I had an amazing time at the Harlequin Teen #YeahYA Author Fest event at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, TN! I was designated the “official blogger” for the event, so I got to meet the authors before the event and I was even asked if I wanted to moderate! I said no, of course – public speaking is SO not my forte and they already had someone who was willing to moderate anyway. Things got started with each of the authors telling the audience about their series/books. Afterwards, the moderator asked the authors to answer several questions and then opened the floor for people in the audience to ask questions.
Here are some interesting things I learned during the Q&A:
- Karen Ann Hopkins lives on a farm near an Amish community. Her series was inspired by the interaction between the Amish teens and non-Amish teens she gives horseback riding lessons to.
- Julie Kagawa’s favorite character she’s written is Jackal, from The Immortal Rules series. She is currently working on another series that she can’t really talk about because it’s already been optioned!
- Aimée Carter’s first name is actually French and should be pronounced Ah-meh, but she doesn’t mind being called Ay-mee. She’s a HUGE Harry Potter fan and knows pretty much everything about the series!
An interesting story came up while we were chatting – apparently Aimée has been looking for a first edition copy of J.K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling at each of their tour stops but she hasn’t been able to find one. Someone in the audience had one and Aimée actually offered to buy it from her and told her to name her price! The woman jokingly said $500 and Aimée was totally willing to pay that but it must be worth more than that to the owner though because she didn’t give it up. Poor Aimée!
After all the questions, it was time for signing!
I started to feel sorry for Julie because she had SO MANY books to sign! She and Aimée actually got into a pretty funny discussion about signing their names – Aimée didn’t think it should take Julie so long to sign her name until she actually tried to sign Julie’s name herself and realized it’s harder to form that “g” and “w” than she thought!
Somewhere during it all, Karen was taking a picture with a fan and accidentally knocked over Julie’s cupcake that she’d been saving/hiding. Here’s Julie with her poor, smushed cupcake:
And as if meeting these amazing authors wasn’t enough, I also got to meet one of my book blogging BFFs for the first time – Jessi from Auntie Spinelli Reads! Here’s a photo of me and her with the amazing(ly cute) Julie Kagawa!
After everyone else left, I got to sit down one on one with Julie, Karen, and Aimée and interview them!
The Interview
TS: Why do you write “young-adult”?
Aimée: I started writing original fiction when I was fifteen so it was very natural for me to write 15-17 year olds…and I just kind of stayed in that age group. I really enjoy writing middle grade as well but YA has so much possibility. There’s so many questions, so many answers, so many firsts; your life is just beginning and there’s a lot to explore so it’s a lot of fun.
Karen: For me, I spend more time with teenagers than probably any other age group so that was one of the reasons. I was obviously inspired by what was going on with the Amish kids and the non-Amish kids riding at my farm but I just had so many teenagers around I can relate well to them.
Julie: I’ve always written teenaged protagonists – even when I was writing an adult fantasy, my heroine and all of my heroes were young, they were all teenagers. That one never sold but my agent wanted me to write another book so I started The Iron King and she suggested that I try YA instead of adult and it just clicked, and I love it. I actually wrote a short story in the adult genre and I found that I struggled with it, so obviously I’m meant to write teenagers…it must be a maturity thing!
*laughter*
TS: So, do you listen to music or watch TV or do any other multitasking while you write?
Karen: I do not. I need complete silence to write, which is why I usually write between the hours of 10pm and 3am…when everyone’s asleep and the house is quiet.
Aimée: I do not write to music with lyrics…because I’ll start typing the lyrics, it’s bad. *laughter* But I do listen to white noise.
Julie: Occasionally I’ll write to music. It depends on what mood I’m in. I cannot write to television because my husband actually jokes that the TV kinda sucks out my soul. *laughter* Because I’ll come into a room and the TV will be on and I’ll just stare at it. It can be commercials. And he’ll be trying to get my attention and I’m just staring at the TV. Eventually he turns off the TV and he’s like, “How’s your soul?” *laughter*
Click here to read the rest of the interview!
The Giveaway
GUESS WHAT. I have an ARC of The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #2) by Julie Kagawa to give away to a lucky reader. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE??? It’s signed! Julie Kagawa signed it! And I’ll throw in a #YeahYA bookmark signed by all three authors. :D To enter, just use the form below. Must be 13 or older, open to US residents only.
More from my site
Event Coverage + Giveaway: Fierce Reads Spring Tour 2013 – The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, TN
Recap + Giveaway: Fierce Reads Spring Tour 2014 Part 1 – The Booksellers at Laurelwood | Memphis, TN
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT: #YeahYA! Harlequin Teen Author Fest 2013
Look who’s back (back again)…
Guest Post: J.R. Johansson on Why Everyone Should Be Reading Thrillers
Cover Reveal: Burning Bright (Ivy Granger #3) by E.J. Stevens
Hi. My name is Shannon and I like books. And photography. And video games. I use this space to talk about books and particpate in badassery. You can read a bit more about my awesomeness and how Twilight Sleep came to be (the name has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, contrary to popular belief) on the about page. :]
37 Comments
Aisazia
July 19, 2013 at 9:36 amThanks for sharing your adventure! Sounded like a lot of fun! :D
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 7:58 pmIt was definitely a lot of fun, Aisazia! Thanks for stopping by!
Alyssa Susanna (The Eater of Books!)
