Book Signing Report: REACHED by Ally Condie

Ally talking to the crowd!

Last night I was super excited to attend Ally Condie's launch party and signing for the release of book 3 in the MATCHED trilogy, entitled REACHED.

I am so very excited for this book, for the addition and the conclusion of Cassia's story!  Hopefully I will find the time to read it fast and get my review to you ASAP!  But I wanted to share with you the things that went on at the party, and the Q&A session.

First Ally talked to us for a while and here are the notes I got (please remember these are not all direct quotes.  I try my best to write them down exactly as she said them, but it doesn't always happen.)

Loved the stage set up and the bubble!  See below!

• I may be really emotional because it's the last book. 
• The one was special to me because it was the end.  I knew it always would be the end.  Even as it got longer and longer I knew there would not be a split to four books. 
• Xander gets his time on the page in this one. 
• Xander is a nice guy.  And writing the nice guy is hard.  The nice guys don't get the credit they deserve.
• My editor said at one point that it was good go see xander suffer, because the good guys always suffer.
• Xander is a medical official in this and I don't know a lot about medical things
• It's that moment when you think "Why am I writing about anything other than stay at home motherhood?"

Ally signing books!

• But I had two neighbor friends one a pathologist and one an immunobiologist that really helped.  They sent me photos and notes on different diseases.  
• It got to the point that I thought "what have I gotten myself into?, Have we gone too far?"  Especially when the pathologist sent me his great idea for weaponizing fish.
• Also Greg Burton a BYU professor who does a lot of work and research with the HIV virus helped me a  lot.
• So many people help me out.  Like a father of a childhood friend sending me picture after picture of himself holding different fish so I could pick just the one I needed for a scene in the book.
• There is nothing more exciting to an author than something she's written, something she's put out there being wanted. 
• Sometimes you write all day just for yourself. 

Then we listened to an audioclip of a part of narration from Xander's point of view, that was pretty much made of awesome.  And she did Q&A.  Here were some of my favorites!

The flowers Ally's husband bought her!

Q: The covers are complex and can mean many things, but what do they mean to you?
A: They are complex and I hope you can see something in them for yourself, but for me when I look at them I mostly see the things we talked about.  That they are the colors of the tablets green, blue and red.  That they symbolize her escape from that bubble.  Oh and by the way the model is the same in all the photographs and she is also the photographer, they are self portraits.

Q: Can you tell us about the movie rights?
A: Disney bought the movie rights and there are screenwriters but no cast yet.  People ask me who I would cast and I say I'm too old to know who would be good now, but I have ideas for the dad.  Like Nathan Fillion.  Nathan Fillion needs to be involved somehow.

Q: Did you know where you were going with the entire story before you started writing?

Me and Ally!

A: Yes and no.  I had a vague outline and plan, but as I write I deviate from that plan quite a bit.  For REACHED I had 150 pages of notes of things that needed to happen, be addressed or wrapped up.  I don't think it's the best method, but it's what I did.

Q: Are you going to write more?
A: Yes I am working on another YA that is set in the future/is a dystopia. But that is all I can say.

Q: When did you know you wanted to write?
A: I was always writing and telling stories but I never could finish.  So in High School I decided to become and English Teacher so I could be surrounded by stories but not wrote my own.  After I was done with teaching for a few years I thought maybe I'll try to finish a book finally, and I haven't stopped since.

Me and my friend Sara B Larson stuck in the bubble!

Q: Do you hand write or type your novels first?
A: I definitely type.  But if I do get blocked I pull out paper and write by hand.  It like restarts my brain.  (MPB note -- I loved this answer and how it ties in with words and writing and how that affects Cassia!)

Me trying to bust out of the bubble.

Q: Are there other creative things you like to do?
A: I'm really bad at everything.  But I say I am a great appreciator.  I love art, but I'm a terrible artist.  I love food, but I hate cooking, etc. So I have a lot of interests, but little talent.

Q: What is the hardest part of the process for you?
A: The hardest part for me is always revision.  But it is also my favorite part because revision is where the story becomes a book.

Q: Other than having your books published, what's the best experience in your life?
A:  By far, having my kids.  Even beyond my books they are the most important thing.

And then as you see we had a great time with the bubble cover photo shoot booth! It was so so cool! 

Ally as ever was WONDERFUL!

