 If you want to give a book event some ambiance, hold it in a church. Better yet, hold it in a chapel with a backlit cross and recessed lighting above it, so that when something shorts and the lights flicker over the cross and then smoke starts coming out, everyone will ponder if it is God wondering why it took a book event to get them to go to church. Or maybe that was just me. This event made me so excited from the get-go. I walked in and was handed a raffle ticket for the paperback boxed set, which included an advance reader's copy of Bitterblue. While writing the series, Cashore's editor moved publishing houses so she's had two different publishers. For that reason, she noted, this might be the only boxed set that is ever offered of the series. Spoiler alert, I didn't win the boxed set. Second spoiler alert, I thought about jumping the winner in the parking lot. Instead, I bought a dollar ice cream sundae at Mickey D's and called it an evening well spent.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from Kristin Cashore in real life, but what I got was an enthusiastic, approachable, friendly author who more than carried the event with her personality. Most of the events I've gone to previously were for groups of authors and I was curious to see if I would take as many notes when it was primarily a reading and just one author. Well, when the author is so gosh-darn interesting and quotable, it turns out that answer is definitely yes.
Cashore said she was in a great mood that day for several reasons: a positive diagnosis for a family member, Obama's support of gay marriage, and finding out she was #2 on the New York Times bestseller list for the week. She'd decided, upon visiting Seattle, that she'd like to take a ferry ride since we have regular ferries running all over Elliott Bay and Puget Sound. While she was on the boat, she found out all this information so not only did that make it "the best ferry ride ever" but she was also contagiously happy that evening.
All of my photos from the night are blurry. Photo fail!
Armed with a tabbed and margin-note-ridden copy of Bitterblue and one of her many notebooks, Cashore began talking about her writing process. She writes everything by hand and transfers her work in Word every so often. Since it is impossible to backup handwritten words with the same regularity as computer work, she keeps her notebooks in a fireproof, waterproof safe. Cashore showed the audience one of the seven notebooks she filled while writing Bitterblue, and when she walked down the aisle, we could see that almost half, if not more, of the writing was crossed out. She chuckled when she saw that she'd written, "This is rot and shards and contagion, but that's okay" along the top of one page. Evidently that is a quote from a book she enjoyed but she used it as a starting point to talk about the importance of failure for aspiring (and all) writers. According to Cashore, the first draft is total crap. You know the heart of the story but you don't know how to get it into words. You just write it and rewrite it until you get it right, except even when you think you might've gotten there, you could be totally wrong. Bitterblue took twice as long as the previous two books for her to write and when she turned it in, her editor read the draft and said what is probably every author's nightmare sentence: "Would you consider starting from scratch?" Though it was an initial shock, Cashore agrees with her editor's statement and thinks the book is stronger for it. She used that first draft as a source and just lifted all the good stuff from it. Doing so allowed her to approach her revision with unbelievable freshness and when she was completed, her editor called the revision a miraculous feat. Here's Cashore doing two readings from Bitterblue. Sorry the audio quality is not the greatest. Pump up the volume! (I wish there was some reason to put pics of young Christian Slater in this post.) These two videos are a bit long and straightforward so if you're pressed for time, watch the other two later in the post, in which she answers audience questions. I mean no disrespect to young adult fans in general, anyone who knows me knows what a huge, huge fan of the genre I am, but I have to say, fantasy and sci-fi young adult readers ask phenomenal questions. They are invested in the worlds, the characters, the author, and the inventions in ways that astound me. I was surprised several times over when audience members asked questions about how tyrannical characters from history influenced her writing of Leck and a question about a comment Cashore made in the acknowledgments of Bitterblue that elicited a wonderful response from the author. Apparently, she made a comment in the acknowledgments about Po's character and this was the first time she'd ever been asked about it. (If you click that link, it takes you to a discussion on Cashore's blog which was inspired by the audience member's question.) The reader just asked if she could elaborate a little bit on what the comment meant. I could tell that Cashore thought very hard about what exactly she wanted to say, and I think she explained herself thoughtfully and tactfully on the matter. (There will be a spoiler for Graceling, if anyone wants to skip on to the next paragraph.) When an author is writing a book, they won't notice everything in their own characters or plot that might offend people. By blinding Po at the end of Graceling but then having his grace be magical sight, it might be seen as implying that Po couldn't be a "complete person" without his use of sight. "Curing" a disability may be seen as rude or presumptuous. Cashore talked about the inevitable mistakes authors make and though she regrets making that choice for Po overall, it was never intentional and she is very mindful about not making a similar mistake for any future characters she writes. I actually drew hearts all around my notes from this section of the event because it was readily apparent how much Cashore took it to heart and I was glad she didn't try to evade the question even one bit. The most exciting part of the night for me was when someone asked the inevitable "What's next?" question. The answer, I was ecstatic to find out, is contemporary, realistic YA! The draft is already completed so I, for one, cannot wait to read it when it comes out. What she will do in other arenas? Here's Kristin talking about the book she's just finished a draft of and what else might be next for her: She said she may eventually write another book set in the same world as the Graceling Realm books, perhaps one from Po's point of view, but one character she hopes never to visit again is Leck. Cashore said being inside Leck's mind was an awful experience. For a few weeks, she'd write something terrible for him, approach it with fresh eyes and realize it had to be even more horrific and rewrite. The entire process was taxing, but an author can get a sort of sick pleasure when writing evil characters.
