The time I went to Vegas alone

When the fall Pitch Dark Days tour was announced, I knew I was going to try and go. The downside? No SoCal dates. The upside? Vegas was listed as a stop. Vegas is close enough and I'm just crazy enough to drive over...

Hubs recently started a new job, so he wasn't able to take the time off to go. I had never taken the trip alone, but I was ready to do it. 

On the day of the event, I gassed up and washed Lucy, bought some snacks, plugged in my iPod and hit the 15N around 10am. You think driving to Vegas is boring? Try driving alone. Granted, I was able to listen to my music as loud as I wanted.  Around noon, I had made it to Barstow. AKA: the halfway point. AKA: where I can buy the delicious cherry licorice. 

I bought 3 bags of licorice [much to the chagrin of the old trucker who was standing next to me] and a drink and got right back on to the freeway. I hit Vegas just after 2pm. 

After checking into my hotel and getting in the room, I immediately ordered some room service, set up my laptop to scan and just hung out before needing to leave for the event. 

I got to the bookstore around 6 and was disappointed to find they didn't have Crown of Embers available in hardcover. The event area was partially set up [chairs weren't out], but the backdrop of books looked amazing. 

 

The event started just after 7pm with the announcement of the authors with special guest, Tera Lynn Childs. Each author did an introduction and a synopsis of their books. 

 

S: My book is about cross dressing. I'll say that so you remember it. I wanted to do something like Harry Potter, but it's already been done and can't be done any better. So, instead of going to a magic school, my girl dresses like a girl and goes to a Muggle school.

R: I write epic quest fantasy, so if you like lots of traveling, this could be for you. It's like Game of Thrones for teens. Instead of Jon Snow, the MC is like Ugly Betty. 

MM: My book is like Hunger Games meets Little House on the Prairie, in pants. The main character is basically sniping people right off the bat at 9 years old. There's romance, but not really. More shooting. It doesn't have unicorns. Or rainbows.

MR: My book has a young man who is pretty troubled, but smart and goes to a gifted summer course. He's with his people and they find out they're in a renovated asylum. Creepy things happen and there are really creepy photos inside.  

MG: My MC is a 16 year old computer hacker who has set up her own life, but wakes up one day on an operating table. She ends up teaming up with a boy who is her opposite. Sort of like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Bourne Identity.

T: The Sweet Venom trilogy is about 3 sisters who were separated at birth and adopted into three different families. The find their destiny to start fighting monsters. 

 

What amount of research did you need to do?

MG: My biggest challenge was the hacking because I still can't figure out how to send email from my iPad. Fortunately, I have a friend of a friend who sent me to a white collar hacker who went through everything line by line. The only thing I added was the disease PEMA, I wanted it to be as real as possible and talked with a friend who is an endocrinologist. 

MM: The survival aspect which is funny, because I pretty much live the way my MC does. Well, except for the shooting. I am a good shot, but I don't shoot people. I do grow my own food and can my own food and I do know how to skin and dress a deer. I had to research cholera. A lot about water born diseases and water purification. 

R: It really helps to write about something that you already know about or something that you're so curious about. One of the most important things about writing is intellectual curiosity. 

S: The school where my girl is cross dressing is a real school. It's Eton, the most famous boys school. 

MR: One hospital had patients complaining about patient care. Found that people had been strapped down and left that way so long their skin was growing around the straps. A lot of the information I found couldn't be put in the book. I had to be mindful that it was happening to real people. 

T: Set in San Fran, did 2 different trips to get a feel for the city. Everything that was explained was something that I actually went to. All of the mythology of monsters was found on a great website [that I didn't get]. For Medusa, there was a minimal reference point that I had to adhere to, but I gave the other side of the story. 

The next question was who is your favorite author and why, but I was busy taking pictures and saving my notes, sooooo...

 

Something you like to snack on while writing?

MM: I write in bed so I don't snack.

R: I forget to eat when I'm writing and then I'll eat everything on the eastern seaboard. Now I set an alarm and force myself to walk away from the laptop to eat. Even if it's just a handful of nuts or something small. 

S: Deadline cake. I will have an entire 4 layer cake in the fridge and will go through it all over a week or so.  Sometimes, my husband will just bring one home so I don't even have to go to the store.

MR: Salt and vinegar chips. I will go through an entire bag without even knowing it. I have a towel to wipe my fingers off and I'll wipe down the keyboard too.

T: I write in Starbucks, so it's usually a soy latte.

Who is one author that you have fangirled over?