And now!  As reward for reading through all of that a surprise giveaway!  Ally also had buttons of the bubble photos on the cover, and I have a set of all three buttons to give away!

Book Signing with Kiersten White

I was very excited to go to my first book signing in a long time.  I miss going, seeing the crowd, feeling the energy supporting the authors.  It has been far too long since I've been able to attend an event.

I love how much expression she uses.  I really do.  She's so fun to hear talk!

 And I am so happy that the event I was able to go to was for Kiersten White!  Book three in the Paranormalcy series, ENDLESSLY, came out on Tuesday and she did her signing here in Utah on Thursday night.  We are so lucky to have her come here to Utah!

She was saying something about 5...I don't remember what but it was the best shot I got of her whole face!

I missed  much of what she said because I was running late, but I did catch the Q&A.  It was pretty awesome.

Signing my book!

Here's what I learned:

Keirsten and Me!

1. Kiersten likes Pinky Pie because she weaponized her confetti cannon.
2. Natalie Whipple, critique partner and best friend (and author who's book is being published next year) of Kiersten kinda hated Kiersten in High School because Kiersten wrote a mean article about the prom decorations that Natalie had been in charge of.  Don't worry, they love each other now!
3. Movie rights have been sold for the Paranormalcy series, but Kiersten thinks (and come to think of it, I agree!) that it would make a better TV series.
4. Steve the vampire/poultergeist is named after a blog follower from England.
5. Fans of Kiersten's will not have to wait long for more from her!  She will be publishing two books a year from now on out for a while!  
6. (well this I already knew) Kiersten is adorable, so kind and just made of awesome.

Book Signing Report: Bree Despain!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to the launch party and book signing at The King's English in Salt Lake City for THE SAVAGE GRACE, book 3 in the Dark Divine Trilogy.

It was so great to see Bree again and celebrate this awesome book! Here's some pics and highlights from her presentation entitled "The End".

*Once again I am just going to type my notes as I wrote them as Bree said them...so this is paraphrased Bree. ;)

• Sequels are hard. The Lost Saint, I affectionately refer to as the book that ate my soul. But the third book has to be easier to write, right? Heh. heh. Yeah right.
• You spend your writing career learning how to write a first book, that took me 10 years. No one teaches you how to write a second or third book
• At times this book had beasty claws, fangs and got very bloodthirsty around the full moon
• One obstacle was there are so many strings that need to be tied up in the final book, things you have to complete
• Also third books have a lot more climax, 2/3rds of the book is climax
• All the characters you've introduced, not just the main ones, have to have their stories come full circle. Some will fail at thier goals, some will succeed, some will even die.

• The hardest obstacle to overcome in writing this book was saying goodbye. When I typed the last words from book 3 I would be saying goodbye to charcters that had been talking to me since a dark cold night in January so long ago.
• I put off writing the end. I kept turning in drafts without the last few chapters
• Well I finally turned a draft in, still without the last few chapters and my Editor said "I love the ending!" But that freaked me out, that's not the end! I said. He told me they were already doing copy edits and were going to print in 2 days.
• So i had one night to write that perfect ending, to say goodbye
• what I finally had to do was force myself to stop thinking about what the perfect ending would be, and just write what felt true for the characters.
  

• When I finished
  my husband bought me not just one kitten, but two! We call them the kittens Divine. Merlin is black and Avalon is grey.
  

Then Bree read from the book a little, and did some giveaways thanks to winners from a fairly hard trivia! I was shooting myself for not remembering a few of them since I had JUST read TSG not that long ago. She gave away some of the awesome Dark Divine Jewelry and some of the nailpolish with pedicure supplies, and then one person got her food of choice for writing, chocolate covered cinnamon bears.



It was so wonderful to see Bree again! I just love her smiling face, I love how much she cares about her readers, and especially I love her books. She's such an inspiration!

Alright, so that being said, come back tomorrow to see what Bree had to say for my interview with her! And there just might be something super super awesome posted along with that interview. ;)

Book Signing Report: Kiersten White!

We were so so lucky to have Kiersten White make a stop in Utah on her tour for Supernaturally. Really we have such a HUGE YA book following here in Utah that I don't know why EVERYONE doesn't come here. Cause we love you!

Anyway, for those of you unfamiliar with Kiersten, she is the fabulous author of PARANORMALCY and the sequel SUPERNATURALLY that just came out.

Here's my re-cap of what she had to say (remember I try to stick as closely to what they said as my hand can write, but this is paraphrasing not full quotes)!