An audience member applauded Cashore for cleverly writing a young adult book with romantic elements but without that as the central theme. Story is the main force behind Cashore's books and she said she wouldn't feel as challenged if she were to write a book with romance driving the story along. She is averse to love triangles and finds them "so boring." As do I, Kristin Cashore, as do I. A few more fun facts: - She queried Graceling along with a realistic middle-grade book, which is now, sadly, closeted.
- It took her one and a half years to write the first draft of Graceling, and six months to revise it.
- She doesn't remember the inspirations behind the characters in the series.
- She once worked as a waitress in a pub in Australia. She said she must've been hired for the novelty of having an American working there as she was a terrible waitress.
- When they were trying to think of a name for the overall series, one of her friends suggested "Kickass Women Who Kill Their Fathers."
At the end of the evening, when it was time for the raffle for the boxed set, she walked over to the bag of tickets and looked at the audience before saying, in a perfect Effie Trinket voice, "May the odds be ever in your favor." Psht, as if you could even make me like you more, Kristin Cashore.
 Spoiler: It involves bad photos | Catie Covers Paolo Bacigalupi's Event at The Bethesda Library ...or, what happens when a painfully shy person is sent to report on a talk given by a person who became a writer so he "wouldn’t have to speak in front of people.”
| | Today I set out to attend my very first author event here in the D.C. area and I was extremely excited. Of course, I was even more excited because I got to attend a talk given by one of my favorite living sci-fi authors, Paolo Bacigalupi. Tatiana and I reviewed his latest young adult novel, The Drowned Cities and it was a favorite for both of us. Of course, humming right along with all of this anticipation was a big ol’ boat-load of dread. I am not really the most…charming…person alive. In fact, most days I spend more time with fictional people than I do with real people. And I think that’s best for everyone involved. Not to mention…I think we all know that Flannery is the undisputed queen of covering book events. I mean, videos? Photos? Quotes? Funny anecdotes? Near perfect recall? Why oh why did she set the bar so very high? But…I vowed to do my best. The event wasn’t crowded, and seemed to be made up of a lot of really dedicated fans (one man had a stack of copies of The Windup Girl and admitted to buying it whenever he saw one anywhere). I got to chat a little bit with some really nice sci-fi nerds and I was able to provide expertise, re: the correct pronunciation of China Miéville’s last name. Paolo Bacigalupi chose to stand (and walk around) while he spoke to us which made the talk a lot more relaxed and casual, not to mention exciting. He’s a very animated speaker! He introduced himself by making fun of the various ways that his last name is mispronounced and announcing that he was very nervous to be standing in front of us and giving a talk. He admitted that he sometimes has panic attacks and needs to calm down by watching films and relaxing his mind. This prompted one audience member to quip about his coffee cup, asking if he had coffee in there or if it was chamomile tea or even vodka. (It was decaf!) This also made yours truly extremely shy about taking photos or videos. When a seemingly nice and intelligent person announces that he’s nervous, it just feels rude to stick a camera in his face. But I did snap a few discreet pictures of horrible quality.  A nice one where his eyes are closed. Next he spoke a lot about the pressure to follow up Ship Breaker, which was “more successful than [he] had any right to expect it to be.” With the added stresses of deadlines, editors, and reader response – both positive and negative – he felt a lot of pressure to make the book a certain way or to try and tailor it to please everyone. His first attempt at the sequel was a continuation of the story in Ship Breaker, and followed Nita, Nailer, and Pima.
[As a random aside, my roommate in college was named Nita, and I spent weeks and weeks learning to pronounce it the correct way – sort of like “Nee-tha” but with less emphasis on the “th.” I was very impressed by Paolo Bacigalupi’s pronunciation: it was perfect!]
Unfortunately, that first sequel attempt was “very bad” (in his words). His editor apparently told him that it had “six major themes” and that he “hadn’t developed a single one.” He described it as his written search for “a purpose” for the sequel - picking up, examining, and discarding each one unfinished. (Still seems like a worthy exercise if it led him to The Drowned Cities!) He ultimately decided to throw it out and start all over again, keeping only a single sentence about the drowned cities, which I think evolved into this scene:
“Doctor Mahfouz used to say that living in the Drowned Cities made people crazy. Like it came in with the tide. When the water came up, so did the killing.”
Tool laughed at that.
