Today, I show off all the signed books in my house.  Do you have a lot of signed books?  Does having a signed book make you value it more?  I’ll tell you that I think it does.  I love meeting the authors and having them personalized.  And even if I don’t meet the author, I love having them arrive in the mail already signed.

More on getting a lot of those books signed and meeting the authors are detailed in the posts below:

• More on Meeting Laurie Halse Anderson and a Signed Wintergirls Giveaway!
• An Open Letter to Laurie Halse Anderson
• On Meeting Jodi Picoult and an AMAZING Giveaway!
• An Evening Spent with David Ebershoff, Author of The 19th Wife
• The Tale of Shannon Hale and a . . . Zucchini (????) (Rapunzel’s Revenge release party)
• Authors Here, Authors There, Authors Everywhere! (Sara Zarr, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, Ann Dee Ellis, Mette Ivie Harrison)
  
• My Evening Spent with Stephenie Meyer

Seriously, those giveaways right now are amazing!  Don’t forget to enter!

The night was off to a great start and as I was able to introduce myself to Laurie before things got started. And then I turn around and there’s Sara Zarr, author of Sweethearts and Story of a Girl, chatting in the corner! So while talking to her who comes up? Why, it’s James Dashner, author of The 13th Reality series! And as if that’s not enough, Jenn (marketing manager at Kings English) waves across the room and calls out “Emily!” Emily as in Emily Wing Smith, author of The Way He Lived, whom we’ve been emailing about an interview together.  Why, oh why, didn’t I take my photo with Emily? She turns right around and introduces me to Anne Bowen. And I swear there were a ton of other authors there that I didn’t know who they were.

First, a special message from Laurie just for the readers of Maw Books!

There’s nothing like an amazing author coming to town to get all the Utah writers together in one room. And it was so much fun to be in that room and for once felt comfortable there.  I carpooled up with my friend Cari of Book Scoops and while there we discovered that the gals over at My Favorite Author are based in Salt Lake too.  That was fun!

I can’t believe how fun the night was and Laurie was kind enough to speak to her fans, local authors and bloggers.  I recorded as much of the conversation as I could. Laurie has some wonderful things to say.  She speaks about body image, eating disorders, writing Wintergirls and Speak, writing, literacy, on changing the canon of literature taught in schools, and teen book bloggers.  Enjoy!

Would you like to win a copy of Wintergirls?  Not just any copy, but a signed copy?!

Thank you to The King’s English Bookshop for sponsoring this amazing giveaway!

The Kings English Bookshop has been Salt Lake’s literary resource for independent minds since 1977. We have the most comprehensive children’s book selection in the state of Utah as well as mysteries, new fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, nature, and western writers. Located in a beautiful residential neighborhood of Salt Lake City, the store provides services to people anywhere in the world. If you are in town, drop by; there are chairs scattered throughout eight book-packed rooms.

There are tons of ways to enter.  One entry will get you in, the rest is up to you.

• To enter: Leave a comment on this post with your thoughts about body image and eating disorders or responding in some way to the video.
• One additional entry for each of the following:
  • Leave a comment on my open letter to Laurie Halse Anderson, my Wintergirls, Speak and Chains book review and The Ides of March Madness post telling me which book you think will win the charity book reading tournament.
• For TWO additional entries:
  • Blog about this giveaway in a post (not sidebar).
  • Subscribe to my blog’s feed to receive updates either through your favorite RSS reader or by email.
  • Follow me on Twitter AND tweet about the giveaway. 
    
• For FIVE additional entries each:
  • Visit the King’s English website or blog and come back and tell me one discovery.  A new book to check out, a favorite title from a bookseller, a favorite author who calls Utah home, upcoming events that you think I should cover, who founded The King’s English, your favorite author who’s paid the Kings English a visit, etc.  You get the idea.  Go and discover!
• For TEN additional entries:
  • Visit the IndieBound website and tell me why we should shop local.  Also consider showing your support of Indie Bookstores by becoming an affiliate.

Contest will close at midnight on Friday, April 10th, the same as the Jodi Picuolt giveaway.  Open internationally.  Thank you again to The King’s English Bookshop for hosting Laurie Halse Anderson and for sponsoring this giveaway!

Oh, Laurie Halse Anderson, how I love you.  Isn’t that a bit scary?  But I do.  My admiration and respect for you just went through the roof.  Last night was one of the funnest book-ish nights I’ve had.  A highlight for sure.  When I introduced myself as saying, “You might not recognize my name but I’m Natasha Maw,” you did immediately know who I was, broke out into a huge smile, didn’t hesitate to pull me into a tight, warm embrace as though we’ve been friends for years. You thanked me for writing such wonderful things about your books.  I could feel how genuine your statement was.  I thanked you for hugging me.  Seriously, I’d only been in your company for a couple of moments but I knew right then that you were indeed somebody very special.  Having moments like those makes this whole blogging thing worth it.