• SUPERNATURALLY is the second book in the trilogy. Writing it was harder. In our lives as adults I feel like I am in the second book in my trilogy. You have gotten what you wanted in your first book and you are finding out that sometimes you get more than you bargained for.
• Fortunately for you I do NOT do cliffhanger endings, so even though this is the second book, it has an end.
• I really love mythology. A current idea I am working on deals with Ancient Egyptian mythology and the daughter of and ancient egyptian god.
  
• Mythology is what we have used as humans to interpret our world around us, and today in the modern world we study these constructs to explain what it is to be human and to connect to each other.
• ENDLESSLY is the title of the 3rd and final book in the series
• "Thank you for being readers. Writers don't make best sellers, readers make best sellers."

Then she had a short Q&A (cause it was outside and we were all melting) here are some of my faves.

Q: Critique partners are really important -- how did you find yours?
A: I found mine through online communities, reading other writer's blogs etc. then developing friendships through e-mail. The most important thing about my partners is that we have different strengths so we can help each other in different areas of writing.

Q: What's your favorite letter in the alphabet?
A: I don't like "C". It's really kind of useless. It makes the "K" sound and the "S" sound, and we already have those. But I've always like "Q" and of course "K" for Kiersten.


Q: What is your revision process like?
A: I don't let myself edit as I go because I feel that editing brain and writing brain are very different brains. I enjoy creating and enjoying that. And then later I pick apart my baby. One big thing I do is read my manuscript aloud. You miss a lot when you are reading silently. Your eyes actually skip words and phrases. But reading aloud you catch a lot.

But my process is not your process. And I don't do it the same for every book.

Q: You wrote the first draft of PARANORMALCY in two weeks! Was the process harder for SUPERNATURALLY?
A: PARANORMALCY was just fun. SUPERNATURALLY was already bought before it was even written. And that was stress. I had already been paid for it, I had bought a car. I didn't want them to take my car away. It took me 6 years to get my own car! I thought there was no way I could write this book.

Writing under contract is much harder than just writing at your own pace, for fun. Whenever I had time I worked on it. The first draft was only about 50K words long, and after edits it was around 72K, so I had to add a lot.

I am very proud of this book though, because it was a struggle.


Regardless of what authors may say, we write ourselves into our books. Evie's story in SUPERNATURALLY mirrored my own life experience. I had finally achieved something I really wanted, but now I was questioning if it's all that it's cracked up to be. It was harder and came with trials I didn't expect.

Writing books is always impossible until you finish. And then editing is impossible.

Kiersten was such a blast to see. I am currently reading SUPERNATURALLY so I will review that as soon as I'm done! I can say so far I am enjoying it very much.

Book Signing: Carrie Ryan!

Last night I was SO priveledged to go see Carrie Ryan at my local B&N! Carrie is on tour for the third book in her zombie trilogy THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES.

I honestly didn't think I would ever have a chance to meet this fabulous author that I have been following on FB and twitter etc. Utah has an amazing author community, and many that are connected to Utah, but when I heard Carrie was coming it was a dream come true!

I hope more authors add Utah to their tour lists because it was SUCH an incredible night! I do have to warn you, this post is long. There was too much to talk about and I wanted you all to have all the info!



* I love the Vanna White pose in this one. ;)
First I have to say Carrie is amazing. She is INCREDIBLE! So personable, so funny and just completely amazing. She was writing down names and taking notes on the people she met as she signed and was just pure amazing. Here are my notes from what she told us all: *again note that these are my paraphrased notes, I tried getting direct quotes and sometimes they are, but not always exact.

• THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH begins about 150 years after a zombie apocalypse. THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES is a generation later.
  
• THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES is hard to describe. Like any final book in a series it should hit that point where the reader says there is no way the author can pull this together, but in the end it does.
  
• There is no kissing the zombies. Very big rule.
  

• The first question I get is "why zombies?" Like all good stories it starts in the 1980's.
  
• Her babysitter showed her Poltergeist and she was so terrified she didn't watch the end (to this day she has not seen it) and always hated horror stories.
• In her 2nd year of law school her boyfriend at the time (JP- who is now her hubby! And their first anniversary is on Friday, April fools! Congrats guys!) took her to see Dawn of the Dead.
• Like any good zombie movie someone lives, someone dies, and someone gets infected. And there is that moment when you feel empowered like "go world!" "we will survive!"
  
