The time it was like speed dating

I heard about the Summer of YA event on accident. I was scrolling through the events list on the BN website and just happened to see that Elizabeth Ross was having another signing. And when I clicked on the link to learn more about the event, it was a huge listing.

I ended up requesting the tickets, but wasn't sure if I was actually going to make it. 

On the day of the event, traffic was a nightmare and we got there around 1:40, with the event starting at 2. I checked in and got my wristband before I briefly ran into Thuy and Nicole. 

 

On my quest to get the books I needed, I ran into Jessica Brody and then saw Gretchen McNeil. After I purchased my books, I went to hover around by the start of the event area. 

 

It was announced that the wristband color coordinated with the balloon color of the table each person was assigned too. The groups of people would be staying at the table, the authors would be rotating around from table to table. 

While waiting for the event to start, I saw Lita and Colleen who work at the BN at The Grove. I started hearing that they event people changed their minds and the people would be the movers, instead of the authors. And then I finally met Alethea!

The event started around 2:20. Everyone was told to go over to the table that matched their wristband. First up was Sarah Skilton and Elizabeth Ross

 

Each author gave a brief synopsis of their book and then opened it up for everyone. I gave Elizabeth my copy of Belle Epoque and we started a conversation about Paris. 

 

 

I stood off to the side for a bit, trying to behave and follow the directions of not moving tables until told to. Buuuuuut, I couldn't do it. I took off my wristband and went over to the only other table I was looking for: Stacey Jay and Gretchen McNeil. 

They each had someone talking to them and they all left at the same time. I made the joke that I had them all to myself. 

I started telling Stacey about how I was trying to stalk her [Me to Gretchen: I don't want your input on this. Gretchen: I will just look over there.] at ALA for an arc of Romeo Redeemed and how Ava ended up getting it for me.  And she said, "You're the other Stacee!" I said that I was and she stood up to high five me. 

We briefly talked about her new book and how excited she was for it. Then people who followed the rules started coming over. 

 

 

I stepped over to Gretchen and we started talking about her two weeks off from revisions and topics for the upcoming non-sanctioned SCBWI panel she is planning. All I have to say about Gretchen is that if you haven't met her or read her books, you need to get on it. She is absolutely one of my favorite people. 

After a few minutes, there were even more people for both ladies, so I quickly said my goodbyes. I ended up leaving after that. 

 

Overall, it was a clever idea and the execution of it worked for the amount of authors and attendees. I really liked the approach to the speed dating and hope that there will be other events like it!

The time it was delightfully snarky

I knew Rachel Hawkins was going to be at SDCC, so when I saw that she was announced to appear at the BN in Glendale I was so happy. Less books I would have to take with me and more time hearing Rachel on her own.

Getting up to Glendale was a horrible nightmare. It was accident after accident and broken down car after broken down car. We left San Diego before 3 and barely got up to Glendale at 6pm.

When we were about 15 minutes away, Anasheh messaged me on GR and asked if I needed her to save seats. When we finally got up there, only Anasheh and her friend were there, so I was able to secure front row seats. 

 

Rachel got there just after 7 and jumped right in. 

 

Gonna use the teacher voice and not use the mic.

Professional writer for 5 years, was a writer before knew how to write. Most intense Barbie stories. Most girls were like "ooh, barbie and ken go to prom!" Hers were abducted by aliens.

Parent supported "creative/weird" and went to a young author conference.  Met Katherine Tucker Windham. When getting autograph, the ghost "signed" the book. That was the beginning of wanting to write supernatural.

In college for criminology and left because needed to take statistics. So happy not at a school visit because afraid of getting jumped and stabbed with compasses and protractors by math teachers when she says "boring math classes".

Switched to English and then found out had to take statistics. Lesson learned: math is always waiting for you.  Has degree in English Lit, speciality in 19th century [something something. Rachel talks fast]. Want to identify all of the phallic symbols in the room? Done. 

Saw husband teaching and shaping young minds and thought, "Wow. I want summers off too." Became a teacher. Kids and books, yay! Grading and bureaucracy, boo!