July 19, 2013 at 9:43 amAWWW, cupcake! Smushed, not smushed, I would’ve eaten the whole thing! That’s so awesome that you got to meet such fantastic authors. Wish the #YeahYA Tour came remotely close to me! But thank you so much for the awesome giveaway! ^_^
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:00 pmLOL, she totally ate it anyway! I would have done the same exact thing. ^_^ Getting to meet these authors has certainly been amazing. I feel so lucky – I honestly never though I’d get to do anything like this so I feel very very blessed. Thank you for stopping by!
Tanisha McGaw
July 19, 2013 at 10:30 amAwesome post! Julie Kagawa’s Blood Of Eden Series is up next on my list of books to read! Can’t wait tp start it!
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:01 pmI’m glad you enjoyed it, Tanisha! Let me know what you think about the Blood of Eden series!
Tanisha McGaw
July 22, 2013 at 10:51 amI will :) Loved her Iron Fey Series and can’t wait for the Iron Traitor!
Nikki C.
July 19, 2013 at 1:01 pmI love the questions you asked the authors — can’t wait until the next post! It’s great to know you had a great time.
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:02 pmThanks Nikki! It’s been such a crazy weekend that I haven’t had time to transcribe the rest of the questions and answers but there is more to the interview – be sure you check back for it!
Kathy L.
July 19, 2013 at 2:33 pm“How’s your soul?” Hahahahahaha *snorts*
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:03 pmI know, right? I thought that was pretty hilarious, haha.
Vivien
July 19, 2013 at 10:59 pmThis looks like an utter blast!!! Wish I could have gone.
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:04 pmAww, wish you could have gone too Vivien! It was tons of fun!
Jessi @ Auntie Spinelli Reads
July 20, 2013 at 4:38 pmWOOP WOOP!!!! It was SO freaking awesome to meet you!!! I had a fabulous time! <3333
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:05 pmI had a fabulous time too! I’m so glad we got to meet – can’t wait to hang out with you again! <3333
Leanne @ Literary Excursion
July 20, 2013 at 8:02 pmOmgosh I love Julie Kagawa. I need to re-read those first few books of hers and catch up on all the new ones!
Shannon
July 21, 2013 at 8:07 pmI confess, I need to catch up too! I have an ARC of The Iron Traitor but I haven’t even finished the first series yet! :( Julie was amazing though, really loved her – loved ALL the authors! Karen was very down to earth and Aimee was hilarious. I had a great time. :D
Leanne @ Literary Excursion
July 22, 2013 at 4:14 pmI have been thinking constantly about them for like a week now and went ahead and ordered a bundle of the first three. They won’t be here for like two weeks though! ARGH I WILL DIE.
So glad you had a great time! I love reading about how awesome my favorite authors are. It makes me enjoy their books even more. :)
Shelby Hudson
July 22, 2013 at 5:28 pmJealous I didn’t get to go but looks like you had a blast! :)
Shannon
July 27, 2013 at 5:49 pmYes, I certainly did! Hopefully you’ll be able to attend a signing soon!
Taylor
July 25, 2013 at 12:56 amI went to their book tour in New York, but dinner ran over so I didn’t get any of the book samples they were handing out. Super jealous you got them! <333 They are so fabulous.
Shannon
July 27, 2013 at 5:50 pmAwww, I hate that you missed out! But at least you go to see them, right??
Jessica Ondrejka
July 26, 2013 at 9:30 pmYou have an amazing site her and I am excited to have found this :) Thank you!
Shannon
July 27, 2013 at 5:50 pmWell you’re welcome and thank YOU!
Jessicah Layfield
July 26, 2013 at 10:18 pmI absolutely envy you for you being able to be there! I would’ve loved it! Just know that somewhere in the world there is one very avid reader who is very envious of you right now. ;)
Shannon
July 27, 2013 at 5:52 pmAww – well hopefully you’ll get to attend an event soon! In the meantime, I hope you entered the giveaway! :D
Jessicah Layfield
July 27, 2013 at 7:00 pmI did! Thank you very much! :) And I can only hope about the events… I always seem to miss these things! :P
Shannon
July 29, 2013 at 2:05 pmI usually miss them too but since I attended my first one I’ve become a lot more attentive to authors’ tour schedules!
Aishah
July 28, 2013 at 11:25 amYou are sooooo Lucky!!!! Wishing I was you! Lovely post with relevant pictures…just one thing that’s not good is that…..i’m not included in the pictures ;)
Shannon
July 29, 2013 at 2:03 pmHahaha, yes I would have loved for you to be in them too! Maybe someday we’ll meet up at some awesome convention or something! (BEA ’14???)
Aishah
August 1, 2013 at 1:53 amMe too! :( Would you give me more info on BEA 14. You can send it through my email if you want or twitter @AishahHWaheed :)
cll92814
August 7, 2013 at 9:12 pmFingers crossed!!! Thanks for the chance!
Allie L
August 12, 2013 at 5:46 pmGetting to meet the authors seem so much fun!!! I hope I can meet them someday and get my books signed. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Shanny S.
August 17, 2013 at 5:08 pmI think it’s cool we have the same name and I’m so jealous that you got to meet Julie Kagawa ;)
Cali W.
August 17, 2013 at 5:12 pmThanks for the giveaway! I love the Iron Fey series! I hope to meet great authors like that some day. <3
Stacie Cruz
August 18, 2013 at 2:19 amWow that’s so cool you got to meet those authors let alone interview them! I wished they tour near me. Oh well, hopefully one day. Glad you had a blast and thanks for the giveaway!
Courtney Samples
August 23, 2013 at 7:48 amSo cool that you got to meet and talk to them!