• A lot of zombie stories it's about getting from point A to point B. Point B is better than point A, but the problem isn't gone. They haven't solved the zombie problem, they haven't cured them.
• Carrie kind of learned a love for the genre here. She wanted more and watched more (but still shunned other types of scary stories). She loved the idea of survival.
  

*this picture is of me with awesome Utah authors and writer friends that came out to see Carrie! It was an incredible night! I LOVE the Utah author community! Here is Top L-R, Ally Condie, Elana Johnson, me, Brodi Ashton, Bree Despain Bottom L-R, my writer and blogger friends Chersti and Jenny!

• It wasn't long after Carrie was practicing law that she knew she wasn't in love with it.
  
• She asked herslef, If I could do anything, what would that be? And the answer was write. She wanted to be an author.
• Made a 10 year plan and was determined to be invested for 10 years. She would write, and write and write and submit and if after 10 years nothing had happened she would move on. But no matter what rejections or hardships she got, she knew she could hold on for those 10 years.
• Carrie started writing out some Chic Lit, and romance and when NaNoWriMo came along she had to start a new novel. After talking with JP that ended up being a zombie story that became THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. Four months later she had an agent and sold the book!
  

*Another amazing Utah author in attendance Jessica Day George, always willing to strike a pose!

• And here is some notes on how Carrie came up with the idea for Forest of Hands and Teeth.
  
• I read an article on the over fishing of wild Tuna and how in the future Tuna will be rare. It made me think how in one generation something common can become rare.
  
• There was a story my grandmother told me about her prom. She wore purple tights that matched her dress. Back then colored tights were a brand new thing. One of the chaperones called her a harlot and asked her to leave the dance. Her mother was also a chaperone and had an awesome one liner come back.
• This story made her 1) realize how strong the women in her family were, that this was the stock she came from and 2) she forgot the line. And that made her think that in one generation we can not only loose things outside of ourselves, but we can loose our family, our history, ourselves.
  

*This is James Dashner with anther attendee of the signing who brought James' book over. James was thrilled because this was the first time he had seen the line "New York Times Besteller" on the top of his book!" James was also hilarious in the Q&A portion. With so many authors present he asked Carrie "Who is your favorite Utah author?" Oh James, ever the comic. It's why we love ya!

• I'm a survivor. I want to throw the world at my characters and I want to see if they will survive, because if they do, I can.
• I am fascinated by people who line in the most untenable circumstances and don't just live but they thrive.
• Then Carrie gave some advice on writing: She said if you want to write, you have to write! It is one thing to want to do it, to talk about doing it, to blog about doing it. And another entirely to sit down and actually do it. But once you experience passion for something how do you not live it?

*This is some of those same author and blogger friends, add my good friend who came with me to the signing (in her awesome zombie shirt) and one other writer/blogger friend I know I have met and I can't think of her name! I STINK at names. Sorry awesome zombie to my right! We as you can see are being zombies. I like how Jenny is about to eat by brains!

Then Carrie did some Q&A time. Here are some of my faves.

• What is your favorite book ever read? A: Oh that's like the most impossible question ever. Um, I'd have to say at the top of the list is THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien, and THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC
  
• What are you working on now? A: I am doing edits for my summer 2012 release that I can't tell you anything about. It is as of right now untitled. JP titles all of my books, and we're waiting...

*This is Carrie signing my books! I love this part! I feel like a kid in a candy store!

• Is there a movie in the works for FofHandT? A: We have sold the movie rights, I have read the script and it is good. Right now they are interviewing directors. But I don't know what that all means really as far as when/if it will be made.
• Do you have any good writing advice for someone just starting out? A: People will tell you write what you know. I think write what you know means the emotional connections you feel. Capture those moments that mean the most to you and use them.

This is me and Carrie. She is SO amazing and so cute! I will hopefully be getting some swag from her in the future for a giveaway, but until then PLEASE check out her books. They are creepy and beautiful and I have very much enjoyed them and how much they make me think.

If you are interested here is my review for THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES. I look forward to reading and reviewing THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES.

Book Signing Report: Ally Condie!

On Saturday I was incredibly lucky enough to go to the launch party/book signing at a local indie bookstore, The King's English for Ally Condie author of the amazing MATCHED! If you haven't read my review yet you can see it HERE.