Really good at starting books, wrote 20k words and though this is hard, means the book is bad, so quit. Started reading YA and thought she could write that.

Lots of YA is about how two people see each other across the room and instantly they're like "I barely know you, but I would DIE for you." How about let's make out a little instead? Started thinking about a book to balance that out.

Books set at boarding schools or with MCs that are orphans are done because no one really wants to write parents. It would be a killer.  "I don't let my kid ride his bike to the end of the street, I'm not going to let him fight the dark lord of evil. That sounds dangerous."

Oct-Feb wrote Hex Hall. Got Holly and sold to Disney Hyperion in April. Went from rock bottom, about to starve to dream job in 6 months.

School Spirits is a spin off. Sophie needed a vacation. "Did you read the last book?" Liked the idea of following the monster hunters.

Other than the misogyny aspect, Supernatural is a good show. Everywhere she goes, people go insane over it.

School Spirits was fun because Izzy has to go to high school. She never had to deal with bells and lockers. How would it look to someone who's never been to school? A girl who can physically kill monster but a boy asks for her number and she's like what is that?

All of that was part of Rachel's "origin story". The Q&A started after that.  

Favorite piece of writing advice? 

Read a lot. And read vastly. You want to write YA? Great. Don't just read that, you need to see how other people are telling their stories. And yes, just do the work.

Did you have Hex Hall series planned? Or were sequels added after it sold?

It was always meant to be a bigger story. Likes to have a tv type structure.

What does your son think?

Was in Sam's and he saw the book display and said, "Did you write this one too?" And it was Dan Brown. "Pfft. You wish, we'd be living in a castle."  

Ending of Demonglass planed? Did you want to make readers cry?

Yes. That's how I stay young and strong. I'm really 65. If it makes the reader cry, most of the time it makes the writer cry too. 

Do you ever rewrite?

Yes. For myself and my editor. Young writers look at what they're writing and then a book on the shelf for comparison. That's not fair, so many eyes see it before it gets to the shelf.

 

Fave supernatural character?

Castiel.

Who are your favorite authors?

All time favorite is Roald Dahl. Started going through them with son and realized how dark they are.

What are you reading?

Writing a book set in Edinburgh, so reading a lot of historical set there. As research so can just use their street names.

[She listed 2 others, but I didn't get them down fast enough]

Fave character written?

Archer. Not just because he's dreamy because he came with so much baggage.

Dex in School Spirits. First metrosexual asthmatic in YA. No one loves their purple blazer as much as Dex does.

With Rebel Belle, very invested in it, so in love with those characters.

Trick for getting through blocks?

It depends. Used to say it doesn't exist, but it's sort of douchy. Every time sat down to write, after 30 minutes, it was bubbling out. If the book feels broken, take a week off. Now knows to talk things out with scientist hubs.

Do you stock pile things that don't work?

Never deletes anything. Has an "orphans" file. Used stuff from Rebel Belle for the sequel.

Favorite and least favorite part of writing process.

Being done. When a book is really working, literally feels like you've been living in a dream, it's amazing. Hard to say least favorite. It's all wrapped up. That's what authors are so masochistic

When you're done writing, are characters still in your head? 

Doesn't understand when authors say, "Oh my character would love that!" Doesn't judge, has friends like that, but it's not for her. Characters are sort of like puppets: they did what I wanted and that's all.

Is School Spirits a stand alone? 

For now, yes. Very episodic.

Fave part of School Spirits?

Anything dealing with high school.

How do you come up with names?

"I don't. I'm the worst titler. Do you mean character names?" Sophie Mercer was always Sophie Mercer. Like Isolde and Isabella. Uses baby name books. If the name isn't right the character isn't right. 

 

After that last question, Rachel went to the signing table. I had many books, so I went to the back of the line. 

 

When I got up to Rachel, I started unpacking the books onto the table so I could sort of help with them. I thanked her for coming and apologized for so many. She laughed and said something along the lines of how horrible it was that I was buying multiple copies of her books and feeding her kid. 

