Heyo Bookaholics!
Not Just Another Melbourne Book Launch!
On Thursday (the 28th of March), Astrid Scholte’s first novel, Four Dead Queens, was officially launched at Readings Bookstore in Carlton. The event was hosted by the amazing Amie Kaufman.
The Interview
As an experienced book event host, Amie has a unique way in which she conducts interviews. She will do all the introductions, and tell the audience to think of questions to ask the author she’s interviewing. Then she does a round of normal questioning, a round of quick-fire questions, and finally allows the audience to ask their questions.
Astrid was asked to sum up the novel in a few words. She went off on a little tangent about the book which could be summed up in a few simple words:
A Slytherin dragging a Hufflepuff on an adventure to solve a murder.
In all, the book, as the title states is about four queens who each govern a single quadrant that have different values and ways of living. Almost like the factions in The Hunger Games novels. The queens die off one by one suddenly, and our main character, a common thief, takes it upon herself to try and solve their murders.
Based on the synopsis, one of the questions asked by the audience was:
“If you were the Queen of a fifth quadrant – which wouldn’t really be a quadrant them – what would that quadrant be themed?”
Of course, the Disney nerd in Astrid answered that her quadrant – which we determined was not called a quadrant – would be Disney Themed.
Amie asked all the important questions. For instance, we found out what Hogwarts houses each main character is in.
Astrid sorted each of the four queens on the spot and to everyone’s shock, there was not a Gryffindor in sight! From memory, there are two Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin. The queens were identified by the beautiful hand-painted Funko Pop characters on the shelf behind Astrid, which she created herself!
The Competition
After the interview and all the thank yous, including a special announcement from Astrid. Her boyfriend proposed to her! She was hiding the engagement ring on the wrong finger because even her family didn’t know. She switched it over when she announced it and it was the funniest, cutest announcement ever.
I was blissfully ignorant of the competition that was to take place and I just assumed everyone came dressed like queens in crowns to support the launch of her book. There were six people who went up on stage to participate in the best-dressed competition, one of which was Astrid’s young niece. Everyone clapped for the winner and her niece won, like the little queen she is!
You can see this footage in my upcoming Four Dead Queens vlog!
The Signing
I had my copy of Four Dead Queens signed by Astrid, and I was able to sign her own copy of the book! Such a cute idea! She said she got the idea from a Sarah J. Mass book signing, where Sarah has her readers sign a copy of the book.
I hope you enjoyed this post! The lighting wasn’t great in the store, but I did my best with the photos. Keep your eyes peeled for my Four Dead Queens vlog, coming soon!
Have you picked up your copy of FOUR DEAD QUEENS yet? xxx
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With Love Bree xx
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