Ally spoke to us for a while about her journey and her books. Here are the best little tid-bits! I write down quotes as close as possible, but please know these are paraphrased and not direct quotes.

"I've had signings before that no one came to. So my family came up so I wouldn't be the only one, so I'm thrilled there are people here!"

Ally has had several books published with a small local publisher, but this is her first big national market book.

People often ask Ally how she came up with the idea of MATCHED. She said mainly it came from her husband Scott and the experiences they have had together. They used to chaperon High School dances. She said "It was always a good time to turn away the drunk kids, and be asked to danced." But she said that at a High School she worked at, a few weeks before the prom the Senior boys would make a list of the Junior girls who didn't have dates to the dance. This list would be passed around until all of those girls had a date for their Junior Prom so that they didn't have to miss that big night! How sweet is that? She said the dance was always a big event, and that always stuck in her head.

Also, with Scott, they were the house parents at a Sorority in Ithaca, NY and were always surrounded by "boys, girls, dating and kissing". That got her thinking about all of those things. And then she and her husband talked about marriage and who gets to define what it is and who can get married to whom (a very timely, political topic right now), but the idea came up what if the government controlled it all. Who you married, how many kids you have, everything. And MATCHED started to form.

She said on the release day (Nov. 30th) they were out at a store and saw the book on the shelf and said "Oh look, there it is. It's out. Who knew?" I imagine that was a very surreal moment.

In fact she wrote an AMAZING blog post about the experience and her feelings on the release day that you should all go read HERE, cause she read it to us, and I read it when she posted it, and I think it is amazing.

And a last bit from Ally, "It now belongs to you, and I hope you like it!"

Then we had a Q&A! Here are my faves.

Q: How do you pronounce your protagonists name?
A: Cash-a (spelled Cassia). I got it from the Greek name Cassius.

Q: Can you tell us more about the trilogy?
A: Well originally, it wasn't a trilogy. The first book ended as it does now, but in my head it was stand alone. Of course it was open to some more ideas, so when we sold the book we sold it with a sequel and a third book optioned but not necisarily a book in the MATCHED world. After I finished book two I knew there needed to be more. Book two's title is CROSSED and there is no title for book three. But I am 1/3 of the way through writing the third.

Q: I love the Grandfather. Where did his character come from?
A: I had a great relationship with all of my grandparents. Something that I think is rare today. So the relationship and closeness comes from a mix of all of my grandparents. But I think he looks most like my paternal grandfather.

Q: How do you get into the writing process?
A: I can't draft with music playing, but I listen to music before I write to get into the mood. Well, mostly to drown out the sound of Scott wrestling with the kids and getting them into bed. The rest is just me in a chair in a semi-cold basement and getting it done.


Q: Do you keep a notebook of ideas?
A: I keep notebooks on every level of the house, because to be honest I am too lazy to go find a notebook when an idea comes to me. I also keep one in my purse. I often get ideas when I am out running too. Something about being out in the fresh air and getting exercise brings on ideas. But I lose my ideas fast if I don't write them down. So I will have to run the idea in my head over and over and over again. I probably look strange concentrating until I can get home and write it down.

Q: How did you choose the Tennyson Poem?
A: It has been one of my favorites since I read it in Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables series) in fourth grade. Plus I loved that this poem bookended my other favorite poem used in the book as well.

Q: For book 2, you mentioned on your blog that you were trying to write poems of your own, and having a hard time of it. How did that go?
A: It was SO hard. Most of them we ended up deleting. I am not a poet but I have a character that is. I often thought "Can't you just write your own poems?"


And lastly, possibly my favorite question was:
Q: Who is hotter? Xander or Ky?
A: (After much laughing) Well I can't really say with Scott here...but, I did split up Scott's attributes among them both. So I can't really pick. If I had to choose one solely on looks I would probably pick Xander because he got my husband's blond hair and coloring.

I could not be more excited for Ally! MATCHED is a wonderful, timely book and I highly, highly suggest you all go buy it for yourself and someone else for Christmas! Congrats Ally! I can't wait to see more from you in the future!

Book Signing: Julie Berry and Jessica Day George!

I had the FABULOUS opportunity to go to a book signing with not just ONE great author but TWO last night! Julie Berry - author of SECONDHAND CHARM, SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS series, and THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT! And the wonderful Jessica Day George! Author of THE DRAGON SLIPPERS series, SUN MOON ICE and SNOW, and her princess books PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL and PRINCESS OF GLASS!

