and I thought this book looks very evil, lots of evil creatures and bad things keep happening to the innocent Alex. I used my new 50mm lens with a very shallow depth of field of f/1.8, so there is a little strip of focus and everything else it out of focus and I think it adds to the gritty feel of the book.

If you would like to participate please do. I will post my Bookography post each week on Wednesdays. I would love if you would link back to my blog and share your own link in the comments.

To see my previous weeks pictures check out my Bookography tab 

 

 

<3Bookography

Gordon Smith & Robin Wasserman Signing

Alexander Gordon Smith

&

Robin Wasserman

Signing Event

March 5th 2012 at 7PM

Third Place Books

This was such a fun event, Gordon was very enthusiastic and exciting while he talked about his writing career. Robin decided she was going to be the "opening act" for two of Gordon's very excited fans.

Robin told us about how she started off in the publishing industry for Scholastic. When she got the job she was told she was going to be working on Harry Potter, but didn't realize that actually meant the coloring book where she had to choose the best movie picture scenes to make into line drawings for the coloring book.  Robin told us she developed a crush on the line drawing of Oliver Woods. She also worked on a lot of Pokeman books too.

She did publish a Scooby Doo book that ended up having her name on it, which they aren't suppose to and someone almost got fired because of it. Robin decided that she wanted to be a real author and publish a book. Being in the publishing world helped her because the publisher would take employees books and publish them.

Gordon told us a few stories and brought in some props. He showed us his first horror picture book that he ever made. It has "scary" smiling monsters that made his mom say "oh how cute". He also brought in the mask he made of the wheezer. He made the wheezer because he got stuck on the creature and to help himself he created it. He tried to get back at his brother by scaring him with the mask, but he ended up scaring his mom. 

Gordon told us he always wanted to be a horror writer since he was 6 and when he had told his grandma this she brought home some horror movies for him to watch. She brought home Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a zombie movie. These ended up scaring him so bad he couldn't sleep, his grandma came into check on him in her night gown and without teeth and ended up scaring him even more. 

Years later he wanted to experience some real life horror situations. He got his friend to do the "I'll tell my mom I'm at your house, you tell your mom you're at my house" thing so they could instead stay the night in a local haunted house. After finding an entrance through one of the boarded up windows and with only one weak flashlight they decided to choose a room to sleep in. Gordan kept on hearing a ticking sound in the house and when he heard a second sound he panicked. He ran screaming out the room taking the only light with him and leaving his friend behind. Since he took the light his friend screamed and ended up scaring Gordan even more because he though they had him. When he finally found his way out of the house and as he was running away he was puking on himself. Later when he friend caught up with him he found out he had peed his pants. 

More years later when he was going to start writing Lockdown and figuring out that he wanted the book to be in a prison, his brother suggested he actually visit a prison. He got permission on visit and old house with a real dungeon the kind without windows of any sort. When they got in the dungeon his brother again suggested that he go into one of the cells, when Gordon got in there his brother slammed the door shut locking him in there for 15 minutes. Gordon begged and pleaded to be let out but wasn't allowed while his brother was snickering on the other side. Since the cell had no windows and it was pitch dark making Gordon's imagination go wild, but it created some amazing scenes in the books from this real life experience. 

There was a little Q&A section after they talked about themselves. 

(Q&A is summarized)

Panser or Plotter?

Robin: She use to be a panser when she was younger, but now she is a plotter. She will make bullets points and check them off as she finishes them. 

Gordon: He is a panser, he didn't ever know how Alex was going to escape from the furnace, he figured if he knew than the readers would know he knew.

Where do you write?

Robin: She likes to write in ambient cafes and she will leave and find a different cafe until she gets the right mood.

Gordon: He holes himself up in his computer room. He writes his books in about three week, but those days consist of writing for 12 hours a day.   

I think there was another question, but I just don't remember what it was. I did forget to take pictures of both of them signing their books. Gordon also had an "official" Furnace stamp which was pretty awesome.

There were two girls there that made t-shirts, brought Gordon a birthday gift and brought their dog that was named Zee after one of the Furnace characters. That dog was so fluffy and cute. 

 The Furnace girls, Zee and Gordon

I almost forgot to even take a picture with Gordon and Robin, thankfully my friend that came with me reminded me. 

Have you met either Robin or Gordon?

<3Book Events
On a side note, bookstores are really hard to take pictures in due to all the shelving being this bright yellow color, makes it really hard for me to get good photos.