T: Jaclyn Moriarty. She's an Australian author. I changed my flight so I could see her and got in line at 10 when her signing wasn't until 1 because I wanted to be first in line. [I can sooo relate to this]

MG: When my first book was coming out, Stephen King was the grand master of [some writing thing]. I bought a book and waited and started to get nervous. I wasn't sure what I should say to him. The only thing I could think of was to lean over and say "I bet you get a lot of creepy fans" and he actually reared back, signed my book and quickly waved me away to talk to Gillian Flynn who was behind me. 

MR: There's a British documentarian I've been friends with on FB and did a book swap. One night after a bad personal night and being a bit inebriated, I sent him a message all about how handsome he was. I even started the message with I'm drunk and a hot mess. He was very British about it and said that he was flattered...

MM: I was in Chicago in June with some other Katherine Tegan authors. Had dinner with Veronica Roth and Michael Grant. Michael had friended me on FB and even blurbed my book.  When I introduced myself to him, he didn't hear my name and asked what I was doing there. For a second, I thought that he didn't remember me. 

R: Speaking of Gillian Flynn, she sat at a table across the way from me at an event and I was able to creep all over her. I finally  went over there and got to get her to sign my book. I'd like to say that I walked away with my pride intact, but I don't remember what words came out of my mouth. 

S: I am very secretive, so I will stalk people from a distance, but won't approach them. It's safer for them. I think I've read all of Maggie Stiefvater's blog, for the past 5 years.  But she doesn't know it.

Question for Rae: Why did you choose to make your MC bigger?

I was dating a guy who was a douche nozzle. He would say things like are you sure you want to eat that? Or how many miles did you run today?

MG: Did you get backlash?

R: I've had some, but for the most part, some librarians have made it a discussion point. It's nearly impossible to get on a horse and travel for over a month and not have your body change. 

MM: One of my favorite lines is something about how her thighs will always touch. My thighs touch and they always will.

[There was a lot more to this conversation, including an amazing comment by Madeleine, but I couldn't type fast enough.]

What is your writing process?

MM: I lay down in my bed and I start writing. I don't plot, I write linearly and then spend 6 months cleaning it up. I'll know the first line and the last line. There are some things that happened in my book that I didn't plan at all. 

MR: I'll loosely outline, but usually by the middle of the book, it's veered off. Some of my best moments have been something that felt wrong. 

T: I am a process whore. I force myself into reading process and plotting books. Deadline. 

MG: A pantser, I usually have many books going at once. The only book that I completely plotted out was the only one I didn't sell. I think it's because by the time it was outlined, I was bored. 

R: What I've figured out is that I like to think a lot and then write really fast. Ask me again in 10 years, I could have an entirely different answer.

The signing started just before 8. Crystal came over to thank me for driving over and introduced me to Jessie, who is a local author. Crystal said I could wait until the very end, since I had so many books.

When it was manageable, I started with Rae and Mindy first. Mindy recognized Erin's name and we started talking about how she did the video chat with Erin & Jaime.  Rae asked if we had met before and I said that we met at ALA and talked about how hot it was in the convention center.  She signed all of the many, many books I had for her.

One of the coolest things I've seen: Sherry had special "signed by" author stickers made for each of them.  After the book was signed, each author put on their sticker.

   

Michelle was next.  She hugged me and said that it was great to see me.  We talked about her event at The Grove with Gretchen and how much fun it was.  And whether I'd be going to Vegas Valley [yes] or her event at MGRB [probably].

  

And then Madeleine. We had been talking about her Halloween costume with Michelle while Michelle was signing my stack of things.  Madeleine had been signing a different page from the title page because she only had a black sharpee.  I had borrowed Tera's silver sharpee and asked Madeleine if she would use it.  And hooray!!

  

Sherry was the last person I went to.  I had arcs from Erin and Jaime to have signed.  She gave me some awesome hand balm to send back to them.  And then since I drove so far, she gave me a special prize that turned out being a fold up bag with the book title on it. 

After I had everything done, I quickly gathered up my piles and thanked Crystal for everything.  She talked about Vegas Valley and how I could sign up to help an author. Of course I asked if I could have a harem... She said no. 

And off I drove back to my hotel and more room service.  The Pitch Dark tour is always amazing and this set of authors didn't disappoint.

The time we spent the day in the shade

We went to Festival of Books last year and it was pretty amazing. So I knew I would be going again, I just had to wait until the list of authors was released to decide how long I'd be there for.

I made my plans the day before. And while there were going to be several authors that I love seeing, I was really focused on seeing people that normally weren't in the LA area. There were only two for Saturday: Gennifer Albin and A.S. King.