The more I watched you, the more I knew that not all authors have your talent for making whoever you were talking to feel like they were the only one in the room at that moment. I watched as you ran off for a piece of paper so you could write a note to a teenagers friend who had strep and had cried because she couldn’t come. I watched as you talked on a cell phone to a mother’s daughter because you knew it was important to that mother. I watched as that teenager almost cried as she told you that she had been abused and that Speak had made her speak out. I was touched as you got up to embrace her and tell her your own story. I saw several people who were starting to tear up after speaking with you as they turned away to leave.

You never stopped smiling and then after most of the crowd had filtered out and the hard core fans and local authors (including Sara Zarr, James Dashner, Emily Wing Smith, Ann Bowen, and others)  remained you spoke to us in such an intimate setting that I couldn’t stop thanking my lucky stars that I was there.  I loved as you talked about Wintergirls, Speak, your writing and the importance of literacy.

Thank you for your energy, your dedication, your passion, and your words. Truly an author who will always have a special place in my heart and my bookshelf.

(Now for those books of yours I haven’t read . . . well, I guess I better get reading!)

Watch for an upcoming post about the Laurie Halse Anderson book signing including a special video message just for the readers of the Maw Books Blog, video of Laurie talking about Wintergirls, Speak, literacy AND  The King’s English Bookshop is sponsoring a giveaway for a signed Wintergirls.  Seriously, don’t miss it.  In the meantime check out my book reviews of Wintergirls, Chains, and Speak.

I discovered that Jodi Picoult is one of those authors that once you see them in person, you just can’t help but like them.  She has this feel good persona about her, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting, I don’t know why (okay, okay, I admit I haven’t liked everything I’ve read).  But her energy was great.  She began the evening by giving a reading from Handle with Care.  And thank goodness, Jodi hates spoilers about as much as I do, so it was a nice spoil free evening.  I loved hearing her read because I could hear how she imagined each voice and character as she wrote.

Here is a short video that I took (I would have loved to do more but I was running on low batteries!  And I’m really, really sorry for the sideways video!  I obviously wasn’t thinking when I took the video on my camera.  I thought I fixed it because every time I view it on my computer, it’s normal.  But every time it uploads to YouTube it’s sideways.  I’m giving up and going with it.)

After the reading, Jodi Picoult took questions from the audience.  I tried to transcribe her answers but her stories in response to the questions were so detailed and fun that it was impossible to transcribe.  So these are briefly some of the questions and answers, but not even half of what she said.  And if there are any mistakes, they are mine and not Jodi’s words.

Question:  How did you choose this particular topic for Change of Heart?

Jodi Picoult Answer: While on book tour, she was reading a newspaper about a woman who was suing for a wrongful birth (meaning that had they known there child would be severely mentally or physically handicapped they would have terminated the pregnancy).  She had never heard that term before – wrongful birth – and ended up interviewing the woman in addition to many others.  It ends up that not a single one of the mothers would have ended the pregnancy had they had the choice.  They loved their children, but taking care of them were expensive.  In exchange for telling a single white lie while under oath in front of a judge, they would receive the money to take care of them.  Easy, no?  Picoult was drawn to this idea as well as the mixed message that it would give to a child who was there 100% mentally.  Meaning, a mother saying “No, I wouldn’t have had you” and “I’m doing this for your own good.”  Picoult spent a lot of time with families who had OI (brittle bone disease).

Question:  How long does it take you to do the research for your books?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Nine months! Just like a baby!  Her husband gives her a bunch of congratulatory ballons at the end of each nine months.  Each book has a different pattern, but for Change of Heart it was 3 months research and six months writing.

Question:  Do you do all of your research or do you outsource?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She keeps looking for her staff but can’t find them!  Researching the book is the best part of the job and she wouldn’t give it up for anything.  It’s exciting and it gets her excited about writing the book.  Plus, when would she be able to do all the cool stuff like she does?  I can’t remember all that she said, but needless to say, she had done a lot of cool stuff including ghost hunting, living with the Amish, and visiting death row.  She also receives about 200 emails a day and she answers every single one of them.  They are all written by her, she doesn’t outsource it at all.

Question:  What’s your favorite book that you have written?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She says that this answer is subject to change at any time but it’s Second Glance because she had the best research for that book.  She then went into this great story about going down to Rhode Island and going ghost hunting.  She saw a lot of cool things.  Wish I had done video of the answer to this question.

