This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend
an author event (my first ever!) with Beth Revis (Across the Universe series),
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (These Broken Stars). Lissa Price (Starters
and Enders) and Jodi Meadows (Incarnate) were supposed to be in attendance as well, but
sadly, snowstorm Pax had other plans. Beth, Amie and Meagan were fabulous,
though, and I was so excited to get to see them!
The three authors first chatting among themselves and with
readers about some commonly asked questions that they get. It was so hilarious
to get to hear them talk about their own writing processes (apparently Meagan
likes to talk to herself and act out scenes). I don’t want to play favorites,
but Beth was definitely my favorite out of the three. She just has a fun
personality and is super hilarious. She told a story about a time when she was
enacting a scene with her husband. This particular enactment just happened to
require a fake gun and Beth being held in a choke hold by her husband, and the
UPS man just happened to be dropping off some packages at that time. ;)
Both books (Across the Universe and These Broken Stars) are
set in space, and it was interesting to hear some of the research the authors
had to do. Lots of visits to the NASA website! Apparently it’s now known that
the Russians are much more daring in space than Americans…records of various accidents
and stunts have proven that to be very true. Whenever Amie or Meagan mentioned
anything regarding plot/climax in relation to the space topic, Beth would chime
in and reiterate her love for explosions. She really does love blowing things
up. Exclusively in her books, hopefully.
Some people asked about writing advice or book covers (the
dress on the cover of These Broken Stars got a lot of attention…apparently
these three draped it over a statue at Biltmore, just for fun!). My favorite
question, though, was “Which authors are you most thankful to be friends with,
excluding the present authors?” I know for a fact that Beth is pretty chummy
with Lauren DeStefano, and Meagan mentioned Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the
French Kiss). Stephanie is another author I’d love to meet- she’s a fellow
North Carolinian like Meagan and Beth. Beth then went on to mention the time
she met J.K. Rowling, and almost threw up. I’m tellin’ ya, this woman doesn’t
get any more hilarious. Everyone was in stitches.
When I had Beth sign my book, she was like, “Shelby?! Like
the city? I have a character in A Million Suns named Shelby!” And I was like,
“Awesome, that’s cool.” And then she was like, “But I kill her off.” And I was
all, “Ok, I guess that’s cool, too.” Ha.
I had such a fun time just listening to Beth, Amie, and
Meagan talk about writing and their books. And it was great chatting to fellow
English majors in line! Finally, people like me! I really felt like I belonged.
I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for YA author events in my area.
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