I already had my copies of Crewel and Dear Bully, so I started the hunt for Ask the Passengers. Again, B&N disappointed me with the BS sob story about how they didn't have it. Surprise, surprise. Thankfully, the awesome people at Mrs. Nelson's had one copy in stock. They were willing to let me pay for it over the phone and agreed to bring it with them for my pick up at FoB.

We ended up getting up to the USC campus early and found excellent parking.

Picture taken from LA Times Festival of Books Twitter

We hunted down the Mysterious Galaxy booth [where I FINALLY met the amazing MaryElizabeth] and the Mrs. Nelson's booth. And then we found LiteraTea, a little campus cafe and killed some time waiting for the official start time.

As we were waiting to sync up with Colleen, we helped ourselves to chairs and sat across from the signing area at MG and people watched.

Marie Lu was signing and even though I haven't gotten a finished copy of Prodigy, it looked she was at the end of her signing time as she was only signing stock before heading over to another booth.

 

We headed back to Mrs. Nelson's to find Colleen. There were hugs and gifts exchanged . We hung out for a bit, catching up before she had to go back to work. So we headed back to MG after getting pictures with the minions from Despicable Me 2.

Robin Benway was at the MG signing table so I grabbed one of her other books and had it signed. I loved Also Known As so much that I'll pretty much read anything and everything she publishes.

 

We sat back and waited in our stolen chairs and just people watched. Gennifer Albin was scheduled to be at the MG booth at 12. Around 12:15, one of the employees told us that they didn't know where Gennifer was, that they were trying to find out if she went to a seller's booth on accident. We were told to stay in line, that they would make sure Gennifer signed all of our stuff.

Around 12:45, one if the MG booth employees came up to us and told us that Gennifer was lost. She had checked into the green room, but no one knew where she had gone.

In the meantime, Hubs had gone back to Mrs. Nelson's booth to pick up my copy of Ask the Passengers by AS King. In their rush to pack for the event, it was left on a desk at the store. They nicely sent someone back for it, so it took some time before it was actually at the booth.

I asked Hubs to stay in line in case Gennifer appeared and I ran over to an adjacent booth to get A.S. King.

She immediately commented on my chest tattoo [which is amazing] and then asked to see my Doctor Who tattoo. We then started talking about tattoos and how her dad told her she wouldn't be able to get a job if she were covered in tattoos.

She's signed my books and came out from behind the table to take a picture.

  

About 30 minutes later, I interrupted A.S. King [who was waiting to start her signing panel at MG] to deliver a message of love from Heather Brewer. I ended up chatting with her for a few minutes about different things and her winning the YA award the night before.

Before we went to our last event, I spotted Debra Driza in front of the signing table, so I stopped to say hi. I ended up chatting with 4 or 5 of the most hilarious girls [I wish I would have gotten names] along with Debra. We talked about tattoos [because they loved my River] and the clothing choices people made. After a few minutes, I excused myself from the group.

The last signing we had was Michelle Gagnon. She was on a panel with Tahereh Mafi and Kiersten White.

I talked to Tahereh briefly about getting Jaime a defaced copy. I may have also gushed about her eyelashes.

I then went over to Michelle. I had talked to her on twitter about where she was going to be signing. When she saw me, she commented on how I really came. And I said that I was an experienced stalker. See below for the best inscription.

We talked about Strangelets. I told her that I loved the book and she told me how she had to cut 20k words from it. And how there's an entirely different ending out there somewhere.

We also talked about Don't Look Back and how I was dying for it. She told me there were arcs out and that it was up on Edelweiss. GAH.

 

After that, we got to steal Colleen away for a few minutes. We went to a courtyard area to hang out and catch up on all of the things.

And when Colleen had to go back to the booth, we called it a day. And right after we drove out of our awesome parking spot, Gennifer Albin tweeted me about the signing and said she was told the signing was at 3pm. She also offered to meet me anywhere to sign my things. I was so bummed that I didn't get to see her, but I love that she offered.

Festival of Books is always worth the drive up.  The USC campus is gorgeous and everyone there is always so accommodating.  If you're in the area, I can't suggest a better way to spend a day outside.  With books.

The time it was a teen panel

The LA public library has been having teen panels for a while and I never had a chance to actually attend one. Somehow I saw the post about the one year anniversary and was interested in going after seeing that it would be Amy Spalding, Michelle Gagnon, Jessica Brody and Sarah Skilton.