Question:  When you begin writing a book, do you know how the book is going to end?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Yes, she definitely knows how it ends before she begins writing.  She likes to leave the reader bread crumbs along the way so when the twist ending comes, the reader doesn’t feel duped.  She always, always gives clues throughout the book.  While she always knows how she is going to get from A to Z anything from B to Y is fair game.  Her characters always surprise her.

Question:  Most of your books take place in New England.  What do you love about the area?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She’s actually from New York, but if a cat has kittens in the oven doesn’t mean that they are biscuits!  She now lives in New Hampshire and loves it.  One of the last holdouts of American with no strip malls, a green square.  New England is antiquated with lots of history.  Her books are a love letter to New England.

Question:  How do you go from all of this to writing for Wonder Women?

Jodi Picoult: It all began when she wrote The Tenth Circle and her main character was a graphic novelist who didn’t express himself very well, so we read his story through the graphic novel portion of the book.  Afterwards, D.C comics called and asked if she’d like to write some issues of Wonder Woman.  Her initial thought was no, but her kids told her she’d be crazy.  Writing Wonder Woman was the hardest thing that she has every done.  It’s not a one man show.  She has to work with illustrator, editor, etc. and if she wants Wonder Woman to meet up with Batman that she has to call Batman’s people and schedule a “playdate.”  It was really stressful to to be trusted to advance the story and not ruin the characters long history.

Question:  How involved were you with the movie My Sister’s Keeper, if at all?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She was just in LA and saw a screening for the movie which comes out in June.  The actors are amazing!  Even Cameron Diaz is good.  It’s beautifully shot.  If you’ve read the book, you’ll recognize 90% of the movie.  Her friend kept getting mad at her during the screening because she’d keep feeding the lines to her.  But she had no say whatsoever about the movie and they changed the ending!  Horror.  She was so upset and vocal about the change that she got thrown off the set.  She says its a great movie and it is what it is.  Just close your eyes for the last ten minutes and then go home and read the ending of the book.  Definitely go see it.

Question:  What was it like living with the Amish while researching Plain Truth?

Jodi Picoult Answer: She got introduced through a Mennonite via a message board and a family agreed to have her live with them for a week on their dairy farm.  The father ignored her and they were highly suspicious of her motives because Oprah had just done an episode about living simple lifes and a lot of people were moving down to become Amish.  Everything that happened in the book, she did on the farm with the exception of the church service because the Amish hold services every other weekend and she was there on the odd weekend.  She did have the bishops and elders talk her through the scene though.  Deeds speak louder than words.   This was evident when they did Bible study from the English Bible instead of the German while she was there.

Question:  Are they are any issues that you wouldn’t write about?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Not afraid of issues.  And then she said something else very insightful that I didn’t write down.  Sorry.

Question: Where did you get the idea for Keeping Faith? (I couldn’t hear this question and she didn’t repeat it. I think that’s what it was.)

Jodi Picoult Answer: The idea of God as a female figure came while she was playing with her young son, who asked her who God was.  Somebody who watches out and protects us she responded.  Son:  Like a babysitter?  Yes, like a great big babysitter.  Son:  So he’s a man?  Well, that’s what most people believe yes.  Son:  Well all of my babysitters are girls.  Light goes off in Picoult’s head.  She doesn’t belong to any organized religion and thinks that there are a lot of different paths to get to the same place.

Question:  Tell us about your next book?

Jodi Picoult Answer: Her next book, House Rules, is already finished and at the publishers and will come out in 2010.  It’s about a man with high functioning Aspager’s Syndrome who is charged with murder.  The book that she is researching now that will come out in 2011 is about embryo donation and gay rights.

Question:  Before becoming a writer, did you have an interest in becoming a lawyer?

Jodi Picoult Answer: As every English major did at one point or another, she did consider going to law school.  She’s very happy to not be a lawyer but enjoys researching all the loopholes in the legal system.

Phheewww!!!  My hand was cramping!  Did you learn anything interesting?

HUGE GIVEAWAY!!  I bought you a brand new hardcover copy of Handle with Care! Yes, you!  But not just any book but a signed book.  Jodi even signed it with “congratulations” if you are my lucky winner!

But wait.  That’s cool.  But that’s not huge. So how about SIX more signed books?!  Seriously, somebody is going to walk away with not one, not two but SEVEN signed Jodi Picoult books! The additional six are used but they are signed!  Yep, that’s Jodi up there signing away.  I literary pulled them all off my own bookshelf, got them signed and decided to give them all away to you.  I just couldn’t help myself.  So if you are a huge Picoult fan or know somebody who is then this is the giveaway for you!

The books:  Handle with Care (hardcover), Nineteen Minutes (hardcover), Perfect Match, Vanishing Acts, My Sister’s Keeper, Second Glance, and Songs of the Humpback Whale.

Okay, the rules.