“Nothing so mystical. Human beings hunger for killing, that is all. It only takes a few politicians to stoke division, or a few demagogues encouraging hatred to set your kind upon one another. And then before you know it, you have a whole nation biting on its own tail, going round and round until there is nothing left but the snapping of teeth.”
| He mentioned that he’d been watching and listening to a lot of Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, and Sean Hannity (seriously…it would be abnormal not to have panic attacks when listening to that lovely crowd) and also following coverage of the Wisconsin State protests and he was amazed by all the arguing, feuding and stalling that was (and still is!) going on. All of this disagreement and vitriol just bogs us down and consumes us, so that we aren’t focusing on the real problems that our world will soon be facing.
| | He then related an experience that he had in Texas, while taking part in Armadillocon, during the ongoing horrible droughts that have been occurring there. Ranchers were having to kill off their cattle and were losing crops due to lack of water. Rick Perry was publicly praying for rain. He said that he felt like he was living the future, and that we’d “given up on solving problems” and were instead “relying on superstitions.” He then seemed to laugh with a bit of chagrin, saying that this world was already a “perfect dystopia” and that he had plenty of material for his writing. His next adult book, titled The Water Knife will center around major droughts and the fight for water. Then we were treated to a reading from The Drowned Cities. He is a great reader: he does voices, makes facial expressions, and seems to really enjoy his own work and his characters. When reading a description of Mahlia’s missing hand and stump, he held his hand behind his back. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not but it was really interesting! I wish that I had a video to show you but I totally chickened out on taking one. Luckily, someone else was *ahem* brave enough to take this video of him reading at another event (thanks internet!): After the reading there was a short Q&A. The first question was, “how were you inspired to write Ship Breaker?” He said that he was very depressed after finishing The Windup Girl and that he wanted to write something more upbeat – an adventure story. His wife is a teacher, and she has a lot of students who are resistant to reading. He wanted to write something for them – something like the stuff that he enjoyed as a child. He also related a concept from Slovenian philosopher Slavaj Zizek – that as adults there are uncomfortable, distasteful things that we know about but don’t want to know about, so we set them in the background and pretend they aren’t happening (he mentioned, for example, the carbon footprint of his book tour). With Ship Breaker, he said that he hoped to reach the people (children) who still had a chance to change this world and make a difference. He also mentioned the inspirational nature of sci-fi: how certain concepts created by science fiction authors can inspire real world invention (he gave the example of Neil Stephenson’s metaverse and the real world Second Life). He said that he was attempting some of that with the creation of the clipper ships in Ship Breaker - with their wind power, parasails, and hydrofoils. But even with all of these topics (sustainability, inspiration, adventure), he said that he was surprised and pleased that Ship Breaker ended up being a family story – how we define our families, who we rely on, and who we have to cut out of our lives. He spoke a bit about breaking free of ingrained writing and reading prejudices. He was really excited to make Nita an Indian princess (he mentioned that his wife is Indian) but admitted that while writing her, he couldn’t help continuously picturing her as a blonde/blue-eyed stereotypical Disney princess, because of all the conditioning that his brain has received over the years. He was eventually able to bring his mind around by writing repeated descriptions of her on the page. Another funny thing he mentioned was that Kanya (from The Windup Girl) was originally a man! And apparently, after he changed her character to a woman, he suddenly felt compelled to describe her physically more often than he had before. He described having to break through his own mental pattern and resist treating her differently than her male counterpart.  Then we got to stand in line and Paolo Bacigalupi was nice enough to sign alllll of our books (even the tower of Windup Girl!). He was very nice to everyone there, and didn't even laugh in my face when I said that I thought his books were hopeful. And look! A halfway-decent picture! Also, coincidentally, the only one I'm not responsible for.... Because I got to meet the lovely Sash from Sash & Em! And she was sweet and funny and cute and she took the best picture of the night. Later, I really wanted a picture of the two of us, but we were in the parking lot and there was no one around (except this weird guy muttering random women's names behind us). I admit that I totally chuckled on the way home, imagining this hypothetical scenario: Imaginary Catie: Thanks for coming to talk to us today! I really enjoyed it!Imaginary Paolo Bacigalupi: Oh, sure. Did you want...a picture? *gestures at camera*IC: Yeah, would you?IPB: Of course...maybe your friend there could...?IC: OH, actually what I meant was...would YOU take a picture...of US?IPB: ...~AND SCENE~ Sadly, we were left with the last refuge of the desperate photographer: the awkward self portrait, taken by your own weirdly stretched arm. And that's how we got these beauties:
 A keeper for sure. |  Sasha looking adorable as ever! | Today, we are also giving away one copy of The Drowned Cities! This book is excellent, so please do yourselves all a favor and enter! Contest begins today and ends on Friday, May 18th. Best of luck! US only.
