Thanks to everyone who dropped by! If you want to contact Chris, or any other Roast Master (retired), you can do so via the original Book Roast.
Happy reading, writing and roasting!
Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time, Chris Eldin caught a fever.* She envisioned a place where books, authors, the hip partying crowd, and two shots of zaniness could come together to promote and enjoy what we all love! GREAT WRITING!!
But from the start, Chris did not want to make it the Eldin Show. She reached out to bloggers and friends (BTW, not a contradiction in terms) and made Book Roast a community effort. I've been privileged to be along for the ride since the wee days when the grill was lit. Please join the illustrious Roast Masters (Shona Snowden, Robin S. (Miss Savannah Spitfire), Phoenix, Stephen Parrish, Ms. Sally Spitfire, Blogless Troll, Sarah Laurenson, and Diesel) in thanking Chris for her vision and her ever-modest role as THE CREATOR. Everyone's invited to the party! Read on!!
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*No, the only prescription was not more cowbell. (For you SNL fans.)
And so we came to the end...
But how could we let the Book Roast slide into oblivion without saying thank you to the Queen of the Roast, our friend, Chris Eldin?
Yes, today, folks, we are not roasting a book, but a person, and, to be honest, all we want to do is say thank you. Check out the post below for a bit of Book Roast history, plus some of its high spots and bloopers - feel free to add more in the comments (more bloopers? surely not!). But if you want to say thank you - this post is the place to do it.
I'll kick it off with a big communal thank you from all of us. Roast Masters, Roastees, all our visitors and other friends. Some of us know how much time and work you've put into this - all of us know how much fun it has been. So thank you! From all of us.
*Roast will run through Thursday evening and all day Friday, so even though our princess has retired for the night, feel free to leave a message for her to find in the morning.*
Yes, today, folks, we are not roasting a book, but a person, and, to be honest, all we want to do is say thank you. Check out the post below for a bit of Book Roast history, plus some of its high spots and bloopers - feel free to add more in the comments (more bloopers? surely not!). But if you want to say thank you - this post is the place to do it.
I'll kick it off with a big communal thank you from all of us. Roast Masters, Roastees, all our visitors and other friends. Some of us know how much time and work you've put into this - all of us know how much fun it has been. So thank you! From all of us.
*Roast will run through Thursday evening and all day Friday, so even though our princess has retired for the night, feel free to leave a message for her to find in the morning.*
Life at the Roast
The first Book Roast authors had no idea what they were letting themselves in for... The invitation kind of worked like this: send us an excerpt from your magnum opus and we'll invite people over to read it and have a chat. Oh, and there will be three ridiculous questions for them to answer, which may lead to them mocking both you and your book. Oh, yeah, and you have to hand over a free copy of your book. Yup, we're for real.
Amazingly, authors lined up! And so did readers. The Book Roast wasn't always about the content of a book, but about the chance for readers to interact with writers and for writers to promote their work. The lively comment trails demonstrate the success of interaction! Behind the scenes, our statisticians confirmed the success of promotion with huge numbers of silent readers who checked out every roast and comment trail - in most cases, numbers well into the hundreds.
We were open to almost anything and we got it- romance, thrillers, sci-fi, non-fiction, young adult, children's, fantasy, cosies, women's fiction, even erotica (although that one only after a lengthy behind the scenes debate among the Roast Masters!)
Our regular author appearances were interspersed with special events. Remember 'Reach out and Read' where we helped raise money for a charity that gave books to children? As part of that we asked a group of children what they would write about, if they were to write a book. Voted most popular answer was the one from Ashley, age 5, who succinctly answered: Me.
We featured an editor's week, an agent's week and a series of first chapters. New authors and established ones embraced our format and joined in the fun.
We took an extended holiday break, but Chris didn't leave us without entertainment. Remember this?
A couple of our most popular Book Roast characters were the rather naughty Miss Savannah, and the equally cheeky publishing intern, Antonio. Some sense and balance was provided by our New York publishing insider, Miss Spitfire, whose posts gave us a fascinating peek into the publishing process.
Of course, like every great show, we've had our bloopers...
Like the day the author didn't turn up. Turned out her publicist had booked her in and the message hadn't got through to the author. After that - no more publicists. We talked to the author or nobody!
How about the day the Roast Master didn't turn up? Um, that would be me. A couple of times. Living down under has its disadvantages, one of them being that I'm asleep at the usual Roast kick off time, another being that Blogger's scheduling clock doesn't synch with mine. So unless I remember to put up the roast the night before... Yes, Chris ended up rescuing my authors a few times.
And then there were the authors and agents who turned up after a lengthy swim in the whisky vat...no names...you know who you are. The funniest roastees ever!
I'd like to thank all our authors for their talent, courage and participation! The agents, editors and bloggers who supported us. And I'd like to thank Chris, for making the whole thing possible.
See you around the blogs!
Amazingly, authors lined up! And so did readers. The Book Roast wasn't always about the content of a book, but about the chance for readers to interact with writers and for writers to promote their work. The lively comment trails demonstrate the success of interaction! Behind the scenes, our statisticians confirmed the success of promotion with huge numbers of silent readers who checked out every roast and comment trail - in most cases, numbers well into the hundreds.
We were open to almost anything and we got it- romance, thrillers, sci-fi, non-fiction, young adult, children's, fantasy, cosies, women's fiction, even erotica (although that one only after a lengthy behind the scenes debate among the Roast Masters!)
Our regular author appearances were interspersed with special events. Remember 'Reach out and Read' where we helped raise money for a charity that gave books to children? As part of that we asked a group of children what they would write about, if they were to write a book. Voted most popular answer was the one from Ashley, age 5, who succinctly answered: Me.
We featured an editor's week, an agent's week and a series of first chapters. New authors and established ones embraced our format and joined in the fun.
We took an extended holiday break, but Chris didn't leave us without entertainment. Remember this?
A couple of our most popular Book Roast characters were the rather naughty Miss Savannah, and the equally cheeky publishing intern, Antonio. Some sense and balance was provided by our New York publishing insider, Miss Spitfire, whose posts gave us a fascinating peek into the publishing process.
Of course, like every great show, we've had our bloopers...
Like the day the author didn't turn up. Turned out her publicist had booked her in and the message hadn't got through to the author. After that - no more publicists. We talked to the author or nobody!
How about the day the Roast Master didn't turn up? Um, that would be me. A couple of times. Living down under has its disadvantages, one of them being that I'm asleep at the usual Roast kick off time, another being that Blogger's scheduling clock doesn't synch with mine. So unless I remember to put up the roast the night before... Yes, Chris ended up rescuing my authors a few times.
And then there were the authors and agents who turned up after a lengthy swim in the whisky vat...no names...you know who you are. The funniest roastees ever!
I'd like to thank all our authors for their talent, courage and participation! The agents, editors and bloggers who supported us. And I'd like to thank Chris, for making the whole thing possible.
See you around the blogs!
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