• I have to limit this one to U.S residents only.  Sorry, I just can’t send a box this big out of the country right now.  I spent my bucks on the brand new Handle with Care.
• Contest will close at midnight on Friday, April 10th.  That will give you two and a half weeks.  Plenty of time to anticipate winning!
• For one entry, leave a comment on this post telling me which of Jodi Picoult’s books is your favorite and why.  If you haven’t read any books yet, tell me which one you’d like to read the most.  Or tell me what you found most interesting from her reading and Q & A above. Don’t forget this step!
• One additional entry for each of the following.
  • Twitter about and link to this post.  (I’ll give you up to five entries on this one if you twitter about it at least five different days during the two week period)

  Edited to add: I’ll catch the tweet for sure if you include @mawbooks somewhere in the tweet.

  • Follow me on Twitter.
  • Mention and link to this giveaway in any of forums or social networks sites that you frequent (i.e Facebook, etc.)
  • Stumble, Digg or fav this post through any of the social bookmarking site.
• Five additional entries:
  • Blog about this giveaway in a post (not sidebar).
  • If you don’t have a blog, email three Picoult loving friends and tell them the good news and cc me on the email (natasha at mawbooks dot com)
  • If you are not already subscribed to my blog’s feed to receive updates either through your favorite RSS reader or by email, then do so.  The way I figure it, is that if you like Jodi Picoult books enough to want to win them, then you probably like books, right?  Then you’ll probably like to hang around my blog long enough to talk about them.
• Ten additional entries:
  • Already subscribed?  Just mention it and you just got ten more freebie entries!  I want to reward my regulars.

So enter as many or as little times as you want.  It’s all up to you.  One, two, twenty.  However hard you want to work it, is cool with me.   But isn’t this just too cool?!  I’m super excited to be giving away SEVEN SIGNED JODI PICOULT BOOKS!

I wanted to share with you my impressions about the reading prior to giving my book review because when I attended the reading I had not yet read the book.  So imagine not having read the book and getting a great teaser to incite you to read The 19th Wife.

Not having read anything by David Eberhoff or seeing a photo of him, I was expecting someone that was middle age with graying hair.  Imagine my surprise when David walked in and well, wow, he was young.  And not bad on the eyes!  I was totally taken off guard and was pleasantly surprised to find how genuine and sincere he was.  Looking at the notes I took, they are just short, quick phrases, so I hope that I can flesh this out a little.  If there any faults in my transcription, they are mine and not David’s.

David Ebershoff began by giving a brief introduction to the book.  About seven years ago, while talking with a professor of 19th Century history, he heard the phrase The 19th wife, which he admitted had him hooked as soon as he heard it.  It’s not often that the two words “nineteenth” and “wife” are put together.  It wasn’t until about three years later that he took that phrase and decided to get serious.  He spent one year researching polygamy, the current communities that practice it and the history of the LDS church and then spent another four years writing the book.

David then gave a quick background history about Ann Eliza Young, who was just a toddler when Brigham Young, the prophet of the LDS church spoke to her parents about plural marriage.  They were very devout in their faith.  Her father had two wives, and Ann Eliza felt that their home was happy.  But when she was twelve years old her father had a midlife crisis and married three women in just a month.  Later and now older, she married and three years and two children later divorced her husband.  Soon thereafter she married the prophet Brigham Young and became his 19th wife.  She later divorced him and left the church and went on to become one of the largest forces in anti-polygamy laws.

The second storyline in The 19th Wife is that of Jordan Scott, which is set in  the here and now.  He is the son of a 19th wife in a community in Southern Utah who years earlier was kicked out.  Now living in California he returns when he finds out that his mother has murdered his father. The second storyline is that of a murder mystery.  There are in essence two 19th wives in the book, which I hadn’t known before.  I was interested to see how we would connect these two stories.

David Ebershoff went on to read 4-6 passages from the book.  I enjoyed his reading, he was a great narrator.  I soon began to wonder what exactly was fiction and what was real.  How much liberty did he take with the story?  During the question and answer period he clarified that all of the documents in the book are fiction although they are set up to look real.  I hadn’t read the book yet, but now that I have, I can easily see that they are.  But I can see how people could get easily confused.  I took his comments to mean that he took many liberties with the characters, their thoughts, conversations, and personalities.  The 19th Wife while based upon historical events and persons, is neither a memoir, biography, or history book.  It’s a story.  This made me wonder exactly how did he portray the early Latter-Day Saint pioneers and their leaders.  I was curious to find out.  It’s always risky to write about people that are either beloved among many and also hated among many.  You’ll hear my thoughts on my reaction in my book review tomorrow.

David Ebershoff explained that he used many different narrators because there is no one single perspective on the issue of polygamy.  Ask six different people their opinion and get six different answers.  Polygamy gets everybody all riled up because it asks this question:  What are the limits to your rights?  And who gets to make them?