Cynthia Hand, Kimberly Derting, and Veronica Rossi
University Bookstore in Mill Creek, Washington is doing a series called Teen Book Brunch where young adult authors come to speak about their books, answer questions, and do a signing. The brunch part is in reference to donuts which are provided and from where I"m standing, all author events should come with free donuts. Donuts make almost every experience more fun, with the possible exception of swimming. I saw Marissa Meyer and Lissa Price at the first Teen Book Brunch and yesterday I had the pleasure of attending their second event, the Spring Into the Future HarperTeen authors tour with Tahereh Mafi ( Shatter Me), Kimberly Derting ( Body Finder series and The Pledge series), Veronica Rossi ( Under the Never Sky) and Cynthia Hand ( Unearthly and Hallowed).  Totally awkward table/chair setup for an author event. Each author started by introducing themselves and their most recent book. All of the books are part of a series and both Rossi and Mafi have the second installments of their stories coming out in early 2013. Mafi's second book will be titled Unravel Me and Rossi's is called Through the Ever Night. The third Unearthly book, whose title is still an undisclosed mystery, will be out around the same time. The first question members of the audience asked was about the writing process and how long it takes to write a draft and edit the final work. Answers varied but generally it took each of them about four to six months to write a draft and six months to revise. Derting, who is writing two simultaneous series told a story about writing an entire draft in 30 days (!) due to a deadline but it sounds like she wouldn't recommend it, as she followed that up with a story about getting eleven pages of editor's notes on the draft. Derting said her editor's notes were like a sandwich--something nice about her, pages of fixes, and then something nice again. At this point, I was totally grinning because there is an episode of Family Guy where Stewie creates a business (actually a pyramid scheme) and he gives Brian a " compliment sandwich" and it's the same concept that Derting was alluding to. Tahereh Mafi talked about how she worked full-time while writing her second novel and that she once wrote 30,000 words (about 100 pages) in four days. She needs a quiet environment to write and I cracked up at her comment that she basically locks herself in her house, blocks everyone out, and "pants are optional." I like living the pants optional life as well. Her writing environment came up again later in the event when talking about listening to music while writing. Veronica Rossi said she often listens to movie soundtracks because they are written to be purposely evocative and that she recently listened to the Bourne Identity soundtrack while writing. Hand said it was exactly that which made it hard for her to listen to music while writing--she ended up writing the emotional ups and downs of the music into the writing. Mafi said she has noise-cancelling headphones but that she sometimes listens to rain noises on her computer to get her into the dystopian mood of her novel, which the audience laughed about because seriously, we're in Seattle. If someone needs to set the doom and gloom mood, all they need to do is visit during one of our 7-8 months of rainy grayness. (luckily, yesterday was really sunny and beautiful!)
| The topic, not so surpringsly, changed to a discussion of "darkness" in young adult literature and the authors each addressed their feelings on the issue, though they mostly agreed that they go where the story leads them. Derting said she didn't add anything dark gratuitously and doubted that other authors do either. Mafi stated that she doesn't really feel like anything in her book is "edgy," more that she stayed true to her character's voice. Rossi made a good point that what is appropriate for one person may not be appropriate for another in terms of violence, romance, or anything else and Cynthia Hand piggybacked on this by saying (and I agree with her sentiment) that it is rarely the teenagers who are complaining about darkness in YA--it is the adult readers. |
Veronica Rossi, talking about Under the Never Sky
|  Cynthia Hand Kimberly Derting joked about being a few years older than the other authors. She remembers reading Stephen King, John Saul, and other authors as a young adult due to the dearth of YA literature when she was in that age group. (She also mentioned her childhood aspirations of becoming a lady truck driver like on B.J. and the Bear) Hand echoed what the authors at the last event said--that not just following the story and staying true to the characters is what is important and authors shouldn't talk down to teenagers or alter storylines to satisfy any group. She did say that editing out some scenes is not as hard as it probably used to be because the internet allows for deleted scenes to have their own place and they don't just disappear into a void.
| An audience member asked a very insightful (and nicely worded) question about how to take that jump from writing for fun to actually attempting to get published. Tahereh Mafi spoke about how she has always been just a huge, huge reader. To her, J.K. Rowling and some other authors are amazing and the Potterverse is so close to her heart. When reading the books, she was in awe that someone could write something so amazing; How could she do something like writing a novel? When she started working after college, she found she had a lot of free time so she started writing and when she finished her first draft, she basically Googled the crap out of anything and everything to figure out what came next. | | When the inevitable question of "What book do you wish you'd written?" came up, Cynthia Hand spoke about her recent love of the voice in Blood Red Road and the originality of Cinder. Veronica Rossi said she loved Kristin Cashore's writing and would consider it a compliment if anything she'd ever written was compared to Cashore and said that she rereads Jane Austen books every year. (at which point, Catie will be happy to know, Tahereh Mafi and Rossi fangirled over Captain Wentworth and Persuasion) Kimberly Derting chose To Kill A Mockingbird and then the authors all had a discussion about how it is healthy to have writer jealousy and wish you'd written something in someone else's style. I really liked what Mafi had to say on the subject which was that she never really reads something and wishes she'd written it because then it would mean that she couldn't be experiencing it as a reader. (and more about Harry Potter)
Hand, Derting, and Rossi
Some other fun facts gleaned from the event:- Veronica Rossi is a painter and works mostly with oils.
- Kimberly Derting and Cynthia Hand share an editor
- When Cynthia Hand sees an error in a finished copy, she likes to think that all the people who read through it (and there are MANY) just got so wrapped up in the story and missed it.
- Rossi sometimes uses a text-to-speech app to listen to her book during the revision process because it is a change in perspective.
Make sure you check back on Friday, when Catie will be recapping an upcoming event with Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm going to see Kristin Cashore in a few days as well. Will any of you be seeing these authors soon? Or any others?