Interview with Alexander Gordon Smith

Alexander Gordon Smith

Interview

 I will be meeting Alexander on March 5th and I figured I would ask him all event themed questions since I will be hearing mostly book and writing themed questions at the event.

Escape From Furnace

Lockdown (my review)

Solitary (my review)

Death Sentence 

Fugitives 

Execution

New series

The Fury

Currently working on finishing the 2nd book 

Hi Kristina, thanks so much for interviewing me on your blog! It's awesome to be here!

1) If you could meet any 3 authors (dead or alive) who would they be?

Fantastic question! There are just so many to choose from! I'd love to meet Shakespeare, of course, and Dickens, and George Orwell. I'd absolutely love to meet Poe and Lovecraft too. You'd have to be careful if you brought all those authors back to life for a chat, though, as I think they'd probably all end up talking to each other (or arguing) and not to me! The living author I'd most love to meet is Stephen King, just to thank him for being such an inspiration. I'd also love to be able to meet me from the future – hopefully I'll still be an author – to find out in advance which books I was going to write!

2) What do you like most and least about touring?

Touring is one of my favourite parts of being a writer. I never thought I'd have a job where travelling the world and speaking to fans was part of my weekly routine! I especially love visiting the States, because you guys are so friendly, and so supportive, and so enthusiastic about books! And you have such a beautiful, hugely varied country, it's so awesome getting some time to see the sights. I often think I'll move over to the States at some point, and touring is a good chance to find my favourite spot! The other great thing is that you have to eat out pretty much every night, so it's an excuse to totally pig out. I'm usually a bit chunkier after a tour! The only thing I don't enjoy is being away from my family. I miss them so much when I'm on tour, but luckily the schedule is usually pretty hectic so there isn't much time to be homesick.

3) Was there any city that you were hoping to go to that isn't a part of this tour? 

There were loads! I was originally planning to head to LA as well, which had to be changed because there just wasn't enough time. I was in Utah last year and wanted to head to Vegas for a bit, but likewise it never happened. The problem is that I'm English, and I look at a map of the US and say 'well Seattle and LA are right next to each other, can't I just pop down for the afternoon?' Because over here distances are so small that you can drive pretty much anywhere in a day. In SLC I even asked a taxi driver if he could drive me down to Vegas, thinking it was like an hour away. Luckily he didn't, because it would have been about eight hours and a hell of a cab fare! I am aiming to visit every state in the US in the next few years, so I should get the chance to visit every major city too, but on this tour I'm doing Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York which is pretty awesome!

4) What are you looking forward to most while on this tour?

Definitely meeting the fans. I have the most awesome fans on the planet, they're just so cool! When my books were first published I'd do events and nobody would show up, or there would be a few people there but they had no idea who I was. Well, both of those things do still happen, but less so now! More often now people will come to the events having read the books, which is so brilliant. One of my favourite things is when a fan shows up with a pile of creased, well-thumbed books that have obviously been read over and over, and wants me to sign them all. I love that! I've had such a great response from fans about this tour, so many have said they'll be coming to see my show. One fan is even bringing her puppy to a show because she named it Zee after a character in Furnace. How amazing is that!

5) What has been your favorite or most memorable signing event?

The first one is probably the most memorable, if only because it's the most terrified I have ever been! It was in Glasgow, a notoriously tough place to perform, in front of 200 kids. I had two jokes to break the ice, and neither of them got a single laugh. I was ready to throw myself out the window of the Mitchell Library!! But it turned out to be a great event. I think the signing I most cherish was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, in 2010. My first year at the festival (in 2008) I had a few people at my event, and signed maybe ten books. But the author next to me had a queue of hundreds going all the way round the shop. I felt so embarrassed that so few people were interested in my book, but that author just leant over and said to me 'don't worry, we've all been there, it gets better!' Sure enough in 2010 the queue for my books was around the shop, and an author next to me had nobody, so I leant over to him and said exactly the same thing. Having so many fans line up for me to sign their books was just amazing, it was the first time it truly hit home that I was an author. I'll never forget it!

6) Favorite, most shocking and/or oddest question anyone has ever asked you at an event?

