I love going to group author events. There are more people in the audience, more people to spy on, and more fun factoids to learn. In this particular case, though I did not partake in them, there were also SNACKS. My local stop for the Dark Days Winter Tour 2013 included one author I'd seen before (Dan Wells) and four new authors to cross off my list: Lauren Oliver, Debra Driza, Claudia Gray, and Kiersten White. (I've also seen Cynthia Hand, Veronica Rossi, and Tahereh Mafi previously, though they weren't at my stop on the tour this time.) Speaking of group events, Harper seems to do a kickass job of organizing and publicizing these multi-author tours and I totally appreciate that and wish other publishers (well, the larger ones who could do such a thing) would do something similar. My one bone to pick with Harper is that I can never follow what the heck the tours are called. Some of these things might not be HarperTeen tours but I get Pitch Dark, Epic Reads, Dark Days, Spring into the Future, Breathless Reads, etc. all mixed up until I just tell people that I'm going to "that Harper YA authors event" which I doubt is the aim of branding the tours. Then again, I do have fun imagining what these tours will be called when we are out of this dystopian trend. (Will we ever be out of it?) To get back on track, this tour was very streamlined, with a Harper publicist running the show. She asked the authors questions and then took a few audience and Twitter questions.
Claudia Gray, Lauren Oliver, Debra Driza, Dan Wells, Kiersten White, and the moderator
The first question for the authors was what they thought the coolest thing about their book is, which White was the first to answer. She said that sometimes she thinks the cover is the best thing. (of Mind Games. White is also the author of the Paranormalcy series.) She said there is a moment of terror when you are going to find out what your cover will look like because you have no idea what you are going to get in that department. She thinks the Mind Games cover represents the plot and characters of the book well, and she jokingly added that she supposed "the words are pretty good, too." Dan Wells, author of the John Cleaver series and the Partials series, said that he finds it "perversely fun to teach idealistic characters lessons" in his books so he thinks that is the coolest thing about his book. On this tour he is promoting Fragments, the second Partials installment. Debra Driza, debut author of MILA 2.0 said that the coolest part of her book is that the title character kills someone with a hair dryer, though she also loves the cover. Lauren Oliver said that the current coolest thing about the Delirium series, which was just completed with Requiem, is that a television pilot is being made with Emma Roberts in the starring role. Claudia Gray picked her villain as the coolest thing about Spellcaster, which is the beginning of a new series for the author of the Evernight series.
Claudia Gray
When asked if the tour authors always knew they wanted to write, or if they knew what they wanted to do while they were in college, Gray said that she always knew she wanted to do it but for a very long time she didn't think she could. (She has held many other job titles, including lawyer, marketeer, etc.) She said she read extensively and when she would come upon a "great" book, she would think to herself, "you could never write a book that good." The book that changed her outlook was Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. After finishing it, she thought the same thing to herself but then realized that nobody else could have written that book. You can only write the best book that you can write. Lauren Oliver talked about how she has always written and about how she wrote her first novel in college. At the time, she was writing children's stories but also working on a "pretentious novel about a 35-year-old guy whose wife is dying of cancer," which she joked was "obviously based on firsthand experience." Later on, she added that she wrote (what I assume is this particular) 800 page book twice and basically nothing happened in it.
Debra Driza recounted how in her family her sister was always known as the best writer so she never really felt like she could go there, which Dan Wells played off of in his answer by saying that he "always knew he could be better than everyone else." (Obviously he was kidding!) Wells always knew he wanted to be a writer but he didn't believe he could make a career out of it. He said that the person who really changed his beliefs was Dave Wolverton, well-known fantasy author, who told a class that Wells was part of that you can make a living as an artist. Kiersten White always thought she'd write as a hobby. A professor once told her that the only way to make money in publishing is to write a cookbook. Paranormalcy, which ended up as her first published novel, was actually the fourth she'd written.
Debra Driza recounted how in her family her sister was always known as the best writer so she never really felt like she could go there, which Dan Wells played off of in his answer by saying that he "always knew he could be better than everyone else." (Obviously he was kidding!) Wells always knew he wanted to be a writer but he didn't believe he could make a career out of it. He said that the person who really changed his beliefs was Dave Wolverton, well-known fantasy author, who told a class that Wells was part of that you can make a living as an artist. Kiersten White always thought she'd write as a hobby. A professor once told her that the only way to make money in publishing is to write a cookbook. Paranormalcy, which ended up as her first published novel, was actually the fourth she'd written.