 Anna Minard (The Stranger), Nina LaCour, Stephanie Perkins, and Gayle Forman |  Welcome poster outside the library. (the glare was from the industrial lighting, sorry!) | This evening, I had the pleasure of attending the last stop of the YA or Bust! author tour across the lake at Roosevelt High School. Having gone to several crowded author events in the past, I showed up an hour early. The benefit of doing something so awkward is that I got to sit in the front row but the downside is that a few of us were hanging around while the janitor vacuumed the library and while the event was set up. But really, at this point I know to just embrace my awkward self and move on. Plus I met some adorable nerdfighters who were also there early. The authors on the YA or Bust! tour are Stephanie Perkins ( Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door), Gayle Forman ( If I Stay, Where She Went) and Nina LaCour ( Hold Still, The Disenchantments). Their camaraderie was evident from the minute they walked up to the table, quickly transitioning from the seats to sitting on top of the tables so they could see and interact more with the audience. The discussion was moderated by Anna Minard from The Stranger. I had a bit of a laugh over the signage outside the school. Here it is:  Fine. |  Fine. |  Fine. |  Kind of Funny. | The exclamation point, period, capitalization and commas in the signs prove that they are available for use, but I think the writer got to the last one and tried to fit it all in. I like to read it like this: "Gayle Forman, Stephanie Perkins, and Nina LaCour talking with the strangers. Anna Minard. Event is FREE!" Technically, we ARE all strangers and I quite like Anna Minard just getting one random statement of her name, but this paragraph is neither here nor there and I'll stop boring you to death with the lame things that entertain me. Minard was a rather entertaining moderator, and it was clear she is herself a huge YA fan. As she introduced each author, she included an anecdotal story about an experience she'd had with one of their books. (e.g. She started reading an ARC of Hold Still after work and forgot to drive home.) Her first question right off the bat was to ask Gayle Forman whether she owned stock in Kleenex tissues, which got a laugh from the audience. Surprisingly, Forman said that If I Stay was actually a joy to write and she found Where She Went to be a much harder experience. Later in the evening, when asked how she felt about writing a sequel to If I Stay that was essentially a spoiler for the first book, Forman said that generally, sequels suck. She never intended to write a sequel but she kept waking up at four in the morning. Her characters seemed to be saying, "think about where you left us" and that was an exercise she wasn't entirely prepared to partake in. Forman spoke a bit about what it is like to be in Adam's head--what it feels like to experience grief one step removed from tragedy, and what it is like to feel like you have no right to the grief you are feeling. I loved that. She also said that she found lyric-writing to be one of the hardest things about writing WSW. Forman mentioned a blog, The Page 69 Test, wherein author's read and discuss page 69 of one of their novels. All three authors then did so, and here is what they had to say: When asked about "that" article from the Wall Street Journal about darkness in young adult literature, the authors were of the opinion that the article was meant to elicit outrage and opinion and it did its job. LaCour spoke eloquently about the importance of including all of these "dark" bits--suicide, drug use, death, etc.-- because it would be dishonest to exclude these real-life occurrences from books. To lighten the mood, Minard asked Perkins about fashion. Perkins admitted that she sees Lola as a braver version of herself and then somehow the topic changed quickly to The Babysitter's Club (a transition I NEVER have a problem with). In Perkins' opinion, Claudia is the best character, Stacey comes second, and basically everyone else sucks. Aaaaand scene. Everyone was laughing because really, does ANYONE have something amazing to say about Mallory? Yeah, I thought not. Forman jokingly said she was far too sophisticated to read the BSC books--she was reading Jackie Collins instead. Nina LaCour, when prompted, spoke about how much she enjoys road trips and how they are such a great vehicle (heh) to indicate transition. (going towards the future, leaving everything from the past in the rear-view mirror) She said that she only wants to do fun research for her books so she was happy to do the compulsory road trip and research on girl rock groups for The Disenchantments. LaCour talked about the importance of writing groups and having people to support you, read your work, and the importance of doing those things for others. Forman advocated for time and education to develop your writing skills and Perkins spoke about reading, reading, reading and actually stopping when you find a scene you like or when feel yourself experiencing some emotion. At that point, go back and see how the author brought you there, step by step. I'm no writer but I found this bit of advice interesting. It's always funny to me when I am just moseying along in a book and then I feel outright disgust or elation in one sentence.  LaCour, Perkins, and Forman. An interesting fact (to me, anyway) is that Stephanie Perkins worked on Lola and the Boy Next Door for a decade. Anna came afterward and, though she admits it sounds corny, was based on a dream she had of being in a large room with a French boy who had an English accent. Perkins admitted that she's more of an Anglophile but that she searched for a setting that would work for her purposes and that ended up being Paris. She said she did a ton of research because she was afraid of messing something up and that after she got a book deal, she went to France for a month. She'd spent so much time writing about it that it felt like she'd invented this world--she said it felt like she was going to her own Narnia. Also, did you all know that Isla from Perkins' upcoming Isla and the Happily Ever After was a minor character in Anna? I didn't realize that. She revealed that Isla will be set at the same school as Anna and that it will involve Isla's senior year of high school. Here are a few lightning round questions they answered: "What scene from your own book is your favorite?"Forman: The bridge scene in Where She Went and the checkers scene in If I StayLaCour: The bike scene in The Disenchantments (note: I can't read my notes to make this more specific) Perkins: The Luxembourg Gardens scene in Anna and the Thanksgiving bed scenes in Lola. "Which YA book do you wish you'd written?"Forman: Jellicoe RoadLaCour: Before I DiePerkins: Harry Potter"What advice would you give to 16-year old you?"Forman: Wear more sunscreen. Also, she talked about how travel is transformative and that she'd give more advice to 15-year old her to travel more. (She ended up spending her 16th year studying in England after a push from her father) LaCour: Be more adventurous. Perkins: "I'd remind myself that my dad comes home for lunch." After the event, I met Sarah and her mother Sandra, both from Clear Eyes, Full Shelves, and Mindi Scott, author of Freefall and the upcoming Live Through This. I am always so excited to meet fellow readers, bloggers, authors, and book lovers. I'm only sorry I don't have a picture to share. *sigh* Maybe next time? There are some great YA events coming up. Get ready for some more recaps! Have you been to any author events lately?
