Come and Meet Lisa Jewell

Despite being attracted to the vibrant and vigorous marketing campaign for Lisa Jewell's debut novel, Ralph's Party back in 1999, I did not get round to reading her books till a good few years later. Thirtysomething was my first taste of Lisa Jewell(ism) and it certainly left a fantastic taste in my mouth. The story was about Dig and Nadine, two best mates who were doomed for each other except things kept getting in the way. Like Dig's first love, Nadine's career etc. I read the book in a flash and really fell in love with the characters as well as Lisa Jewell's style of writing. I tucked into One-Hit Wonder and A Friend of the Family and enjoyed every bit of them - you see there is something very endearing about the way Lisa writes and you really do fall in love with her characters. So when I received an invite from Random House inviting me to a Blogger event to meet Lisa Jewell herself and other like minded bloggers, I was pretty estatic.

The event took place at Random House headquarters last Wednesday and bloggers such as Efe from Efe Fabulous, Emma from The Adventures of an English Mum, Tamsin from Tamsin's Blog, Hannah from Why Miss Jones, Lisa from The Wright Stuff, Cate from Bitchbuzz and Yasmin Selena. The idea was to celebrate the sequel to Ralph's Party, After the Party which takes place 12 years after the first book. After some nibbles, a glass of wine and some chit chat we all settled down and Lisa Jewell took part in a Q&A where she talked about her life as an author and how her books always have to have a happy ending. How she got started, what her inspirations were, the idea behind the sequel of Ralph's Party. Lisa was a real gem, so down to earth and very inspiring. The staff at Random House were very welcoming and it is so great to see a huge brand like Random really taking the social media thing to another level. It was also really empowering to be in the company of very creative and independent thinking women. The evening ended with pleasantries and we were each given a huge goodie bag with lots of chick lits in. Now I read a lot of blogs especially fashion and beauty ones and I am always jealous of the goodies they receive so this experience was a real coup for me. As well as a copy of After the Party inside the goodie bag were books like Confetti Confidential by Holly McQueen, Lost Innocence by Susan Lewis, Midnight Girls by Lulu Taylor, Truth to Tell by Mavis Cheek, Every Last One by Anna Quindlen, a fancy notebook and of course a large bar of Galaxy chocolate. Needless to say I was very chuffed and it looks like I have a few more titles to add to my 'to be read' pile.

After the Party is available to buy from amazon.

Check out the website for After the Party and you can join the Lisa Jewell Facebook fan page.

You can follow Lisa Jewell on Twitter here.