Austin Teen Book Fest 2013 #ATBF13

I have wanted to attend the Austin Teen Book Festival for 3 years and could never make it happen. When this year's line up was released, I nearly fell out of my chair in excitement - Rae Carson, Marissa Meyer, Holly Black, MAGGIE STIEFVATER! - and I was determined to be there.

Thankfully, I was able to make it happen and it was an almost perfect day.

via ATBF

Maggie opened the festival up with a poignant and hilarious speech. She made some really great points about how creative types typically have equal stores of fear and imagination, and how we need to be able to balance the two somehow. She said that, as a writer, a person plays the "what if" game - what if someone could physically manifest their dreams? What if shapeshifters were real? - and that that game says that all the dreadful possibilities are just as important as the magical ones.  She spoke briefly about her novels, including the beautiful, perfect creation that is Sam Roth and then The Raven Cycle books, and she ended it by saying that "we are all Dream Thieves because we can choose to manifest our dreams or our nightmares."

It was a really great way to open up the day, and once Maggie spoke, my friend and I headed up to our first panel of the day - Into Hearts of Darkness, which featured Jon Scovron, Mari Mancusi, Robin Wasserman, April Tucholke, Victoria Scott and the fantastic Holly Black.

There were several great questions posed to the authors here, but my favorite tidbits were uttered by Robin and Holly, both in response to the query: Where do your ideas come from?

Robin quoted the amazing Patrick Ness and said that, "One idea is never enough for a book." She talked about how he says he usually gets The Idea, and then other Ideas appear and they all sync and congeal and suddenly, this mass of ideas is a Living, Breathing, Thing, and then there's enough to be a book. I thought that was a really fantastic statement. Holly said the best advice regarding ideas she ever got was to "Honor your obsessions." That's a pretty cool idea, too - the thought that if you love something, you should probably write about it.

It was a great start to the day, and then we went back to the main hall to watch the Fierce Reads ladies face off against the Dark Days gals in a silly set of games. The best part of this, for me, was when David Tennant appeared on the screen and everybody went nuts. O DOCTOR, MY DOCTOR, I LOVE YOU SO!

(Obligatory side note: There were SO. MANY. WHOVIANS THERE. I was basically like, "Hello, you are my PEOPLE!") 

Then, we grabbed some lunch and bought a few books - I got ASYLUM by Madeleine Roux and THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales - and headed upstairs to try to snag a good couple of seats in the Dark Days panel room. (We ended up on the 2nd row - SWEET.)

Madeleine Roux, via my OG iPhone

The Dark Days panel was, by far, my favorite of the entire day. It included Madeleine Roux, Sherry Thomas, Mindy McGinness, Michelle Gagnon, Amy Tintera, and Rae Carson.

These ladies are clearly all friends, and they all played off of one another so well - and they're all hilarious, so that definitely helped. A couple of observations here: Michelle Gagnon is so cool, I want to read all of her books, ever, now. DON'T TURN AROUND and DON'T LOOK NOW have been on my radar, but she's so fantastic, I kind of want them in my grabby little hands right now. She and Rae both had this really calm, approach and it was just super cool. Mindy is hilarious - and I mean, snarky and smart, and I never would have guessed that she spends her days as a high school librarian. Biggest surprise of the day? Sherry Thomas, who's glasses and general look do sort of speak quiet librarian but is smart and genuinely a riot who had a snarky remark to almost every question, including how, sometimes, ideas are on sale at Costco, and how hers was a free sample.

Favorite moment, though?

Madeleine Roux's answer to "Where do your ideas come from?" The answer involved blood sacrifice by the light of the full moon, a spirit named Dave, and naked dancing.

Like you do.

via my OG iPhone

After Dark Days was Fierce Reads, which was in the same room, so we were able to settle in and really enjoy it.  The authors here were Leila Sales, Marissa Meyer, S.A. Bodeen, and Alexandra Coutts. The tone of this panel was a lot less snark and a bit quieter, but the result was the same - these ladies love to write and they loved interacting with their readres. Having already read Meyer's works, the other three authors were virtually unknown to me, but now I can say that I need to pick up TUMBLE
& FALL by Alexandra, STAT. The idea of a novel that focuses on the time spent waiting for a natural disaster to strike is scary in the best, most real way, and I really have to find myself a copy of that book soon.

Our last panel of the day was Powers Strange and Perilous, which included Robin LaFevers, Lisa McMann, Cinda Williams Chima, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Melissa de la Cruz and her husband Michael Johnston, and the awesome Maggie Stiefvater. (FLAILY FLAIL FLAIL.) I've read something by everyone on this panel with the exception of Lisa and Cinda, so this was a fun one for me. It was interesting to hear how everyone thinks of the supernatural abilities that they've given their characters, and I especially liked how Robin spoke about the extraneous abilities she gave the ladies in her His Fair Assassins series - I love that she correlates them to the ways the infants struggled at birth (which sounds morbid, I know... because it is). Maggie was, as usual, hilarious and awesome but still made a lot of interesting points, and then it was off to the closing speech with the wonderful Holly Black.