When asked why a murder mystery, he said that faith is a mystery.  A mystery of God’s will.  Within the genre of mystery, a crime has to be solved.  (not sure what my next scribblings mean – solver, arrow up, arrow down, arrow sideways, society – hmm . . . )

After the Q & A and reading, David Ebershoff was able to chat and sign books.  It was a pleasure to meet him and he was one heck of a nice guy.

So after taking in all of the evening, not yet opening my book, and being familiar with the faith and history of the LDS church, I was really, really curious to see what I thought of the book.  I’ll share that with you tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

David Ebershoff’s website, great Q & A with the author.

First up, David Ebershoff, author of The 19th Wife will be at the King’s English Bookshop this Friday, September 12th at 7pm.  I’ll be hosting David Ebershoff on his virtual book tour on October 15th through TLC Book Tours. I won’t be able to get the book read before Friday but meeting him in person will be a nice touch for the tour.  Click here for more details.

Second, J. Scott Savage is having a Far World, Water Keep kick off party this Saturday, September 13th from 12-3pm at the Spanish Fork Library.  As Spanish Fork is a good 45 minute to an hour drive, we’ll have to think of some fun activity for the kids to make the trip worthwhile (I’m not saying J. Scott Savage isn’t worth it, but my toddlers will probably beg to differ).  Click here for more details and read my book review and my interview with the author.

And it’s just dawned on me that I never picked a winner for my Far World giveaway (probably because I forgot to give a deadline).  So, let’s do that now.  The winner is Nicola from Back to Books!  Congrats.  Email me your address at natasha (at) mawbooks (dot) com and I’ll forward your information to J. Scott Savage.  Watch for a guest post from J. Scott Savage this month and an opportunity to win again!

And mark you calenders for the Great Salt Lake Book Festival this October 22-25th, with most of the festivities on Saturday, the 25th at the SLC library.  Click here for more details. Click here to find out about Book Festivals in your area.

A lot happening this week.  Let me know if any of you are going.

After the funny reenactment, there was a Q &A panel presented by a few of our local Utah authors.

From left to right:   Kimberley Heuston, James Dashner (who recognized me right off and quickly came over to say hello, yay!), Jessica Day George, Nathan Hale, Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, Sara Zarr (um . . . . I’m sure you didn’t miss my three day stint with Sara here, here and an author interview here, did you?), Mette Ivie Harrison, and Ann E. Cannon.

I’ve transcribed the Q&A from the panel and more about each author towards the end of this post.  First, I have to get to my zucchini story.  Because I’m sure you did notice the title of this post was The Tale of Shannon Hale and the . . .  Zucchini.

First off, if you’ve never met Shannon Hale, she has got to be one of the most  genuine people ever!  She’s so funny, so happy, really nice (read my crying kids and book signing story here) and has this awesome energy about her.  Basically, she’s just too cool.

Doesn’t her husband look cool too?  And yep, that’s me.  While I was chatting with Shannon, I talked about this blogging project that I’ll be doing the entire month of September.  Shannon says, “Wow, I wish I had some extra books to send home with you right now.”  She frantically looks around, and of course, doesn’t find any extra books.  “I want to give you something.”  Looks around some more, searching for something to miraculously appear.  She reaches into her handbag sitting on the floor next to her and pulls out this HUGE ZUCCHINI (as if everybody carries around huge zucchini’s in their handbag) and gives it to me!  She then pulls out her camera and takes a picture of me with the zucchini.  So yeah, I went home with Shannon Hale’s home grown zucchini.  We had some fun laughs.

Here’s a photo of my very excited little guy with the aforementioned zucchini.  Maybe, I’ll make bread or some other yummy dinner.

I did get my Rapunzel’s Revenge book signed and am looking forward to reading it this next month.  Shannon promised an interview!  So stay tuned!

So what about that panel?  I’ve tried to transcribe my notes as best as I could.  If there are any mistakes, they are mine and not the exact words of the authors.  It’s not perfect.

Question to James Dashner, author of The 13th Reality:  What alternate reality would you live in if you could?
James Dashner:  One where it was fall all the time but I could go skiing.  One where I could watch football all the time, and not wear any clothes – oh my gosh, sorry, I forgot there were kids here – somewhere where people wear clothes all the time.

Question to Sara Zarr, author of Story of a Girl (my review) and Sweethearts (my review):
Sara Zarr:  How do you balance emotions with humor in your books? It’s weird how I write about such serious things because I’m usually the comedian in the group.  I guess I write about hard subject matter because being female and 5′2″ people don’t take you seriously, so it’s nice to have people see that side.  I don’t think about humor in my books and how to balance it with emotions.  I guess it comes through the dialogue.  My next book is not funny.

