Event Report: Meeting Leigh Bardugo in London

Tuesday 25th September was a special day for The Gathering Dark fans in London, UK because the author, the chipper Leigh Bardugo, was over from the sun shine in the USA to visit us and there was a special event happening at Waterstone's Piccadilly where we had a Q&A session and signing.  I was very excited for this event because I loved the book and my friendly book blogger buddy Casey from Dark Readers had made a very special video for the event:

The video was so fab and even Leigh was moved by it (she cried but happy tears) as she knows how much work was probably put into it and it was all done out of love for her work which was huge.  Leigh was a hugely wonderful person to meet because she is full of beans and tells her story in such an interesting way that I was glad I recorded her Q&A because I was too engrossed at the time to make any notes.

Leigh talked about her experiences of writing and how she got inspired by a single event to write the story.  She went away with friends for Halloween and as a make up artist she ended up doing the make up for EVERYONE at the party all night and so the next night stayed home while the others went out.  She fell asleep and woke up in a pitch black room (it was a house in the middle of no where compared to living in the big city Leigh was used to) and so she was wandering in the dark to find light, hitting things and hearing strange noises and then the idea of being so afraid of the dark and what would it be like if the strange noises in the darkness were more sinister and darkness was something to really fear.  She took the idea and wrote and wrote and promised herself she'd get this story out of her for her own sake with the support of friends and family.

She spoke about the writing process she went through and how long it took her to do each draft version and her journey from writing to the final product and getting published as well as the amazing news her book has had the film rights bought by Dreamworks.  Leigh seems like an author that is honestly excited and happy to write and by everything that she has received from the book being published from fan art, reviews and the next big dream from it being bought, published and being made into a movie.  Leigh is as enthusiastic as a writer as she is a reader and it made her so easy to listen to and ask questions.



I had a wonderful evening and Leigh made me feel really happy that I'm part of this world of books as a blogger because she's the kind of writer that loves what she does and shows it. That's fabulous.