Bring YA 2 Ottawa!

Hi everyone!

So you may have seen the website Bringing YA to YOU! in which five spectacular authors (Beth Revis, Marissa Meyer, Marie Lu, Victoria Schwab, and Megan Shepard) are holding a contest to bring a big YA event to the city of OUR (the readers and fans) choosing! I'm going to repost what the authors' themselves have said which will sum it up much better than I can!

"Have you ever wished that a big YA book tour would make a stop in your
hometown? Well, here's your chance for that wish to come true! YA2U is a
program that features five award-winning and best-selling authors who are
holding a contest to see what city they should visit in an exclusive tour stop!

The authors are collecting votes from January 1 to February 15, and any city
in the continental US or any Canadian city that has an international airport
can win an exclusive visit from all five authors, including an author panel and
book signing! Entering is super easy--and if you help spread the word about the
contest, you can also enter win a signed copy of all of their books (TEN signed
books in total!)--and the book contest is open internationally!"

I absolutely love this idea and am so excited to participate. It gives all us crazy book lovers the chance to say why our city rocks and deserves an amazing event like this!

Today, I'm going to make my pitch for why the YA to YOU tour should come to Ottawa! (And, if you read this, like what I have to say, please please share this, spread the word, link up, etc.!)

I work at a bookstore and I absolutely love my job. I most often get to work in the teen department where I meet all manner of people. From mom's looking for books for their kids, to teens wanting something new, to guys trying to find a "guy book" there are so many people interested in teen books. Almost every single day I get people asking me for teen book recommendations. There are TONS of people here in Ottawa who love teen books and who would gladly attend a teen author event like this! It would be a huge success and a chance for Ottawa to show it's YA book love! Here in Ottawa, there's a group of "Ottawa Bloggettes" as we've been called. Although there's only five of us that hang out on a regular basis, we've had a chance to meet a bunch of others and I'm sure there's more out there as well! Something like this would bring us all together AND convince more people to read YA.

As I said, I work at a bookstore (Chapters to be specific). At work, I also get people asking me why they should read teen books, and sometimes scoffing at my love of teen books. Each time I explain the merits of YA books and the beautiful books in the teen section and ask people to just give it a chance. If we had a big tour come to Ottawa, those skeptics could be won over! I've seen it happen. At the Apocalypse Tour signing in Belleville, I watched as five crazy awesome authors convinced random patrons walking by to pick up a teen book. And many of them did. Many people just need that extra push to be convinced to pick up a book. This event could be that push people need!  There are so many potential book lovers, teen book lovers here in Ottawa! If we had a big, multi-author tour here not only would it be absolutely fan-freakin-tastic but it could get more people into YA.

Another reason why we could really use an awesome event like this is simple: we never get any events like this. It's surprising, considering the whole being the CAPITAL OF CANADA thing (and having almost a million people in the city) but we never get book events here (or concerts for that matter but don't get me started on that one). We're too big a city to be considered for those "let's go to the lesser known cities!" tours and we're too small to be considered for a big national tour. We're stuck in the middle, causing us to constantly be overlooked. Us Ottawa folks have to either make the four-five hour trek to Toronto or miss out on the event (and with gas prices and bus fares we usually end up missing out). This is a chance for the event to come to us, and man, would we be excited about it! Us Ottawa book lovers are a seriously passionate bunch. Nervous and timid around authors but very very passionate (okay, maybe the first part is just me but still!)

For some non-book related reasons to come to Ottawa: it is the capital of Canada! Check that off your bucket list! We have some fantastic sites like Parliament Hills, Rideau Canal, the War Museum...okay. Those are cool, but they're very historical and political. The things I love about Ottawa are smaller. Like warm cheese pies from the local corner store, the street artists in the downtown core, the market on a busy summer day, lazing on Major's Hill Park, running through the fountains at City Hall, and even grabbing a Beaver Tail on the Canal (you can't get more Canadian than that). Ottawa has it's flaws (OC Transpo being a major one) but it's also a great city that would welcome with open arms a YA event like this. Seriously, authors, if you're reading this, I will PERSONALLY buy you all beaver tails and/or cheese pies should you come to Ottawa. I'm not below bribery :D 

SO. To put it in short:
1. TONS of YA book lovers here in Ottawa
2. TONS of would-be YA book lovers here in Ottawa
3. We are constantly overlooked for book tours and always have to travel
4. Ottawa is awesome! (Just don't ride the transit system!)

That's why I think this event should come to Ottawa! And I really really hope it does. BUT it can't if you guys don't VOTE. SO GET YOUR VOTE ON. BRING YA 2 OTTAWA! AND GO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY! (It's pretty freaking awesome so you should do it!)

Happy day, YA lovers!

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight)