(A Very Tangential) Fierce Reads Recap

I just returned from the Fierce Reads tour at the lovely Provo Library and wanted to set down my thoughts before it all gets fuzzled away by the dreariness of nursing school that makes up my every Wednesday. Fierce Reads featured Anna Banks, author of Of Poseidon, Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder, Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone, Emmy Laybourne, author of Monument 14, and Jennifer Bosworth, author of Struck.

The evening in a skeletal outline was this:
* Book bloggers had the opportunity to chat with the authors for about 45 minutes before the main event began
* At the main event, the authors presented their book trailers and a little information about their book
* Then, the authors answered texted in questions at a panel
* Finally, people bought books and had things signed. I did not participate because I am too poor to buy hardcover books at this student-y, pregnant part of my life, and also because I had a quiz to take and a bus to catch before 6 am. I was there in spirit. But it sounds like everyone else had a great time. :)

The evening impressions-wise was this:
* First of all, while I went into this event having read one author's book and knowing that I wanted to read two more, by the end of the evening I was convinced to read the remaining two as well. These women were witty, engaging, and hilarious, and I can't wait to read the stories they have to tell.
* Secondly, I just want to tell you a few of the fun facts I learned about each of these authors.


Anna Banks: Decided to start writing a book after being a waitress. To me, this is completely awesome. I love the idea of having a story to tell and being able to tell it. Also, this woman is absolutely hilarious. She has the driest self-deprecating humor, always with a straight face, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Marissa Meyer: She is so enthusiastic about writing and her passions, which always makes a person enjoyable to be around. She began her writing career with Sailor Moon fanfiction and got the idea to write futuristic fairy tales from a writing contest (her originally entry was about Puss in Boots).

Jennifer Bosworth: I found out tonight that she is a University of Utah graduate -- soon I will be, too! (Thank goodness). She now lives in LA, which is actually the reason I initially became interested in her book. While I've been to LA at least twenty times, I still feel like I don't really know the city, and I am so excited and nervous about living there that I am hungry to learn more until I am actually there. Anyway, one of my favorite things that she said was that she never believed she could write a book even though she had been writing her whole life until she met her husband. She said he believed in her from day one. It was really clear from the things she said about him how great their relationship is. I always love noticing real-life love stories no matter how subtle, and I loved hearing that from her.

Emmy Laybourne: She was an actor in a former life and was actually in the movie Superstar, which I haven't seen but have heard of, making me feel like I met a celebrity. Emmy was incredibly engaging and entertaining, giving us a few tidbits from her acting career (and she is definitely talented in that respect). She mentioned that while she loved acting, her greatest dream was to be a writer. Loved that. She also mentioned (kind of on a tangent -- I could explain the whole thing but it would take more than I think you are all willing to read) that she loved her body when she was pregnant and that experience made her want to respect her body in the future. I love that sentiment and have been feeling a bit of that myself lately. I think it is so amazing that I am able to harbor a life right now, which makes me want to take better care of myself with eating well (not less, but better) and exercising. Getting very tangential here. But these were my thoughts.

Leigh Bardugo: This lady is also from LA, and she was awesome. Something about her manner was so personable. I would have loved to talk to her one on one because she was just exuberant and fun to listen to. She talked about some of the bizarre foods she came across as she was researching for Shadow and Bone (examples include rye and herring and burnt swan with saffron -- that one I would like to try) and they piqued my little gourmandise interest.

There is so much more I could have said about all of these authors. I am seriously salivating to read the books that I have not yet read. A few more highlights from the night:

* Leigh Bardugo asked why someone didn't just shoot Lord Voldemort. A legitimate question. I also wonder why they only have owls and no voice communication. And also no internet. Not that I would change it. But, you know.
* Marissa Meyer's favorite experience with being published was when a little ten year old girl came up to her hugging a copy of Cinder at the launch party and said, "This is the coolest thing I've ever done." How precious. Somehow the approval of little kids makes everything seem more legitimate.
* One awesome aspect of living in Utah (and one I am going to miss) are the fabulous book bloggers. It was so fun to have people around me that were geeking out as much as I was.
* It was nice hearing that the authors' final drafts differed significantly from what they first wrote. Not that I am even really spending time writing right now (curse you, nursing school), but it always takes a lot of word vomit for me to make a pretty sentence, and sometimes it gets annoying cleaning it all up.

In short -- a great night. A night that makes me want to curl up and read, not get ready for bed so I can wake up at 5:05 am tomorrow morning and deal with reality. But, you know, a great night.

Fierce Reads comes to Provo!

Hey everyone! I am interrupting my little blogging hiatus to tell you all about an exciting event coming to the Provo City Library on Tuesday.  The event will be on Tuesday, June 12th at 7:00 pm at the Provo City Library, which is located at 550 North University Avenue.

The authors featured will be Marissa Meyer (Cinder), Jennifer Bosworth (Struck), Anna Banks (Of Poseidon), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone) and Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14). It is going to be an awesome night, and I hope to see you there! Be sure and say hi to me if you see me -- I'm the pregnant one with curly hair. :)

Meeting Markus Zusak - A Story in Two Parts

Photo Credit: Marie Teemant

Part I: Treats of a Fantastic Keynote Address, in which I learned much about writing and Mr. Zusak

Actually, he requested that we call him Markus. But I digress.

My husband arrived at the Provo City Library about twenty minutes before we were required to be in our seats and were only able to get a seat in the back row, which demonstrates the anticipation Provo Library-goers had for this event. The second Markus came in, the room erupted into cheers and whistles, quite possibly because he is young and has an Australian accent. I note this only as an observer, of course - I have eyes only for The Husband. ;)

Markus immediately drew us as an audience in with his humility and personality. He seemed so overwhelmed at the amount of people there and the love they had for him. He spoke to us comfortably, as if we were friends he had known his entire life. He told us about the "bleak times" of his early writing career, including giving a reading where no one was in attendance but the librarian (she made him read to her), and stalking a bookstore just to see his first book on the shelves. He also told his "absolute favorite" story, which is recounted in a video that I'll embed at the bottom of this post (thanks Suey Says for taking the video!). What impressed me most is that he told this hilarious personal story, and then he taught us all, explaining to us how to be a good writer by a) mining your own life for material, b) make things realistic with small intimate details that show you know it, c) engage your audience with original, unexpected twists, and d) tell it over and over again (aka rewrite it over and over again). He said the first 80 pages of The Book Thief were rewritten 150-200 times.

I think the most valuable thing to me was his advice to writers. He reiterated over and over again that he was not extremely intelligent and that he did not have a superior imagination. Instead, he knew where to find the good stories. He took stories from his parents' childhoods in World War II to tell some of the most poignant stories in The Book Thief. He mentioned how in all his books, the more he wrote, the more problems he found, and that the process of writing is solving those problems (and creating new ones in the process). This is quite comforting to me, as I've been working on my book for about two weeks and I'm already up to my neck in problems to be solved! I loved his description of his struggle with Death as the narrator for The Book Thief. He said at the beginning, death was very creepy and macabre, and it made the story dark. He wrote the following sentence in the early drafts of The Book Thief: "This is a story about a young girl. Do you like young girls? I do." Yes, that sentence had to go. But it was very funny to hear him recall it. He also mentioned that he gave up on Death as the narrator for a short time and tried to write it from Liesl's point of view, but that she was "the most Australian sounding girl ever to be in Nazi Germany."

He said to be a writer, it must be your top priority. You have to be willing to give your soul to it and fail and fail and fail. He said you can consider yourself a writer when you know that even if this story will never ever be published, you still have to tell it.

He also read a short bit from the chapter "Confessions" in the book. I almost started crying, and I think he did too. The Book Thief is a very powerful story, and I think it was even more powerful hearing it in the voice of its creator.

The speech was a great experience, and afterward, we all knew there would be a book signing. Little did we know it was to be a book signing marathon spanning about 6 and a half hours.

Part II: Treats of a bizarre and occasionally delinquent adventure, which ended with a book signing

Because my husband and I arrived late (aka 30 minutes early, as opposed to two hours), we were in one of the last signing groups. I expected the wait to be about two hours. My husband, who is very impatient with lines, waiting, and sitting around doing nothing, went to his old roommate's apartment, which was just around the corner, while I settled in with my Lord of the Rings. After about an hour and a half (it was about 8:30), with no end in sight, I realized that I was not going to get through the line and have time to go to dinner with my husband, so I called him and we went out to dinner.

We then came back to the Provo Library, thinking if people were still there maybe we could catch the tail-end of the book signing before our movie at 10:15. People were still there, in full force. We waited until 10:00 and still there were four groups before ours. A librarian came into the auditorium and told us that once people got in line, it was still about an hour and a half wait. We shrugged our shoulders and decided to just go to the movie, since we had already bought tickets.

The movie ended at about 12:30. My husband suggested that we drive back to the library. I shook my head, thinking there was no way anyone would still be there, but I was wrong. As we drove by, we saw a light in the upper room with crowds of people. The signing was still going. We parked and tried to enter, but the door was locked. My husband, who is a very stubborn man, started knocking on the door. I said, "Honey, stop, no one can hear us," but a disgruntled security officer came to the door and said sternly, "We're closed." My husband then told him we were there for a book signing and held up the ticket, and the officer reluctantly let us in. Hooray, we broke into the Provo Library after midnight!

We still waited another forty-five minutes before our books were signed. In that time, someone fainted because they were hypoglycemic. It was very dramatic. Mr. Zusak looked exhausted, but still had a smile on his face and was very kind. I don't really remember what we said to each other, but it wasn't much, because I don't usually function after 10:30 pm, and he had been writing in books for 6 hours straight and was probably jetlagged as well. However, it definitely made the night very memorable. I am full of respect for this author, who was so giving to his fans and so humble despite his success. I was telling my friend Emily, who also came to the event, that I was excited that I hadn't read all his books just because it will be so great to experience them after meeting the author. Yes, we do look tired, don't we?

For your viewing pleasure, Suey Says compiled a great video with some of Markus's stories and his reading from The Book Thief.


Also, check out my review of The Book Thief.
And the awesomeness that is the Provo City Library.
And Utah bloggers - many of them also had a recap of this author event!

Um, time for bed. Good night.