First Jessica was up to talk about her books and journey becoming an author. I have seen Jessica at MANY events, so I am sure you have all heard about her books and journey from me before. But some of the stuff she said was just great! So here is the list of paraphrased info!



How do I come up with ideas? I ask myself a question. Something that I am wondering about. And since I can't find the answers anywhere else I write a book about it. Ex. What if you met a dragon and they didn't want to eat you, what then? Wouldn't your feet hurt REALLY badly if you were forced to dance all night long until your shoes wore out? Wouldn't it really hurt to dance in glass slippers?

For the dragon series, one of the themes in it is that dragons collect things. If you were hundreds of years old, what would you do for fun? What would you collect. One of them collects shoes. So you could say she has a shoe fetish - since most of her books involve shoes.

And lastly she said: I write books because I felt like there were no fun books when I was a kid. Our options were Narnia, Babysitters Club and Nancy Drew. Narnia was great but you can only read that so many times. And I hate babysitting. So I never liked any books that were preachy about being responsible and babysitting to earn money.

Jessica is always a hoot and so fun to chat with!

Then it was Julie's turn, and to be honest I was VERY VERY VERY excited to see her! I just love this lady! We had only met once before but we have kept in touch. She is possibly the MOST genuine person I have ever met in my entire life. Massachusetts is VERY lucky to have her!

Julie just had several books come out that I have reviewed on the blog recently: SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS series (the first two books were released together) and SECONDHAND CHARM her second YA fairy-tale-esque story that was just beautifully written and so so good!

Here are some of my favorite Julie moments.

As Jessica has a shoe fetish, I seem to have a jewelry fetish in my writing.


I was thinking about good luck charms, and what would happen if someone had some innate ability that if they put on a charm and everything went out of hand, that it was super potent in their hands. Like a luck charm and all of a sudden your chicken was laying golden eggs, etc. Then I thought what about a love charm? What about a young lady that seemingly has been fairly ignored by the boys in her village suddenly got a love charm that was very powerful, and everyone was noticing her!

Julie said she also gave her character a goal that had nothing to do with the romantic aspects of the book. She wants girls to know that their entire lives aren't just boys. (Which might I add, I love about her characters they are strong women, but still willing to love. I think sometimes it is one or the other and with Julie you get both!)

Then these two lovely red heads took questions together. (Notice Jessica is knitting! I have never seen her at any event without something to knit!)

Q: What are you working on now?

Julie: I have two new ideas. One is sort of a Dickensian London story, and the other is set in the future in space.

Jessica: So a really great crossover idea.

Julie: Deffinitely.

Jessica: I am working on a new books series called TUESDAYS AT THE CASTLE probably for even younger readers than Dragon Slippers (which by the way I wrote Dragon Slippers for me, and then when they said it was for ages 10 and up I thought "I'm not 10!"). In this new book the Castle Glower is alive - if it likes you you get great things like a nice room and a garden to walk through, if it doesn't like you you might get thrown down a trap door into the dung heap. They should be out next September.

(*note: I think these all sound awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on them!)

(another side note: a great reason to go to indie bookstore signings is you often good refreshments!)

Q: How did you meet? Why did you decide to sign together?

Jessica: Red heads are in a secret club.

Julie: That and we have the same publisher, so they got us together over the internet to review each other's books and we have been e-mailing ever since.

Jessica: We actually just met for the first time 2 hours ago at the Starbucks next door.

Q: When you're working do you collabroate with others?

Julie: No, I don't like other people.

Jessica: Agreed.

(Which I might add was so so funny. Because these two ladies are SO much fun to be around. Obviously they were talking about their creative process being more individual than say, and author who has a writing group.)


A young girl in the audience asked a question that made me laugh, but these ladies handled it very well!

Q: How old were you when you started writing your books?

Jessica: I decided to be a writer when I was 11. I wrote my first short story when I was 14 and got an A++ on it. For years I was a short story author and won lots of contests and things in school. I wrote short stories exclusively until I was bout 21. Then I decided I would write my opus, my novel and it would be the best thing ever. Of course 188 rejections and several novels later I realized it would be work. But it is very rewarding!