Holly spoke of fear, too, and how one of her lifelong obsessions (vampires) manifested from her childhood fears. We really enjoyed her speech, but I'm not going to lie - the lines for autographs were becoming a bit intimidating, so we hopped in line a few minutes before she finished up so we could be sure to have a couple minutes with each author for whom we had a book to be signed.

All in all, I got Leila to sign my copy of THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE, Marissa to sign my copy of CINDER (I already have a signed copy of SCARLET), and Maggie signed my copies of both THE RAVEN BOYS and THE DREAM THIEVES. My little exchange which her while she was signing my books is also one of my favorite things of the whole day.

via my OG iPhone

Actual conversation:

Me: Hi! Thanks so much for coming today!
Maggie: No problem; I love it. <begins signing>
Me: Also, thanks for creating Sam Roth. He remains my favorite YA Boy ever.
Maggie: Well, he's a good book boyfriend to have.
Me: Right? I figure he'll sing me a song and then turn into a wolf with gorgeous amber eyes. What could be bad about that?
Maggie, as she finishes signing, with a grin: Shedding.

HA. And now you know why I say she's 100% awesome. ;)

Anyway, the ATBF was really great. I am thoroughly impressed with how smoothly it ran, how easy the schedule seemed to flow, and how genuinely kind all of the authors seemed. Will definitely try to attend next year's event! 

Thanks to Book People and all the volunteers for making it so great! And a huge thanks to the authors for being generous with their time.

The #SWEATTour's Austin Stop - 4 YA Authors at Book People!

This evening, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Austin stop of the SWEAT Tour. SWEAT: SoCal Writers' Excellent Adventure in Texas. Cute, no? Also, it was (of course) over 100 degrees today, so it's probable that that other meaning of sweat was a possibility.

In preparing for this event, I was looking into a couple of the authors' information and when I pulled up Amy Tintera's bio and picture, I realized she looked super familiar. When her novel, REBOOT, was released, I thought the name was familiar too, but I never looked into it, assumed that it rang a bell because I'm pretty involved in the YA community as a whole, and let it go.

Yeeeeah.

She and I graduated from High School together. So, that's pretty cool.

Anyway, a quick conversation with her via Twitter later, and I said I'd say hello this evening at the event (I did, and she's very sweet, and she even signed my book with a "Go [school mascot]!" which I thought was pretty darn cute).

The panel, as a whole, was really fantastic, partially because all the ladies were so very different and partially because the books they represented were all so different. Authors were:

Amy Tintera - author of REBOOT and its forthcoming sequel
Shannon Messenger - author of The Keeper of the Lost Cities and Let The Sky Fall series'
Debra Driza - author of MILA 2.0 and its forthcoming sequel
Kasie West - author of PIVOT POINT and THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US

photo taken with my crappy iPhone

The moderator - Jen, I believe - led the ladies through some really great questions. At this point in my YA Reading Career, I've been to quite a few author events, and I feel that her questions were the best I've experienced. I took a few notes on the questions and their responses. Here are my favorite highlights:

If you could summarize your book by using only the names of TV shows or movies, what would you choose? 
Amy: The Walking Dead meets La Femme Nikita
Shannon: (re: LET THE SKY FALL) The Last Airbender meets Twister
Debra: The Bourne Identity meets AI
Kasie: Pride and Prejudice meets Pretty in Pink

Then, they ladies played 2 Truths and a Lie. Mrs. West has a pretty hilarious truth about choking on her own hair. That's all I've got to say about that. ;)

What's the worst (and best) writing advice you've ever been given? 
Amy:
Worst: Always know the end before beginning to write.
Best: Finish the writing.

Shannon:
Worst: You can't move on to the next chapter until this one is perfect.
Best: from Ellen Hopkins: "It's never to early to begin treating writing like a job."

Debra:
Worst: It's OK to query before the writing is done.
Best: From Cindy Pon: "Let yourself write utter poo."

Kasie:
Worst: You have to outline to be a serious writer.
Best: Don't compare yourself or your experience to others'; No two stories or writers are the same.

Which "current" books do you wish you'd had as a teenager? 
Debra: SAVING FRANCESCA by Melina Marchetta (and several members of the audience, me included, gasped. Because YES. ALL KINDS OF YES. Marchetta FTW.)

Amy: IF I STAY by Gayle Forman

Kasie said she didn't have a specific favorite, but that she wished Sarah Dessen had been a writer when she was a teenager. Shannon said she simply wished YA had existed; it would have stopped her from becoming a non-reader in her teens.

When was the "moment" you realized that this was real, that you were a 'real' writer?
Debra: The day before her book released, and she promptly had a panic attack as she considered all of the possibilities ahead of her.

Kasie: When she received her first review from a stranger.

Shannon: At her launch party, when a class-full of Middle Grade aged students were actually in attendance; also, the first time she received a letter from a parent saying that her book was what made their child a reader.