When I opened my copy of School Spirits, I had forgotten that I had asked for Dex on the post it. Or that I had put my Twitter handle under my name. Rachel said, "Oh you're Stacee" and how it was exciting to put a face to the twitter name. 

 

We chatted a bit about different things: her recent trip to Scotland, the driving distance and geography of California and how Atlanta had lost its southern mystique. We took a picture and [I think] I thanked her again. Before we left, I chatted with Anasheh and her friend [whose name I didn't get] again. 

Rachel Hawkins is hilarious. She's just as snarky and delightful as the characters she writes. Perhaps even more. She is definitely one of those authors I will always go see.  I can't recommend her and her books enough, so go read them now. 

The time we had hamsas drawn on

When Laini Taylor toured for Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I wasn't able to go. She appeared at MGRB on the same night that Kathy Reichs was at Warwick's. I ordered a signed copy and figured I would see her eventually.

We got up to Glendale around 5pm. The event area had velvet ropes/barricades around it so no one was able to get to the seats. I had asked one of the employees when it would open up and he said probably between 6:30-6:45. We settled in with some books and just waited.

Around 6pm, Laini came walking by with her agent and a woman we've met at various events before. The woman pointed us out to Laini and told her that we were from San Diego. Laini asked if we really drove that far and when I said yes, she said it was pretty cool that we did.

Just after 6, I noticed there were a couple of girls hovering by the event entrance and I quickly joined them. Not only were they the same girls I threatened to push at Kiersten White, but they remembered me. A few minutes later, the absolute nicest B&N employee I've ever encountered let us into claim our seats.

One of the best parts of waiting in the event area is listening to everyone around me talk. The women behind me were drawing hamsas on their hands and were talking about taking pictures. I would eventually offer to take pictures of all three of them together and we had an impromptu photo shoot.

Laini got there right at 7pm. She started out by telling us that Days of Blood and Starlight debuted on the NYT bestsellers list. From there, she talked about the origin of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Daughter came to be from "cheating on another book". Laini was supposed to be writing a scifi book with ballerinas, but it wasn't flowing. She decided to give herself a day to write whatever she wanted without a plan or prompt. From that came a scene with a blue haired teenager arguing with her father who wasn't human.

After about 15 minutes of talking, Laini read from Days. In the middle of her reading, an announcement for the "all new NOOK tablet" played overhead. Laini paused with a small smile and waited for quiet before resuming.

The Q&A session started and from that I learned that Laini loved to write the snarky conversation of teenagers so much that she created twitter handles for Karou and Zuzana to talk on. She quickly realized that she needed to channel that energy into writing.

Someone asked about Laini's writing process or "process porn" as she dubbed it. A messy chapter will prohibit her from continuing, she edits while she works. She always has two documents open sides by side: one is the chapter, the other is a working document that lists what has happened, what needs to happen and the character development.

She calls her research "magpie research" as she takes shiny things and writes them down to use later. According to her, that's why fantasy is so much better than scifi.

After about an hour, Laini did a giveaway for some Smoke and Bone jewelry. There was also a smaller giveaway for some tote bags. Hubs ended up winning one and when be went to collect, Laini commented on his tattoos.

Then the signing started and the staff had it controlled really well. I've never seen a line up that wasn't a free for all, so kudos to them.

Since we were in the second row, we ended up being about 10th in line. When we got up to Laini, I sort of apologized for having so many books. She started laughing and joked that it was just horrible. Somehow we started talking about the drive home, so after we were done and I got a picture with her, Laini told us to drive safely.

I was sort of standing around when I noticed Leigh Bardugo in line. Since I didn't stay long enough at YA in the Sun to see her, I wanted to make sure I said hi. She told me an excellent story revolving around the Siege and Storm arcs that I want to confirm I can post. If Leigh would rather I didn't, just know it was a really awesome story.

We were getting ready to leave when one of the ladies I did the hamsa photo shoot with came by. They were adding them to anyone who wanted it and taking a group photo with Laini. I said sure and got Ava to go with me.

Laini Taylor is a delight and the audience the flocks to see her is just as nice as she is. She was absolutely worth the wait.