Event Recaps: FALL IN LOVE WITH TEEN FICTION & Educators Night

Leigh Bardugo (L) and Kristin Holbrook (R)

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Fall In Love With Teen Fiction event hosted by Powells and sponsored by New Leaf Literary for authors Sarah Fine (Sanctum), Kody Keplinger ( The DUFF), Lisa Desrochers (Personal Demons), Mindee Arnett (The Nightmare Affair), Ingrid Paulson (Valkyrie Rising), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone) and Kristin Holbrook (Nobody But Us).  Yes, it was a big event!  I had to bring my kids since it was during the week so I apologize for my poor photos and my lack of notes.  I had too many distractions!  However, I still had a blast!

Before hand I met up with a few people at Panera.  Mel, my co-blogger at the PNW blog met me there first and then Cat Winters (In the Shadow of Blackbirds), Miriam Forster (City of a Thousand Dolls), and then Lucy and Heidi showed up.  Lucy and Heidi are 'book' people we know from the area.  Heidi helps with Wordstock, the local book festival in the fall.  If some of these names are familiar, yes, I did just see them a whole week and a half ago before this event!
After eating we headed over to Powells, which is just the other side of the parking lot.  I like to get there early and was happy to see some more familiar faces.  Mostly just local people I have gotten to know a bit from seeing them at events.  But I also met Ephrielle from Hope, Love and Happy Endings.  I'm sure I saw some others I didn't mention here, I apologize if I missed putting you down.  It really was a crazy time since I was distracted by kids half the time.

Once the authors came out they introduced their books very briefly and then went straight to questions.  Once again my good friend Mel tweeted the event and here's what she said, along with my notes after to clarify things.

• Answering Questions at the @NewLeafLiterary Event about writing romance teen novels
  @IngridEPaulson ~ This was the first question, something about writing romance in teen novels. I already forgot most of the answers for this one!
• Chiming in is @KristinHalbrook talking about the tragic romance in her book Nobody But Us @NewLeafLiterary ~ In Kristin's book the romance is more a tragic sort and not what we would 'normally' call teen romance, yet it is.
• Audience ?s w/ bribery from @LBardugo - Leigh answers talking about plans on going away from high fantasy for a break @NewLeafLiterary
  

  

  Kody Keplinger

  • Her answer included talking about having her characters to eat pb&j instead of Nut Spread from another land @LBardugo @NewLeafLiterary~ Basically what she means here is she has to make up foods, etc for fantasy and she would like to be able to talk about normal things like PB&J. So maybe not fantasy for her next book (after this series).  Sad face from me cause she's a pro at fantasy!
• Getting the right tone for the age group is @Kody_Keplinger & reminding herself that a teen wouldn't feel as she does at 20 @NewLeafLiterary~ They were talking a bit about how they write 'realistic' teens since no one is a teen anymore.  Though Kody was when she wrote The DUFF.  I also remember Lisa Desrochers saying she couldn't write adult because she doesn't 'relate' to those people, but she IS writing a New Adult (or already wrote it).
• On how long from concept to final draft everyone is varying.We have author answers from about 7 days to 11 months so far! @NewLeafLiterary ~Yes, it's clear that everyone is different, and every book is different. But still, 7 days?! (I don't recall who said that, but it wasn't Leigh cause she was shocked and jealous!)
• Creative outlets of the authors when not writing, we now know our authors who sews&bakes,writes songs&riding horses @NewLeafLiterary ~ Some actually said that since they work outside the home their writing IS their creative outlet.  I know Sarah Fine said this because she's a psychologist (or psychiatrist, I could be remembering wrong so I want to clarify).



Sarah Fine and Kody Keplinger

• Talking about world building is @LBardugo using research, friends of friends for help, and immersing yourself in learning @NewLeafLiterary ~ I remember she said she took things from anything and everything and since there are a lot of Russians near where she lives they were helpful as well.

There was much more discussed, but that's a bit of it!  Thanks Mel for the twitter 'notes'!
After the questions then it was time to get our books signed!  Since I had kids I didn't wait until the end, I just went straight up.  This meant there were people

Sarah Fine, Kody Keplings, Lisa Desrochers, Mindee Arnett

behind me and I couldn't linger, which kind of bothered me cause I like to talk to them a bit.  But oh well.  First up I got Sanctum signed and I LOVED that book (favorite of 2012) and I told Sarah it was a favorite which made her happy, of course.  Then I got The DUFF signed and I felt horrible cause I just had an ancient ARC.  Unfortunately I did not have the money to buy everyone's books and I have read Kody's, but I had borrowed them.  I didn't have any of Lisa's, but she signed my bag.  And I had an ARC of The Nightmare Affair for Mindee to sign.  Once again, I felt bad that I didn't have a finished copy, but seriously, if I bought all their books it would have been over $100 and totally not an option for me.  Then Ingrid Paulson who I didn't have a book to sign either but she signed my bag.  And then... Leigh Bardugo!  Yes, I was SO, SO, SO excited to meet her!  And she was so nice!  I got to chat with her the longest.  I had a Siege and Storm ARC so we talked about how excited I was to have it and how she only got two ARC's so it's one that many want and not many get.  I know, I'm REALLY lucky to have it! She'll be back in June so I can get a finished copy then.  :)  And then Kristin Holbrook was last and I got her book.  She was super nice too and I enjoyed chatting with her a bit before I took off.  Everyone was great and it was nice to meet them all even if I didn't get to talk with them very much.
One major bonus was this event had a special book that was for this event only.  It's short stories by each of the authors and Leigh even wrote little notes throughout hers.  There were only 150 printed total, so it's a rare book!
Here are a few more pictures for you all! 

The night after this event I went to the local educators night at B&N where Colleen Houck and Lisa Schroeder were the authors present.  My kids weren't terribly patient and it's a long event with lots of other talking but we got to hear Colleen talk a bit about her books and how she takes bits of mythology and just uses it sort of randomly, how it's a mish mash of mythologies.  And I won a bag of goodies from her!  It had Tigers Destiny (book #4) in it and a framed picture, a Vera Wang notebook, a tiger bookmark, nail polish, a candle, some soap and chapstick and candy and gum.  It was an awesome surprise!  This photo is super blurry for some reason, I guess cause I took it on the iPod.  I didn't take any pictures at the event cause it was super hectic and crowded.  But I did get to chat with Lisa Schroeder before it really got started.  I know her well and it's always nice to get to chat a bit!  After Lisa did her talk about her books we took off.  My kids just couldn't handle anymore book stuff.  I did get to see a friend who's a teacher at the high school nearby and it was nice to say hello to her before rushing off.  I love getting a chance to see other book people, even if it is short!