Author Meetup: Kiersten White, Cynthia Hand, Marie Lu, Robin LaFevers

I was super excited to be going to an author meetup, but my friend misread the dates and had to bail out. Nonetheless, I ended up going because I really wanted to meet the authors and I wouldn't let a little change in plan get in the way of that. At the library, let's just say it was really awkward for me, I didn't know what to do, and even asking for an autograph and a picture was nerve wracking for me!

Anyway, here are some photos and notes I took from each author. The length are not, in any way, implications that I favor one over the other.. I just didn't start taking notes until after two authors were done talking and I realized, as a blogger, I really should be taking notes! So, anyway....

At the library, I look very geeky, why? Does anyone notice the super beautiful Hunger Games posters in the back? :)

Another blogger I met in person: Jessirae! She was quite popular with the authors!

At Barnes and Noble for the signing :)

Please Note: The quotes below are paraphrased by me and not the quotes verbatim from the authors, although I tried to get as close to it as possible.

Marie Lu

• Her book Legend was inspired by Les Miserables.
• "LA is already a dystopian city, so why not destroy it more?"
• Crying + Chocolate = Book 2
• Legend originally started as two teenage boys. Her boyfriend told her he would be more inclined to read it if there was a girl in the story. This was how June was born. As a result, her boyfriend now claims that June was his creation. Marie eventually named the dictator of the series after her boyfriend as tribute - although he really wanted to be the main character instead. "Primo is a dictator name, not a protagonist name."
• The second book in her series is called Prodigy. The original title was Patriot, and the original cover was blue with chevron in the front = not good.

Cynthia Hand

• She is a pantser. If you're like me who didn't know what that means, it means she doesn't outline her books. She writes as she goes. Which means she also has to revise more than if she would have outlined the book.
• She used to be a pre-law student because her parents wanted her to take something that would make her money.
• The draft for Hallowed was handwritten in a notebook. Now she writes all her drafts by hand, and then type the revisions.
• The third book in the Unearthly series is called Boundless.
• The original title of Unearthly was Angel Blood.

Kiersten White

• She wanted a career that would let her stay home with her children, hence, being a writer.
• When she was younger, she wanted to be a children's book illustrator...until she realized that to be an illustrator, she had to be good in drawing. NEXT!
• She started reading teenage books and thought it was really FUN!
• It took her two years to write a middle grade book by hand and it turned out exceptionally boring - "It takes skill to write something so boring."
• When she read Twilight and the sparkling vampires, she thought there was a lot of humor that went untouched in the books.
• The first book in her new series is called Mind Games - which she wrote... in NINE (9) days. *Cue Robin LaFevers shaking her head or sighing* This book was actually inspired by Marie Lu!
• All the readers read an excerpt from their books, and Kiersten was a very lively reader. I could picture her as Evie while she was reading.
• The original title of the second book was Extraordinary. The book designers didn't like it, so the title was changed to Supernaturally, which was originally the planned title for the third book.

Robin LaFevers

• She has THIRTEEN (13) middle grade books published.
• It took her 8 years to write Grave Mercy.
• Before Grave Mercy was chosen as the title of her book, the original idea was to call it Nightshade, until Andrea Cremer came out with her book. So, a new title was chosen which was Dark Mercy, until Melissa Marr came out with her book Darkest Mercy. Finally, Grave Mercy was chosen, and thankfully, no one else had chosen the title.
• Her first writing inspiration was the Chronicles of Narnia. This book was when she realized she could make stuff up in her books, and they don't have to be realistic.
• She mentioned that writing is a way for her to keep her sanity together. Hobbies? Writing. Pasttime outside of writing? Writing. Job? Writing.
• Grave Mercy is the first book in a trilogy of companion novels.
• The second book will be called Dark Triumph.

Finally, here is a short video of me asking a question to the authors :)

Thank you to all the authors for giving us such amazing books to read. I hope to meet you all again one day!

Tell me in the comments, have you met the authors mentioned above? If not, who have you met or who would you like to meet?