Julie: I was late in the game. I didn't start writing seriously until I was 31 or 32. My whole life I wrote in a journal, and I always wanted to write fiction. I was really scared to write fiction because I really wanted to be good at it. I knew everything I had tried to do was rubbish, so I just didn't try anymore. I was scared to try.

Then I was lucky enough to get a job writing a humor column in a local newspaper and the great responses I got really gave me the confidence to try writing fiction, to go for my dream.

Then after the signing and everything my friends and I went to Cheesecake Factory with Julie and had a WONDERFUL time catching up. Talking books, writing, life. Here is me, upcoming author Sara Larson, and our good friend Jena with Julie of course.

I had so much fun catching up with Julie again! And Jessica as always was so fun as well. She had to get home to her kids, can you believe it! :) It was such a wonderful, wonderful night! I will never forget it and I am SO grateful that I can call Julie my friend.

Please check out these two amazing women and their books the next time you are at your local bookstore or searching books online! I know there is SOMEONE in your life that would love their books!

Book Signing: James Dashner!

On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to go to my favorite local Indie bookstore The King's English for the Launch Party for THE SCORCH TRIALS by James Dashner! It is always fun to be among local book lovers! And James is a HILARIOUS speaker.

So here is some stuff that James told us (paraphrased from my notes:

• THE SCORCH TRIALS starts a few hours after MAZE ends
• I promise you that by the end of the third book you will know everything. It's not like LOST.
• The ultimate ending will surprise you.
• In THE SCORCH TRIALS lots of bad things happen to the main characters. So, those of you who are sick and twisted will like it.
• I shouldn't use the word "fart" in front of small children.
  

• right now he is editing the 3rd book in MAZE and starting a new series
• The new series is set in the future, and involves simulated reality. So the characters deal with what is real and what is not

Then James took Q&A, here were some of my favorites

Q: How do you keep your mind straight working on all of this at the same time?

A: Ideally I am not working on too many things at the same time. But right now I am really tight on deadlines and working on all 3 of his different series'. Sometimes I'll use the wrong name or think that one character from one series can help out in a different book. Really it comes down to taking a break to get my mind straight.


Q: How much research went into your real world scenario for THE SCORCH TRIALS?

A: Research....I did some. I actually looked at a map once, does that count? I had to look up viruses and how they could affect the brain, that was like a 10 minute online search. Had to use some quantum physics but kindof had already done research on that for THE THIRTEENTH REALITY series.

Q: How was it hitting the NY Times best seller list.

A: I had wanted to be an author my whole life and that is a title you hear and dream of. I got very emotional. I called my mommy!


Q: Do you ever feel constrained by what you wrote in earlier books?

A: I thought book three was perfect when I wrote it, but my editor had a different idea. The problem with writing a series is that in book one, you can pretty much write whatever you want, create any reality you want. Book two you have to kind of stick to the world, but anything that comes up that doesn't fit perfectly you can just say "it's alright, I'll explain that in book three". But then with the third book everything needs to be tied up and correctly. It is harder.

There was lots more, many laughs and it was good fun! Keep your eyes out for your favorite author's touring schedules! There is nothing better than meeting them and getting a signed book!

Review SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS: THE BIZARRO BEETLE by Julie Berry and Sally Gardner

SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS: THE BIZARRO BEETLE
by Julie Berry and illustrated by Sally Gardner
Published August 19th 2010 by Grosset & Dunlap
Paperback, 208 pages
Source: Author

Placement in the Pile: Reaching New Heights!

Summary:
With Cody's arch-nemesis, Headmaster Farley, banished from the school, Cody should be celebrating . . . but something is bothering him, eating at him . . . literally gnawing on him. Dark forces are on the rise at Splurch Academy and Cody Mack isn't sure which side of the battle he's on.

Review:
Julie Berry and Sally Gardner do it again! In fact I think I liked this second book in the series even more. We didn't have to spend time getting to know the characters, we could just jump right into the silly and yet sinister plot. For a moment there I was even sincerely worried for our protagonist Cody Mack! If you like the first one you'll love this second one!

Without giving too much info, I think there isn't much else to say. These books are worth it. Now everyone go buy them and let your boys (and girls) own and destroy these books as they devour them!

Local Utah readers, want to know where you can not only get these books but meet Julie? (Who is seriously made of awesome-sauce!) Check out one of these events! (you can click on the image if you need to see it bigger)



And don't forget to sign up to win signed copies of these first two Splurch books, and many other books for boys! HERE.