Last weekend, I was looking online at the hours of a nearby bookstore ( Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park) and found out that there was a YA author event starting in fifteen minutes. I hightailed it over there to catch the Stages on Pages author tour, which is a group of authors who have written books dealing with the performing arts. The authors vary at each tour stop but the ones I had the pleasure of seeing were Jessica Martinez, Stasia Ward Kehoe, Conrad Wesselhoeft, Louise Spiegler, Tara Kelly, and Rosanne Perry. I was a few minutes late getting there and apparently I missed Jessica Martinez playing the violin -- I'm pretty sad about that. Each author read from his/her book and discussed a bit about the plot of their book and how it depicts the arts. Most of the books have to do with music, two with violin and two with rock music but Louise Spiegler's The Jewel and the Key deals with theater (and time travel!) and Stasia Ward Kehoe's Audition is about a dancer.  Stasia Ward Kehoe, Tara Kelly (reading), and Conrad Wesselhoeft | The same three, Louise Spiegler, and Jessica Martinez (reading)  When I got there, Rosanne Perry was discussing the plot of her book, Second Fiddle. She talked a bit about how tough it can be to pitch books to YA boys when the cover is not "boy friendly." Apparently, she's had discussions with male readers who've been intrigued by the plot but turned off by the feminine nature of the cover. After the presentations by the authors were done they asked the audience a few questions and one of them was, "What is more important, cover or title?" It was completely unsurprising to me that the overwhelming answer was cover. After she was done reading, Ms. Perry played a bit of Amazing Grace on the violin before she (quite literally) packed up and ran out. (I'm assuming she had plans and maybe mentioned this to the audience before I got there) Next up was Louise Spiegler who spoke about her new book, The Jewel and the Key. She grew up doing theater productions in school and her book centers on a girl who can travel through time through a downtown theater. She also told a funny story about how her parents told her that perhaps theater wasn't her calling. In retrospect, she said, they were right because it led her to become both a teacher and a writer, which she loves. Many of my Goodreads friends rave on about Jessica Martinez's debut novel, Virtuosity, which is the story of a violin prodigy, so I was really excited to hear what she had to say. Later on in the event, she admitted that she never set out to write a YA book, it was just a publisher and/or marketing choice. Martinez is a talented musician herself and told several funny stories about her inspirations for the book. She said, "I love music but I can think of so many reasons why a girl might want to throw her violin off a balcony. So I wrote about those reasons." I'm not a musician at all but I can certainly understand the sentiment of feeling frustrated about something I love. She also told a hilarious story about an instance during her high school years (I presume) when her violin teacher asked if she wanted to play his violin. She shrugged and said she guessed so and after playing the instrument, she remarked that she'd love to someday own an instrument with such a deep sound. He told her she could, if she had 4 MILLION DOLLARS. She was floored and said she couldn't believe he'd been so blase about it. What if she'd tripped?
 Wesselhoeft speaking, Martinez and Spiegler When Conrad Wesselhoeft took the stage, the first thing he did wake me think about history. He said it was one of his goals to stand on the same stage where a Beatle had stood. It was his lucky day as Paul McCartney has evidently visited Third Place Books and stood on the very stage the authors were sitting on. (cue me wondering who else has stood there!) He read from his debut work, Adios, Nirvana and spoke a little bit about his writing process. Several of the authors on the tour are in the same writing group, which I found rather interesting. After Wesselhoeft finished speaking, Tara Kelly read from her second book, Amplified, which came out this month. Unbeknownst to me (read: I totally forgot), I'd read her debut work Harmonic Feedback. One of my book clubs picked her new book as our November group read, I'm just waiting for my copy to get processed through the library so I can join them. Kelly said she feels a bit naked without her guitar and decided to set Amplified in Santa Cruz because of the quirky population. She said she once saw a person dressed as death going into a Denny's while she was in college in the area, which definitely made me chuckle. Interestingly, hers was the only book whose title was changed from her original title before publication. The last author to speak was Stasia Ward Kehoe, whose verse work Audition was recently released by Viking. I think I might listen to too many audiobooks because I actually wrote down in my notes, "I'd love to listen to this woman read me an audiobook." How creepy is that? (Note to Ms. Kehoe: If your book turns into an audiobook, READ IT YOURSELF!) The plotline of her book deals with a small town dancer who gets a scholarship to a big city dancing school. Big fish to small fish. I'm not usually interested in books written in verse but I don't know if I can resist. (plus it sounds a bit like Center Stage which is a total guilty pleasure of mine)
_Sadly, I didn't win any of their giveaways but I got a super awesome prize--It turns out that Lish McBride (I WANT THE NEW NECROMANCER BOOK NOW!) and Holly Cupala were sitting a row in front of me! So cool to see those two in real life. New books on my radar, lots of interesting information, and a fun afternoon all around. See if they're coming anywhere near you on their tour! (There are several other authors that hop on and off the tour)