Question to Kimberley Heuston, author of The Shakeress, Dante’s Daughter and The Book of Jude:  Why historical fiction?  And why did you choose to base Book of Jude in Berlin at the end of communism.
Kimberly Heuston - I recently lost my sister and I needed to find a place that would take me far away.  I received a grant to Czechoslovakia and thought, well, that’s far away.

Question to Ann E. Cannon, author of The Loser’s Guide to Life and Love:  Why did you base your book off of A Midsummer’s Night Dream?
Ann E. Cannon:  The play is really funny, deals with the confusion of identity and has this great magic about it.

Jessica Day George, author of Dragon Flight, Dragon Slippers and Sun & Moon, Ice & Snow
Eeek!  I don’t have anything written down to transcribe!  So sorry Jessica!  What was I doing to miss this one?

Question to  Mette Ivie Harrison, author of The Princess & the Hound, Mira Mirror, The Monster in Me: How do you write a sequel?  Do you know where the story is going?
Mette Ivie Harrison:  I do not outline!  I write straight out of my head.  I’ve always wanted to write want I want to read and be entertained my it.  I really want to be surprised by my own story and where it takes me.

Question addressed to all:  Why write?
All:  Because we love to read and we write to entertain ourselves.
Mette Ivie Harrison:  I wrote a dragon story in kindergarten, that I drew out and my teacher wrote down what I told her.  I wrote all the time.  But then when I got to high school I got very intimidated by the classics.  Dickens, Hemingway and stopped writing.  When I was 25, I realized that I had stopped doing what I loved and went back.

Question addressed to Shannon Hale:  Why choose the story of Rapunzel?
Shannon Hale:  Rapunzel is probably the most irritating fairy tale of them all.  How many times did the prince come and climb up the tower?  What’s the first thing you think of when you hear that?  Ouch!  Did the prince think once of ever bringing a ladder?  No!

Question addressed to all:  Who do you find time to write with children?
Mette Ivie Harrison:  Commit to a regular time and don’t be intimidated when you visit your neighbor’s immaculate house.  Realize that’s her job.  Your job is to write.  I chose to wake up at 5 am and write.  I also have made a decision to not vacuum my living room . . . this year.
James Dashner:  Get a wife who loves kids.
Shannon Hale:  With one kid, I used to write during naptime.  With two it’s harder.  My mom takes them once a week and I do exchanges with a writer friend.
????:  Back in the early days, a man named Philo T. Farnsworth invented what we call the TV.  It’s a great invention.  And there’s the Disney channel.

Question addressed to all: The 13th Reality had a lot of quantum physics in it.  What’s the hardest thing that you’ve ever had to research?
Nathan Hale:  Drawing horses.  I had to learn how to draw horses.  I took my little sisters horse figures, lined them up, and had to learn how to draw.  Hands down the hardest thing I’ve done.
Mette Ivie Harrison:  The Arthurian period.
Shannon Hale:  I love Jane Austen, so I thought, I’ll write a book about Jane Austen.  Let me tell you, there are a lot of people out there that know more about Jane Austen than I do.  And they’ll let you know it too.

Question to the Hales:  How long did it take you to write Rapunzel’s Revenge?
Dean and Shannon Hale:  From the idea to the script about ten months.
Nathan Hale:  It took 18 months to illustrate it, sometimes working 16 to 24 hours straight.  Everybody here needs to buy six copies of Rapunzel’s Revenge because my advance for the book ran out about a year and a half ago and I need to pay bills.  Little kids?  Yep, you too.  Six books.

That’s all folks.  Read my reviews of Austenland, Book of a Thousand Days, Princess Academy by Shannon Hale.  Read my reviews of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts by Sara Zarr and an interview here.  Stay tuned during the month of September for interviews with Shannon Hale, James Dashner, and Mette Ivie Harrison (and hopefully Jessica Day George, I haven’t asked yet).  If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my post on the Children’s Book Festival I attended a few months back as well as my Stephenie Meyer book signing post.

I’m now off to enjoy some zucchini!

So if you’re in Salt Lake City and you are going, let me know!  I’d love to meet up with you.  The last author event I went to, I heard from a lot of bloggers that we’re there, but not until after the fact.  Suey from It’s All About Books and I were literally shoulder to shoulder and didn’t even say hello!

So fellow Utahns, are you going?

As soon as we arrived, we found ourselves in the elevator with Nathan Hale. And this is a embarrassing story that is even more embarrassing because I’m fessing up and telling you about it. I really should keep this to myself. I made a complete idiot of myself by saying, “Oh, you must be Shannon’s husband.” What was I thinking!?! Either he didn’t hear me or he was overly polite to correct me. Dumb me! Dumb me! I really hope that was my only blunder of the day. I’m so embarrassed! Have you ever done anything like that? Ugh. At least I knew he illustrated Shannon and Dean Hale’s latest graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge. That’s a photo on the right of Nathan hard at work doing portraits of the kids.