Amy: There was a moment in her kitchen in which she just determined that she was going to write, and after that, she began to work toward publication.

photo taken on my crappy iPhone

I found it really interesting to hear so much of my writing style in various comments the authors made. Amy advised that her main character arrived first, and the world was built around her. This is often how things work with me -  more often than not, actually. Kasie said she can't outline; it takes all the creative juices out of her. I am a terrible outliner. It's impressively bad. Shannon said she *can* write for hours and hours on end, but the outcome isn't pretty and she'd rather not. It was kind of cool to hear others express the same traits that I see in myself.

Anyway, at the end, I bought a copy of Amy's book and she signed it; I also picked up a few signed bookmarks and a tattoo for REBOOT. It was a pretty great event... and it's one more thing to check off #59 on my 101/1001 list.

:)

Marissa Meyer at Book People

#59 on my 101/1001 list is to attend 5 author events. I'm really excited to say that I've gotten to check one off this list this evening!

Book People, Austin's indie bookstore, held an event this evening for Marissa Meyer's SCARLET tour. for those of you who may not know, Meyer is the author of The Lunar Chronicles, which is her reworking/revamping a set of four classic fairytales. The first in the series is CINDER, a cyborg, futuristic retelling of Cinderella. The newest installment is centered on a reworked Little Red Riding Hood, and it's called SCARLET.

(Sidenote: Amazing cover art, no? Some of my favorites, if I'm honest, and I'm hoping the publisher doesn't decide to change them mid-series. I'd be super bummed.)




What I really love about this series is that, really, Meyer has just kept to the bones of the original material, so Cinder's stepmother is evil, and Scarlet's grandmother is missing, but she generally deviates from the rest of the story. Basically, she leaves enough there to allow the reader to make some educated assumptions about the characters, and those assumptions generally play out as you'd expect them to.

And yes, there is a big, bad Wolf in Scarlet. And he's about 100 kinds of delicious, but that is probably beside the point.

Book People is really one of my favorite places in town, so I was really excited to head down there this evening, and they definitely did not disappoint. There were a good number of chairs set up, and they had the cutest snack set up, which really surprised me. Every author event I've ever been to was just Q&A and the author reading a bit of their book. Here's a pic that I posted on Instagram from the event:

 Seriously? Cutest thing ever.

Anyway, Marissa is super adorable. She shared her story - how she started writing, how she began writing CINDER, in particular, and what the inspiration for her writing at all was. It turns out that she started writing Sailor Moon fan fiction, which is probably the best thing I've heard in a long time.

She read two pieces of her novel, and then told a few classic fairytales - Cinderella and Red Riding Hood, of course - in their original formats - no Disney here! Then, she opened the floor up for questions, and there were some really great ones (and one real clunker, but that's besides the point). I asked what we could expect from her - will she be writing more fairytale retellings, or is she interested in expanding into other genres? As it turns out, she's got ideas for two other series, a paranormal thriller and a contemporary one (both YA), and she's just sold a stand alone novel, but it's so new that she couldn't release any real details about it, aside from saying it's a fantasy sort of story.

I really enjoyed the discussion this evening, and Marissa is an inspiration for a writer like me - in listening to the story of her beginnings, I feel we have a lot of similarities, which was a really cool thing to realize. Normally, I'd have purchased a book and had it signed by her, but initially, I didn't think I'd be able to attend this event, so I ordered a signed copy from my favorite book store in Nashville, and it's on the way, via mail to me. (Regardless, though, I've already read an ARC of SCARLET, and it's pretty damn fabulous.)

This was a great event, and I hope Book People has more like it, and soon...

And now begins the incomprehensible wait for book 3, CRESS.

TGFB (thank god for books)

first: a video -

via

did you read this book?

i read this book. when i was about 11 or so, and i loved it. and when this movie was released about a year or two later, i saw it, and loved it. harriet m. welsch, as a character, spoke to me. she was different, smart and quirky, and she was obsessive about observing life as she saw it. she wrote constantly.

basically, she was me.

i can say that harriet m. welsch was probably the first MG/YA heroine that i truly identified with, that i can remember. by the time i met harriet, i had already read a wrinkle in time, which stars my beloved meg murry, and roald dahl had already introduced me to matilda & charlie, but harriet was my girl.

here's why i'm bringing this up.

i watched this movie this evening with my daughter, and not only is it still a poignant reference to life as a middling adolescent (and in general), but it still made me cry. i remember crying so hard when ole golly had to leave harriet, and when sport and janie wouldn't initially forgive her. but that was a million years ago, right? when i was 13!

and yet: the tears still came. and yet, i still melt when sport rushes out of the store, embarrassed because his friend had to help him so that he could afford groceries for the week. and yet i still hate marion hawthorne just a tad.

harriet the spy is one of very few books i remember falling in love with in my early adolescence. sure, i read all  the time, but there are probably five books at most that i remember reading until my eyes couldn't take it anymore and i finally succumbed to sleep. there are few books that, with a mere mention, shove me all the way back, back, back to twelve or thirteen year old me, holed up in my room with my nose in a book, wishing life was a bit more like the world i found between those beloved pages.


that's the beauty of books, though, isn't it?

they grab you and then they begin to live under your skin, and they speak to some internal part of you that never forgets their message.

and so when you're twenty-nine and have a child of your own, those memories can still grab hold of you and overwhelm you a bit.

thank god for books is all i can say.