Driza & Wells
At this point, the publicist moderator asked individualized questions to each author, but I kept spacing out. When asked why he picked Long Island for the second Partials book, Wells said that it it was because it is right next to New York City so readers could read about places blowing up and have a clue about the locations he is writing about. He went on to talk about how interesting he finds the idea of what happens to everything when we don't take care of it--our things, our cities, etc. I'd seen Dan Wells once before and I think I am just in love with going to science fiction and fantasy authors in general. In my experience, they talk about everything they are interested in (ideas, technology, magic, hobbies) and they are just so enthusiastic and real about it. I saw Charles de Lint and his wife a week or two ago and I honestly think they must be in the top twenty most authentic people I've ever encountered. Not that other authors don't discuss these things at book events but honestly, if I hear the word "swoon" one more time at an event, I think I might just ralph all over the fellow booklovers around me.
Wells, White, and the moderator
Claudia Gray talked about the character of Verlane in Spellcaster, which led to a discussion of how ideas flow out of writers subconciously and that authors sometimes have no idea they are writing parts of their own lives. Kiersten White said that her editor called her out for having "too much about babies" in one of her books, because she was dealing with a related issue in real life, to which Gray said, "editors are there to save you from yourself." White laughed and added that "editors help you write the book you wanted to write." When asked about the experience of writing a blind character, White talked about her inspiration, which was to incorporate the idea of the blind prophet. She found it very interesting that Annie's (the character in question) sister wants to protect her to some extent but that Annie is more ruthless than her sister. She also said that the experience of writing a romantic scene with no visual cues was something new for her and that it ended up "way hotter." In response to an additional question, White added that she wrote Mind Games chapter by chapter and not chronologically and that she writes to entertain herself because if you don't entertain yourself, how will you entertain readers?
Lauren Oliver said that the character of Raven in the Delirium series is partially inspired by her younger sister who is a total badass. She said she is very sad to end her series because she is very invested in the stories. Someone on Twitter asked if she would provide more closure to the series eventually, to which Oliver responded that her favorite books growing up were the ones that left a world open. If a story was completely closed off, she felt bereft. She said she doesn't feel like it's her job to answer every question. Her job is to introduce you to a world and characters. You learn who they are and who they want to be--she wants to show that her characters are always in flux and transforming in one way or another. When she writes a book, she writes the first and last chapter so she knows where the character is starting and where they will end up so she has a guide. She said writing the overall series has been very cathartic for her. Before starting the book, she lost a significant other to substance abuse and she constantly wondered why she couldn't be good enough for him to stay alive. As the series continued, she was able to fall in love again and is now engaged so the entire series has brought her through very pivotal events in her life.
The moderator asked Debra Driza what Mila could do that she wishes she could do, which Driza answered with another reference to killing someone with a hair dryer. (At this point, I realized I will probably have to read this book, not because I really care all that much about the hair dryer scene, but because I want to know what else happens.) Her real answer, however, was that Mila can see, whereas Driza is legally blind. An audience member asked Dan Wells if it was true that some real life friends of his were in every book he writes. He said that the same two friends show up and one of them always lives and the other always dies.
At this point in my notes, I took a break to tell my future self how much I don't care about romance in books, nor do I care about characters with which I am unfamiliar. I just want to hear about the story. Thanks, past me. Also, on a more relevant note, I wrote down that these authors actually seemed to enjoy each other's company and support each other's work, which was nice to witness. In a very non-me move, I must not have been paying much attention at this point of the event because I can't make heads or tails of my usually well-written notes. I have a joke that Kiersten White made about YA being more "32 Shades of Grey" than Fifty, and also a note about how she loves Logan from Veronica Mars and that the show has great storytelling. Why didn't I listen more?!