Because we didn’t show up at start time we caught the end of a book reading and Brandon Mull was just finishing up reading from Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star. He was getting quite a few laughs and was very animated.

Next we attended a science fiction/fantasy panel with the authors shown below. From left to right: James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, Mette Ivie Harrison, and Brandon Mull.

More about each of them later. I tried to take notes but I was also trying to attend to my noisy kids at the same time. So I missed some of the finer details. Here are the notes that I jotted down:

Why do you write for children and young adults? And why fantasy?

• Brandon Mull – I wrote down C.S. Lewis which looking back I have no idea where he was going with that.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Kids don’t prejudge a genre like adults do. And it’s not divided up into different genres. Fantasy is mixed right in with the realistic fiction.
• Brandon Sanderson – “Why fantasy? Frankly, Everything else bores me. If you can have romance with a wizard in the story, why not?!”
• James Dashner – He likes to make believe and pretend.

Where do you get your ideas?

• Brandon Mull- I didn’t write anything down for Brandon. I must have been trying to find snacks for the kids.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Her problem is trying to get rid of ideas. She has way too many. She never writes her ideas down because they never leave.
• Brandon Sanderson – He said that he is a meticulous planner and has multiple ideas at once. He described it as atoms in your head, zipping around, colliding and forming molecules. He writes down all of his ideas because he’ll never remember them. He’s always worried about the story that got away.
• James Dashner – Said he didn’t really have an answer for that one. While driving, showering (but asked us to not picture that!), etc.

What books were influential to you?

• Brandon Mull – Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. He always thought that if he punched the back wall of his closet he would be able to get through. Also Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien because he saw everybody reading it, but was told that he was too young (before age 12). So he read it and knew he was too young because he didn’t understand anything that was going on but he loved it nevertheless.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Arthurian legends, Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and all the Star Trek novelizations. She has to read an entire series all the way through before she can move on to anything else.
• Brandon Sanderson – I don’t know the first book he mentioned but the second was the Dragonflight Series by Anne McCaffrey.
• James Dashner – Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (obviously sucking up). Seriously though, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

What is your favorite book that you have written?

• Brandon Mull – Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Son of Arthur. Did I get this one right? Is this what she’s writing now or something she just wrote for fun?
• Brandon Sanderson – Acatraz Versus The Evil Libariansis the funniest and I didn’t catch the other book he mentioned.
• James Dashner – Book two of 13th Reality serieswhich will be released next spring.

How do you learn to write?

• Brandon Mull – Read a lot! Be critical and deconstruct your favorite books. Brandon wrote for a comedy troupe in college and because of the instant audience feedback became aware of what the audience wanted.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Sit down and write. You’ll never write anything perfect so don’t even try.
• Brandon Sanderson – Read and practice!
• James Dashner – Practice and be a voracious reader.

What type of creatures are going to be in your next book?

• Brandon Mull – Griffins and dragons.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Something that she called a Snowbird, which when she thinks about it, is really just a dragon.
• Brandon Sanderson – Undead librarian ghosts. Huh??
• James Dashner – Some type of robotic monster.

Where do you come up with the names of your characters?

• Brandon Mull – If it’s a everyman character he chooses a everyman name. Otherwise he looks for the “flavor of the sound,” brainstorms or it just comes.
• Mette Ivie Harrison – Her husband wouldn’t let her name her kids after literary figures so she names most of her characters after them instead.
• Brandon Sanderson – He just really, really likes the sound of Alcatraz.
• James Dashner – Atticus is homage to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Higginbottom was a kid in his high school.

Next was book signings! Everybody was really nice, especially since I admittedly hadn’t read many, if any, of their books. Gasp!  I am looking forward to discovering many new great books! First up was Ann Dee Knight Ellis (left) and Jessica Day George (right). And I might note that this photo is my first ever debut of a photo of myself on this blog. Now you know what I look like. Lucky you.

Ann Dee Knight Ellis debut YA novel This is What I Did came out last summer. I’ve since visited her blog here and read reviews of her book and I have to tell you, I’ll be reading it for sure. I kinda felt guilty that I didn’t have her sign a book but she was very nice. And I read from her blog that the library where this event was held was where she had her wedding party. It’s a beautiful library with a really nice ballroom.

Jessica Day George is the author of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (which is the one she signed for me), as well as Dragon Slippers and Dragon Flight. I look forward to reading all of these books. She told me that Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow is the best of the three and if I were to only read one, it should be that one. Visit Jessica Day George’s website here.

