Event Recap: Penn Cole and Nghi Vo

 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Penn Cole and Nghi Vo author event hosted by The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, MO. I've read all three of Penn Cole's novels and am anxiously awaiting Burn of the Everflame, the conclusion to her Kindred's Curse saga. I was not familiar with Nghi Vo previously, but my sister bought me The Empress of Salt and Fortune for my birthday last month and I read it last week and loved it! So I was familiar with both author's writing going into the event.

The tickets came with a copy of one of the author's new releases: Spark of the Everflame or The City in Glass. I already own the indie hardcovers of the Kindred's Curse saga and I have a strict no duplicated rule, so I went with the copy of City in Glass.

The night started with a conversation between the Event Planner from The Novel Neighbor and our two authors. Nghi Vo had the best quotes including the two following: 

If this world doesn't make any sense, why should mine? (in reference to her world building)

and

When you're writing a character, find what they love...And take it away. No really. You should try it.

An audience Q&A followed the author discussion. Once audience member asked why Penn loves Henri so much, which Penn answered with a wonderful description of Henri's importance to the story in several ways, particularly in his representation of marginalized people. You definitely should go find some of Penn's videos on social media pertaining to the Henri, because hearing her talk about him gave me as a reader a much different perspective on him. 

After the Q&A was the signing line. Penn was only personalizing one book, but signing as many as people brought. She was so sweet and asked me what my favorite book was. I told her Spark was my favorite but I loved all the traveling we did in Heat. She then said we'll be doing a lot of traveling in Burn too! She also had brought some stickers that attendees could take for free.

Nghi Vo personalized all three books I had. She told me about her book coming out next spring which is a Great Gatsby retelling. She also drew me this nice little city on The City of Glass.

It was wonderful to hear both these authors talk about their books and their author journeys. They were both so nice and so gracious. They have much different writing styles and types of stories, but at the heart of their novels are strong female leads in fantastical worlds. Run, don't walk to pick up both of their books!!