Somebody once said 'I haven't got enough money for a book, but if I give you 20p can I have your phone number?' I politely declined! The oddest questions tend to be things like 'do you have a helicopter?' 'Were you really locked inside Furnace?' 'Can you give me your books for free?' Things like that! The worst experience was when a man interrupted my event to tell me, and the audience, that my books were full of violence and should not be read by anyone! I was furious! I told him that if he'd actually read the books (which he hadn't) he'd see that although there is violence in them, the heart of the story is about hope, heroism and humanity, and the importance of friendship. Then I punched him in the nose. No, I didn't really punch him in the nose (as much as I wanted to), but he did look rather red-faced as he sloped off.

7) What was the last author event that you attended just as a fan?

I went to see Darren Shan when I was in Edinburgh for the festival last year. I'm a HUGE Shanster, and he was doing a special, one-off event where he condensed all of the Cirque du Freak books into a two-hour show. It was just amazing. I was also doing an event with Darren at the festival, which was so surreal, because I'd been a fan of his for so long and there I was alongside him on the stage. It was one of the best weekends ever!

8) Have you ever had anyone dress up for your event?

Yes! People do sometimes show up in homemade Furnace Penitentiary shirts and overalls, and somebody even turned up once with a gas mask on! I'm hoping he was dressed up as a Wheezer, and wasn't just a weirdo in a gas mask...

9) What was the coolest thing someone ever gave you at an event?

I don't get presents very often! Occasionally people give me fanfic stories they have written about Furnace, or pictures they have drawn, which is so cool. I am always happy to receive presents, though, if anybody wants to bring me one! :-)

10) What event prep do you do?

When I first started out, my event prep consisted mainly of throwing up in terror, crying and thinking of ways to avoid having to go on stage (I once even thought about throwing myself in front of a car – a slow-moving one – to break a limb or two). I used to be so scared of performing in front of people! After a few events, though, I realised just how much fun it was. Now I absolutely love it – I get withdrawal symptoms if I haven't done an event for a while! I don't do any prep, it's more fun if I just roll with it. The more informal the event, the more people seem to enjoy it!

11) Do you have any book taglines? A themed sentence for each book when personalized?

I usually sign books with "Don't have nightmares..." My handwriting is so bad, though, that a few people have looked at it and said "Don't have neighbours? Why can't I have neighbours?"

Thanks again for interviewing me! :-)  And hopefully I'll see some of your readers at the event, it will be great to meet you!

I loved reading these answers and I'm even more excited to meet Alex in person.

I just found the cover for Execution on Amazon and is that not the creepiest thing you have ever seen?! My favorite cover is Death Sentence it is intense and powerful. Execution is hard to for me to look at.

Will you be meeting Alex at any of his tour stop in the US?

<3Books

Solitary Review

Solitary

By Alexander Gordon Smith

Summary 

Furnace Prison ...
Where death is the least of your worries.
Escape is just the beginning ...
We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace.
All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse.
The clock’s ticking. Because if we don’t escape soon they will turn us into freaks - like them. For ever.
In the darkness of the hole your worst nightmares come to life.

What I Liked

Intense 

This book is intense, Alex deals with the loss of hope and the possibility of never getting out of the hell hole that is Furnace. At a few points he does hit rock bottom and you completely feel sorry for this kid that deserves to be in prison, but not in Furnace. Alex is on an emotional roller coaster ride of the loss of hope and the light of hope. He has worked his way into being the provider of hope for other kids, what a heavy burden. 

The Furnace

Maybe the place isn't at sealed up as the inmates are lead to believe. A few more potential escape routes are discovered by Alex, he is one handy kids to have around when you need to escape from an inescapable place. 

A New Nasty

The Blacksuites, Wheezers, the Warden, the dogs and now  these mutant rat things that can chew through anything. These disgusting things must be avoided at all costs, they are gross and scary and with the revelation of what they use to be is even worse. 
Ending
Oh my goodness, I can't believe it ended like that, so close yet so far away. I can't wait to start reading the next book.

Distracted

Dirty
I got distracted by being grossed out by how filthy everything in solitary is. Licking the walls to get some water, having a hole to squat over with nothing to wipe with, searching for bits of slop on the floor near the squat hole, no showers or washing hands . . . the list can go on for ages. I love my soap even more after reading this book.

Recommendation 
This is book 2 in the series, got to read this series.

Information 

Escape From Furnace series

Genre: YA Thriller

Lockdown

Solitary 

Death Sentence

Fugitives February 28th

Execution November 13th 2012

He will be touring the US in March 3rd to 25th, check his website (bottom of the page) for locations and dates. Dates are still being confirmed. I will be seeing him on March 5th and I will be posting a pre-event interview.

Do you like thrillers?

<3Books