I had a fabulous weekend at the Northwest Bookfest. Many if not most people who know me in real life (or on Goodreads for that matter) might be surprised to know that I am absolutely gutless when it comes to authors. Oh, you’ve written a book? Congratulations, now you are a celebrity to me and I’m pretty much unable to speak to you. I have no qualms about spewing out my opinions about your work on the internet but I will sit in the front row at your panels and just stare at you. Did you notice that today, Sara Zarr? I might not have had you sign any books—I didn’t have anyone sign any—but I sat through the entire Smart Chicks panel internally fangirling the whole panel, even those whose work I’ve yet to read. I was absolutely astounded at how intelligent and well-spoken Jennifer Lynn Barnes is. (not that I had any expectations that she wouldn’t be, I was just very interested in what she had to say about how her scientific background influences her work) The Smart Chicks Kick It YA Tour is a group of YA authors who tour together and I found it was an efficient and organized format to reach a large audience and cover lots of ground. Organized by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong, the group sits on a panel together and answers audience questions interspersed with a few quick games and lightning round questions where they have to answer as quickly as possible. I don’t have a lot of experience with author events but this was exactly what I was looking for—a glimpse into what the authors are actually like as people. Marr mentioned that the format has evolved a bit because the group travels together often and they were constantly learning fun factoids about each other. To mix things up and keep it fresh, they tried to integrate that feeling into the format. In case you are wondering what any of those fun factoids are, here are a few I picked up during the panels: Richelle Mead has a crush on Gilbert Blythe (who doesn’t?!), Melissa Marr snorkels in her bathtub or pool when she has writer’s block, Sara Zarr takes dance breaks to Perfect Stranger by Erasure, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes spent a summer working on an island with 1,000 monkeys! It was absolutely clear that all of the authors had a lot of respect for each other and their work, in fact, one of my favorite parts of those panels was the fact that they all seemed to be friends. (They also played Chuck, F*ck, and Marry with the characters of all of their books and solicited opinions from the crowd, though they call it the much more kid-friendly "Marry, Shag & Cliff") Here are the authors who were on the Smart Chicks Kick It YA Tour at the Northwest Bookfest today:  Richelle Mead, Melissa Marr, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sara Zarr, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rachel Vincent, Sophie Jordan, Rachel Caine  Margaret Stohl, Melissa de la Cruz, Kelley Armstrong, Jeri Smith-Ready, Stephanie Kuehnert Other interesting facts I picked up from the panel are that Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr are working on a Norse-themed MG book/series together so that Marr’s 13-year old son can read something she’s written, Sara Zarr recommends Adele Griffin’s books, Richelle Mead loved Marion Zimmer Bradley as a teen, and that most of these women seem like absolutely awesome and fun people.  I went to several other panels over the weekend, the first of which was an historical fiction/nonfiction panel. I was skeptical about this one going into it and it turned out that I was riveted throughout the entire hour. The authors spoke about their newest books which ran the gamut from stealing geoducks to the life of Louisa May Alcott to the discovery of insulin. Seriously, if I wasn’t so poor at the moment, I’d be all over tons of the books I heard about this weekend. The authors on the panel, and their names will link to the books they spoke about, were Craig Welch, Peter Mountford, Maria Dahvana Headley, Dave Boling, Kathleen Alcala, Kit Bakke, and Thea Cooper. I took two pages of notes on my little notepad during this panel but I don’t feel too nerdy about it because Craig Welch reminded the audience of a quote he enjoyed: “Notetakers make history.” Damn straight. All of them spoke about what inspired them to write about their specific topic and why they write historical books—for several of them it was the fact that the plot points are already ready-made. I found Kit Bakke’s story of why she wrote about Louisa May Alcott particularly fascinating. I am of the opinion that too many people say they did x or y as a response to 9/11 so I was immediately ready to tune out when she said just that about her work, Miss Alcott’s Email. However, her story was different from those I’ve heard before. She spent many years protesting governmental actions and feeling decidedly unpatriotic but when 9/11 happened she could not believe someone could do that to her country. Then she did a double take on the fact that she felt it was “her country” and tried to find some woman in history that really captured that feeling—that the US is something worth fighting for. Dave Boling discussed going to Guernica and seeing, meeting, and hearing about people who were affected by the bombing. For him, the story really came together when he actually felt that emotional element. (Also interesting: The international title of the book is not Guernica in several countries because the word is still too evocative) I forgot to mention earlier that Jennifer Lynne Barnes and Sara Zarr told the audience that they don't necessarily write from physical experiences but often write from familiar emotional viewpoints--the reason they feel a certain way might not be the same but it should make the character (and you) feel something you've felt before.
