Kelley Armstrong Signing Event!

Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an author reading/signing event featuring Kelley Armstrong at Park Road Books (an AWESOME indie bookstore in Charlotte, NC).  It was great!  I love The Darkest Powers books (The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning) and couldn't wait to meet Kelley!  We were told that she would be doing a reading followed by book signing and swag!  I was totally expecting her to read an excerpt from The Reckoning (the 3rd book in The Darkest Powers Trilogy which released this month),  but before she started reading she said that she wanted to address the loose ends that she left at the end of The Reckoning.  She promised us that she would never leave so many loose plot threads without a means of addressing them later.  You may be asking yourself, "I thought that The Darkest Powers books were a trilogy?"  Well, her next book will be titled The Gathering and will be set in the same world as the first three books, but the character set will be different.  The unresolved plot threads from The Reckoning will be addressed in this 4th novel, however, she did say that this trilogy will not be The Darkest Powers books 4,5, and 6, but will be an all new trilogy set in the same world.  Kelley said that we will learn that 'The Edison Group' had more than just 'The Genesis Project' (the project that included the experiments conducted on Chloe and her friends) going on.  This next trio of books will be focusing on 'Project Pheonix'.  We tried to wiggle some more info out of Kelley about 'Project Phoenix' but she stayed pretty tight-lipped!  She did give us a hint.... She said that 'Project Phoenix' is based on Vancover Island and the supernaturals featured will have powers that we may not have seen before!  She said that this project was concerned with resurrecting extinct supernaturals from the past (hence 'phoenix'!) and that she took the powers that these characters have from old mythology and folklore!  Pretty Cool, right?!!!  The excerpt that she read was intense and suspenseful.  I really can't wait to meet these new characters!  If you would like to read the excerpt that she read to us just go to www.harpercollins.com/kelleyarmstrong.

After her reading, she did a Q&A session, gave out some cool swag, and signed books.  I had her sign all three of my hardback copies and I also had her sign my arc copy of The Reckoning because I am going to be giving it away to one lucky follower (along with some of the absolutely adorable character pins that she gave me!).  I will post details about this contest soon!  Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, also came to the signing since she lives in Charlotte. It was great getting to hang out and talk to Carrie and Kelley after the event.  It was a perfect booklover's evening... meeting cool authors, meeting fellow booklovers, hanging out in an awesome indie bookstore, and then hitting more bookstores after the event!  Sigh....

**The top picture is of me and Kelley, the middle pictures are (1) me, Kelley, and Carrie Ryan (2) Kelley discussing her books and answering questions, the bottom pictures are (1) my signed books, my signed arc that I am giving away and my swag ( includes the character pins pictured above and a cute little school kit that is a ruler with The Darkest Powers written on the top that opens up and has paper clips, sticky notes, and colored sticky tabs in it)- Yeah! Yeah! If you have followed this blog at all, then you know I LOVE me some swag!!**