I checked with the authors [and the library] to see if there would be a signing afterwards. While there wouldn't be anything formal, I was told that the authors were usually more than happy to sign anything after the panel.

We got up to the library around 5pm and wandered around. And there was definitely a lot to see.

Ceilings like this...

 

Or this....

And Getty exhibits of old Hollywood movie memorabilia.

 

The doors opened at 6:30 and we headed right in. Three of the 4 authors were already in the room and I got caught eavesdropping on Amy Spalding's conversation. *facepalm* The YA librarian, Mary, [who scared the crap out of me when I opened the meeting room door before the event started] said that there would be mingling until 7pm and the panel would start afterwards.

They even had some arcs they were giving away.

Mary started things right before 7pm. She gave a brief introduction about the LA public library teen panel and how it was the one year anniversary. And then she handed it over to Cecil. Cecil gave a brief bio of each author and then each of the ladies read a couple of pages from their book.

 

And then the questions started...

How did you come up with your mystery/thriller:

M: First book thought to be a college coming of age and ended up being a thriller. Had serious meltdown with both drafts: a hard drive crash and a Southwest flight attendant spilled wine on computer keyboard.

J: Was told all books have mystery to it. Big twist in UNREMEMBERED was in the middle and she moved it, tends to have a reveal of sorts every 10 pages.

Other books deal with grief, talk about writing contemp with grief:

S: loves Buffy and shadow cat from xmen. Wanted to write a girl who was strong because she trained everyday, not because she had special powers. At the moment you're tested, you fail, so if you're not who you think you are, who are you?

She took martial arts classes in high school and college - she is a black belt. Took out her journals from her own classes as a refresher/research.

A: Main character is trying to learn about who she is within her mothers world. Contemp is heightening everyday emotions. Like the morning after kissing someone you didn't expect to is like being in a prison of your own mind.

Research for hacking:

M: Most of the research was for her fictional disease. Had endocrinologist friend help with symptoms and such for PEMA. A worker with White hat hacker helped with the hacking info, gave a "top 10 signs you've been hacked" list.

Most importantly, the research can't overwhelm the reader. Michelle writes from beginning to end without stopping, places bracket indicator for where she needs research.

What is the trick for setting up a series?

J: Sold Unremembered as a trilogy, so she had to have some idea. Main trick is to finish off the main story, but leave some questions.

M: Adult series was reoccurring character with four different plots. With YA trilogy, she feels like she's fumbling through it, due to a much larger arc to work with.

How do you keep it fresh?

A: Desperately clinging to what is cool. Had flip phones in copy edits and finds it very hard to keep current.

S: Wants tv shows to stay on longer because they're referenced in the book. Amazing race, csi Miami, Oprah.

What came first: character or concept?

A M J: concept

J: Concept. She took a failed idea and set it up in Unremembered. Actually became the main twist of the series.

M: Concept, It was an idea that editor and Michelle came up with over lunch. Just needs one idea: a sentence or paragraph and can run with it.

A: Concept. Loves long lost family stories and didn't find one she wanted to read so she wrote one.

S: Character.

First person or third?

M: Always writes in third person. Just read a book in multiple 1st person POV and was very confused, they seemed to all have the same voice.

Thoughts on romance being so important in YA:

J: MC is dealing with a boy who claims they were in love before the accident. Wanted to explore the idea of are all memories erasable.

M: Has a hard time with romance, especially when on the run. Didn't seem natural to have them hook up.

S: Has a romance subplot, didn't want it to take over the story.

A: Romance is not focus, but there's definite romance. Also hates when there's something serious, but let's make room or kissing.

Around 7:45, they wrapped it up. I quickly went to Amy and asked if she would sign. I had a book for Tonya as well as myself. She signed Tonya's first and then as she was signing my copy, I explained who Tonya was. Amy recognized her Twitter handle and asked for the book back to "not be so generic".

Jennifer Bosworth was hogging Michelle, so I went to talk to Jessica. I got a signed sample of Unremembered and she commented on my Doctor Who shirt. From there, we started talking about tattoos and she asked me some questions about healing time.

Cecil snuck in and I asked her to sign my Dear Bully. That prompted the conversation about getting everyone to sign and how many authors I already had.

Jennifer was STILL talking to Michelle and while I hovered, started petting my arm. She graciously stopped her conversation so I could jump in and get my copy of Don't Turn Around signed. I told Michelle that I had loved it and had finished it while driving up.

As we left, I thanked Mary for a great event. And it definitely was. The authors were friendly and charming and the library staff were informative. I know I'll be checking for future events to attend.