That time when I hosted #TessaDareinPH
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Jun 27, 2015 at 6:11pm PDT
I can talk all day about how vibrant the reading and writing culture of my country is, and what a great time it is to be someone who likes books. But for now, I’ll selfishly focus on one specific thing: I got to meet and host the book signing of historical romance author Tessa Dare. Yeah!
I’ve binged on her books, and by the time the June 27 came along, I was a Twitter-following, Instagram-posting fangirl. Then I told myself, calm down, woman. You need to stay focused, long enough to have a clear conversation with her and the other devoted readers who came to see her. The signing was arranged by National Book Store, and they gave us time to ask her questions about her life, her books, her work.
(Truth: I didn’t ask all my questions. I opted to leave some for the audience Q&A, and the others I dismissed as “too super fangirly.”)
Tessa Dare’s books, a dozen or so of them, are available in branches of National Book Store and Powerbooks. Her brand of Regency historical romance is funny and modern (I know, but you’ll understand when you start reading it). I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Reading her books feels like watching Mad Men, to me, like we’re seeing a period piece but through the eyes of someone from our time, and she’s telling us to remember that people may have been dressed differently, but they/we were always this way.
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Jun 27, 2015 at 6:21pm PDT
Her latest series is called Castles Ever After. Its third book, When A Scot Ties The Knot, is coming out in August. It just so happens that I’m so caught up in Outlander, so it had me at “Scot.” And maybe “knot.”
Goodie bag from #TessaDareinPH! It has CHOCOLATE!
A photo posted by Mina V. Esguerra (@minavesguerra) on Jun 27, 2015 at 5:06am PDT
Thank you for asking me to host this, National Book Store! And thank you for giving historical romance readers a chance to meet and fangirl.
