[Book Event] Meeting Gregory Bastianelli @ Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH

On February 19th, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a bookshop that I had never been to before in order to see one of my new favorite authors, Gregory Bastianelli!

The drive from my home only took about 40 minutes. Luckily the winter New England weather coorporated so I could attend, but how funny it would have been if the event had been cancelled due to the snow (if you’ve read the book, you’ll get this spooky thought!)

I’m so so so happy that I went! Let’s dive in!

Meeting Gregory Bastianelli @ Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH

This was my first time both visiting Water Street Bookstore and attending an author event there. The shop was wonderful! I’ll be posting a feature on the shop soon, so stay tuned for that!

I arrived at the shop an hour before the event. As I walked in, the owner, Daniel Chartrand, greeted me immediately and asked if I needed help finding anything specific. I let him know that I was mainly there for the event and that it was my first time there! He welcomed me, thanked me for coming, and then pointed out an area that I could go sit if I wanted to wait until they were all set up.

Of course, I couldn’t help myself… I had to check out the shop! For quite a while, I spent my time walking around and snapping some photos of the shop. Let me tell you… I will be stopping in again the next time I pass by Exeter! They had SO many things to check out! From the books to notebooks, to bookends and bookish merch!

I ended up walking away with quite the haul! On the top of my stack of books is an awesome pop-up book end! I’ve been needing book ends now for awhile, so I can’t wait to see how this one works!

The author arrived and started getting set up. I snagged him for a moment to ask if he would sign my book. I had an ARC copy of his book, but I just had to also snag a hardcover… I’ll be keeping the hardcover that I had personalized, but I’ll be hosting a giveaway for the ARC! That will be up this week.

Soon afterward, the event began!

Gregory read the first chapter of his book, Snowball. When he finished, I was grinning as I knew what was going to happen next, but the crowd groaned; they didn’t want it to end! It was SO neat seeing the author read his own work. When I re-read this book, I’m sure I’m going to read it with his voice in my head.

After that, he did a Q&A session. Per usual, I chickened out and didn’t ask a question, but the crowed had some great ones! I loved learning that he didn’t make an outline, that he just wrote and let the story unfold as he was going. That was shocking to me! This book is organized so wonderfully and each character has such an interesting backstory… I can’t believe he didn’t have a massive character chart to keep it all straight!

After the Q&A, I took a moment to speak with the store owner who was absolutely wonderful! I also gave out my first book blog business card so that was wicked exciting! A member of the staff, Stef, also snapped the shot of myself and the author, which I am super grateful for! Thanks Stef!!

An all around wonderful event! If you’re ever in the Exeter, NH area, I highly recommend popping into the shop! Feel free to visit the Water Street Bookstore website here. And if you haven’t read any of Gregory Bastianelli’s work, I highly recommend checking him out!

Thanks for reading!
What was the most recent bookish event you have been to?