Lauren Oliver said that the character of Raven in the Delirium series is partially inspired by her younger sister who is a total badass. She said she is very sad to end her series because she is very invested in the stories. Someone on Twitter asked if she would provide more closure to the series eventually, to which Oliver responded that her favorite books growing up were the ones that left a world open. If a story was completely closed off, she felt bereft. She said she doesn't feel like it's her job to answer every question. Her job is to introduce you to a world and characters. You learn who they are and who they want to be--she wants to show that her characters are always in flux and transforming in one way or another. When she writes a book, she writes the first and last chapter so she knows where the character is starting and where they will end up so she has a guide. She said writing the overall series has been very cathartic for her. Before starting the book, she lost a significant other to substance abuse and she constantly wondered why she couldn't be good enough for him to stay alive. As the series continued, she was able to fall in love again and is now engaged so the entire series has brought her through very pivotal events in her life.
The moderator asked Debra Driza what Mila could do that she wishes she could do, which Driza answered with another reference to killing someone with a hair dryer. (At this point, I realized I will probably have to read this book, not because I really care all that much about the hair dryer scene, but because I want to know what else happens.) Her real answer, however, was that Mila can see, whereas Driza is legally blind. An audience member asked Dan Wells if it was true that some real life friends of his were in every book he writes. He said that the same two friends show up and one of them always lives and the other always dies.
At this point in my notes, I took a break to tell my future self how much I don't care about romance in books, nor do I care about characters with which I am unfamiliar. I just want to hear about the story. Thanks, past me. Also, on a more relevant note, I wrote down that these authors actually seemed to enjoy each other's company and support each other's work, which was nice to witness. In a very non-me move, I must not have been paying much attention at this point of the event because I can't make heads or tails of my usually well-written notes. I have a joke that Kiersten White made about YA being more "32 Shades of Grey" than Fifty, and also a note about how she loves Logan from Veronica Mars and that the show has great storytelling. Why didn't I listen more?!
Oliver, Driza, Wells, & White
Okay, regular me is back. The next question was to Dan Wells and it was: how does he think the world will end? He responded that if it is a plague, for crying out loud, STOP KISSING EACH OTHER (heh). He said he loves writing science fiction because he can read all sorts of crazy articles about ways the world might end, take them seriously, and write books about them. He added that if you want to prepare yourself for the end times, you should wash your hands, and consider dedicating your life to cleanliness. I'm not too sure on that point--isn't is supposed to be true that if you clean too much your body will become more susceptible to airborne pathogens? In all plague movies and books, only about 1% of the population is ever left, he said, and he thinks that would be pretty amazing to be a part of. I mean, you could do whatever you wanted.
Next up, the authors were asked what character they would choose to be their sidekick? The answers:
Debra Driza - Buffy (though several members on the panel warned her against this as many of Buffy's friends end up dead!)
Dan Wells - The Baroness from G.I. Joe
Claudia Gray - Professor X, on the off chance that he might be played by James McAvoy
Kiersten White - Harry Potter
Lauren Oliver - Hermione Granger
Next up, the authors were asked what character they would choose to be their sidekick? The answers:
Debra Driza - Buffy (though several members on the panel warned her against this as many of Buffy's friends end up dead!)
Dan Wells - The Baroness from G.I. Joe
Claudia Gray - Professor X, on the off chance that he might be played by James McAvoy
Kiersten White - Harry Potter
Lauren Oliver - Hermione Granger
An audience member asked Claudia Gray what she thought of choosing a pseudonym and how that has affected her identity, which Gray said that she didn't regret it at all. She said the name was a quick pick for her but that she still liked the name Claudia so that was good. Her real name, she said, is very easily found on the copyright pages of her books but it helps that she can keep her personal and business lives private on the net, particularly on social media. The last topic discussed was the query process, which Gray said she was extraordinarily lucky about, considering her book was picked up almost immediately because it was about vampires right after Twilight blew up. Oliver also said she was a bit lucky due to her job in YA publishing. She knew how the system worked and a lot of the people involved so when it came to her manuscript, she said she physically handed it to someone she'd known from college. Driza wasn't picked up until her third book, and Kiersten White said she had about fifty rejections before she got an agent for her second book. She said you truly have to write because you love writing because there is so much rejection in the field and you have to love what you do. Similarly, Wells said that he'd written five books before he sold anything and it took him eight years to find an agent. Even with an offer on the table, he was rejected by three agents. He just reminded the audience that it takes a lot of work to write and be published.
And that, my bookish friends, is another long-winded recap.
Have any of you been to other stops for Dark Days Winter Tour 2013? What did you think?
And that, my bookish friends, is another long-winded recap.
Have any of you been to other stops for Dark Days Winter Tour 2013? What did you think?
