Daniela meets Lauren Kate

When I found out I was interviewing Lauren Kate (author of Fallen and Torment), I had one person in my mind — my friend Gege‘s 12 year old niece, Daniela. Earlier that week, I had seen Gege post the link to the announcement of Lauren Kate’s arrival in Manila (for the National Book Store Fallen event) on Daniela’s mom’s Facebook wall, and I deduced Daniela must be a Lauren Kate fan.

A few phone calls later, it was final — I was taking Daniela to meet Lauren Kate.

Gege later told me Daniela screamed when she found out she was going to meet one of her favorite authors!

I’ve never read Lauren Kate, although I did read Fallen right before the interview so I could ask Lauren Kate questions about it. But I’ve always believed author events should be for the fans, so I wanted to take an honest to goodness fan with me on my interview.

And yes, Daniela proved to be a BIG Lauren Kate fan!

I met Daniela (and her mom, Yella) at the hotel lobby, and she was practically dancing, breathless and giddy, all the way up to the lounge where we were interviewing Lauren Kate. She had a card and a gift for Lauren Kate too!

I still have to transcribe my Lauren Kate interview (and it will be up in a few days), but in the meantime, here’s a colorful mindmap and a piece by Daniela about her experience:

Hi! I’m Daniela Castillo. And I got to meet LAUREN KATE thanks to my tita, and her friend, Tita Blooey, on November 27, 2010 at the Shangri-la Hotel. Tita Blooey, my mom and I were on our way to meet and interview LAUREN KATE before her event at the Podium. Our meeting time was 11:30 am. On the way there I was squeezing my mother’s arm and talking uncontrollably about meeting LAUREN KATE.

When we got to the interviewing room my first thought was “LAUREN KATE has brown hair. It looked blonde in her pictures on the books.” I got over my surprise because the color seemed better for her than blonde. She was tall and had brown hair and blue eyes. LAUREN KATE was also a leftie like me! After all the adults said greeted her I said hello to LAUREN KATE. Then I asked her to sign my books, which she did while I bit my hand. I almost screamed! Then we all sat down as Tita Blooey asked her questions. I just looked at LAUREN KATE and tried not to smile too hugely. LAUREN KATE was/is so kind. When it was my turn to ask questions I took out my piece of paper and started asking. Some of my questions were “If you could dye your hair what color would it be? If you could choose an eye color what would you choose? etc…” Not all of my questions were about colors but I think all of them were random. I don’t think LAUREN KATE was ever asked those questions so she said “Those were good questions.” Her answers were great, some of them were long but they were meaningful. After the interview we took pictures. My smile in all of the pictures was huge. And at the picture with just me and LAUREN KATE I hugged her! OH MY GOSH I GOT TO HUG LAUREN KATE!

I feel so happy! My life is complete! I finally met one of my favorite authors! I can probably die in happiness, but not now I hope. The End. LAUREN KATE!!!

*

You can see how Daniela’s eyes are lit up in the photo — and yes, she is hugging Lauren Kate! — but I will always have this mental picture of her after the interview: we were going out of the room, and just as we closed the door behind us she leaned on the doorway, sank to the carpet, and sighed dreamily, still not quite believing what had just happened!

I really enjoyed the meetup even though I was more of a spectator on the sidelines. I have yet to meet an author I’m a big fan of,  but I imagine that’s exactly how how I would be (all right,  maybe much worse, given how excitable I am, hahaha!) if any of my favorite authors *coughJKRowlingJasperFfordeSuzanneCollinsDarrenShanJonathanStroudCarlosRuizZafonetceteracough* came to the Philippines! Heck, I was over the moon when Suzanne Collins got the gift we sent her!

I’ll leave you with that for now, will post the interview with Lauren Kate soon. Oh, and I’m reading Lauren Kate’s The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove; I think I’ll review it side by side with Fallen.

*Special thanks to National Book Store for giving Daniela the chance to meet her idol!