 I saw Elizabeth Boyle, Greg Bear, Bob Mayer, Deb Caletti, and Sean Salazar at the Genre Mashup panel and Bear made a comment near the onset about why he agreed to be on this particular panel—because things are so much more interesting with varying points of view. Exactly. Elizabeth Boyle was absolutely charming. Her analogy of romance books to bread and milk at the grocery store evoked a lot of chuckles from the audience and she admitted to going to Starbucks, putting her headphones in , not turning them on and then mining dialogue from all the crazy conversations that go on around her. Evidently, Starbucks is a total hot spot for awkwardness and hilarity. After being asked about the difference between genre writers and literature writers, Greg Bear hilariously said that “Literary authors get the awards. Genre authors get the checks.” All of them had quite a bit to say about the constraints of the shelving system and how publishers have told them to cut aspects out of their books because booksellers wouldn’t know where to shelve the book and Bob Mayer spoke about how important it is to self-select the correct genre tags if you are e-publishing. All in all, this panel was just fascinating because each author was coming from such a different place. I could’ve listened to them for at least another hour.
 Mark Teppo, Cherie Priest, Mark Henry, Kat Richardson The Steampunk and Urban Fantasy panel was one of the primary pulls for members of a book club I recently joined. (they’ve been together for over two years) I hate to be a major bummer (*salute*) but this one was just not as satisfying for me as most of the others. The authors on the panel were Cherie Priest, Mark Henry, Mark Teppo, and Kat Richardson. I think this panel just didn’t do it for me for two reasons—I couldn’t see anything because the room was packed and the chairs weren’t staggered and more importantly, the authors seemed to just be joking around with each other. They all seemed to be very nice people and I’m sure they know a ton about the industry and the genres but a lot of the hour- long panel was spent talking about their pets and sharing inside jokes. I feel like Ja’mie in Summer Heights High-- “No offense, but it’s true.” (I wrote in my notes that they seemed like wacky people having a good time at the beginning and “there’s a lot of talking about cats and dogs” at the end) The one hilarious thing about the panel was a quote from a librarian friend that Cherie Priest shared, “Steampunk is what happened whenever goth people discovered brown.” I still found the hour worthwhile and I was certainly excited to see these authors in real life, I just wish I could've learned as much information in that session as I did in others. This morning, I watched authors from the Jack Straw Writers Program read some of their original work. As is the case in all group readings or efforts, I found a few much more compelling than others. I loved listening to Larissa Min read from her Breaking English project about her parents moving from Korea to Rio and I liked Robert Lamirande’s piece about art/artists, though capturing the pretentiousness of art/artists might not have been the best choice for an event filled with artists of a sort. (it wasn’t lost on lowly bloggers who have law degrees but feel like puking every time they think about practicing law)  One of the weird parts of reviewing books on Goodreads or blogs is the moral dilemma about giving negative reviews. For the longest time I was a person who stood on the soapbox for fair, honest reviewing. Always. Even if I don’t enjoy a book, I try to write a critical review without ripping it to shreds. Though entertaining, those types of reviews just aren’t that useful. (at least for me) That said, I never want to ask publishers or authors for ARCs of their books because I’m afraid I’ll hate them. I recently read several ARCs from upcoming debut authors and I was absolutely underwhelmed. What to do? I have no illusions that my reach to readers is gargantuan or anything like that, however I do know that many of my reviews are the first ones that show up when you search books on Goodreads. Do I want to have the responsibility of turning even one or two readers off of a book? (especially before it is even released?!) If you’re wondering why the hell I’m thinking about this, it actually has to do with Northwest Bookfest. I went to a panel on “The Truth About Getting Published” which was filled with information about the process of writing, selling, and marketing your novel. All four books being discussed by their authors sounded extremely interesting to me and I’d love to get my hands on them. However, what if I ask an author for their upcoming book, they give it to me, and then I have nothing positive to say about it? A few authors have told me that even negative reviews are worthwhile because the things that bother me might actually draw a different reader in. Hmph. I really hope this is true. Anyway, the authors on the panel were Daniel Marks, Megan Bostic, Marissa Burt, and J. Anderson Coats. To the four of you: Your books all sound intriguing, but I’m too nervous to ask for them.
 I hated the title of “Writing the Woo-Woo and Weird Stuff” but the panelists were great. Jessa Slade, Alexis Morgan, Theresa Meyers, and Yasmine Galenorn discussed their genre at length and with a lot of humor. Alexis Morgan shared a story about being stuck on one of her characters. A friend of hers told her to “put him in the freezer” until he was ready to come back into the storyline or another book. A few weeks or months later, the two of them were sitting at opposite ends of a table at Red Robin and Ms. Morgan spoke across to her friend, “Remember that guy I put in the freezer a while back but didn’t know what to do with? I figured it out!” They received a few awkward looks from fellow diners. Jessa Slade was a unique voice in the whole weekend. She is, I believe, the first author I’ve heard talk who spoke as if writing was a job and work that she doesn’t always enjoy. She works hard at it, organizes everything, and outlines everything. Though I’m sure other authors don’t love what they do all the time, I found it interesting that Ms. Slade said that a lot of her enjoyment comes from the reader’s experience. At least I think that’s what she was saying because I couldn’t stop staring at the mechanical horse and Firefly-esque cowboy with a laser that was on the large advertisement for Theresa Meyers upcoming book. (in this case, product placement FTW) Because I found Alexis Morgan so utterly charming, I wrote her an email telling her just that. Guess what? She’s sending me an autographed book! I guess good things do come to reviewers who pull their head out of their asses and tell authors how awesome they are. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is 2,100 words on Northwest Bookfest 2011.
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