Next up: James Dashner.  How’s that for a big photo.

This was the first time that I’ve met James Dashner although we do have a back history. My husband Taylor is an aspiring writer. While on the train to work one day he noticed a guy reading over a manuscript and so Taylor asked if he was a writer. It was James Dashner going over the final proof of The 13th Reality: The Journal of Curious Letters. He was kind enough to answer all kinds of questions and even emailed Taylor with some further advice. When James saw Taylor he said, “Hey, the guy on the train!” When I introduced myself as Natasha Maw, he immediately said, “Oh yeah, the one with the blog!” Yay! He knew about my blog without my having to mention it! Plus we found out that we literally live down the street from each other (okay a few miles, but still). He signed our book by saying, “So glad to know you guys. Keep writing.” He was really awesome and loved to talk. So stop by his blog here and find out what he thought the highlight of the festival for him was. Book two of The 13th Reality series comes out next spring.

Who’s next? It’s Brandon Sanderson. And what an awful picture. You would think that we could have come up with something better than this. Please disregard the backlight and the girl in the background. My degree is in photography so I really hate photos like this. But it’s the best I’ve got and I obviously wasn’t taking the photo.

I have to admit that my husband did most of the talking here as my kids were almost on the verge of a breakdown. I believe that they talked about how to write, book suggestions and the likes. My husband says that Brandon told him for a really good story you need 3-4 really good ideas and 3-4 good ideas per character.

Brandon is a new to me author and I asked him which of his books I should read first. Especially to someone who is new to the Fantasy genre and who has never read any C.S. Lewis or J.R.R Tolkien (Gasp! Well, I have read The Hobbit). Brandon said Alcatraz Versus The Evil Libarians was really funny and if I could get past the weird names in Elantris that would be my best bet. I told him I actually never sound out names while reading, I see it but don’t register it. Sometimes I’ll finish a book and not know the names of main characters. So we bought Elantris so he could sign it and I think my husband took it to bed with him last night. Visit Brandon’s website here.

Next I met up with Mette Ivie Harrison. And even my little guy got in on the action.

Mette Ivie Harrison signed Mira, Mirrorand inscribed “the best magic is love!” I’m looking forward to reading this one to find out what it means. Mette’s other books are The Princess and the Houndand The Monster in Me. Read Mette’s blog here to find out what she thought of the event and I’m pretty sure the person in question is Stephenie Meyer who was in town doing a book signing. And Mette is a runner who apparently ran a half marathon the very same morning.

Next was the very gracious Sara Zarr.

I have seen Sweetheartsbeing reviewed by bloggers everywhere. So how could I resist picking this one up to be signed. I’m also looking forward to reading Story of a Girl, which was a National Book Award finalist. She said to let her know if I enjoyed it. But if I didn’t like it, well, she’d rather not know. Read her blog post about the event. And I thought it very funny that the second photo down my husband is in the background (long hair, white shirt) and you can see my toddler’s legs hanging from his stroller.

Next we waited in line for Brandon Mull.

The first thing Brandon says is “Hey, I’ve met you!” But he’s not talking to me, he’s talking to my husband. And in fact it’s true. They did meet when my husband got the first Fablehaven book signed. And my husband afterwards emailed him for writing tips and Brandon was relieved to hear that he did email us back.

I knew it was risky but I went ahead and mentioned to Brandon that I had read and reviewed the first Fablehavenbook on my blog (my review here). “Thanks! Thanks so much” he said with so much enthusiasm that it almost broke my heart to tell him that the review was actually lukewarm. I mean I couldn’t tell him that it was a great review, what if he actually read it and then thought “She lied right to my face!”

Anyways, I went on to say that I was obviously very much in the minority and everybody said that I had to continue with the series because it only gets better. And that he has some very enthusiastic fans out there. Plus, I’m fairly new and not well read to this genre, but discovering a new genre was one of my 2008 reading goals. He was glad to hear it and said that if I didn’t like the second book by the end that I should just move on and not bother.

And I wish that I had congratulated him on the recent birth of their baby girl. Brandon Mull’s other books include Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague, and The Candy Shop War. Visit Brandon’s website here and his blog here.

Who’s next? How could there possibly be more? Yes, it’s SHANNON HALE! I was most excited to meet Shannon. Probably because I’ve actually read her books and she had this energy around her that was amazing. And seriously, don’t you think we could be sisters? I think we have the same face shape.

Shannon was super nice. In fact, Shannon was our last stop of the day and my kids were done! Needless to say that they were making so much noise that Shannon called us up and we got to cut in line. Shannon signed Book of a Thousand Daysmy review here) with “For Natasha – You are cooler than yaks” and Princess Academy(my review forthcoming) with “For Natasha – Thanks for being such a wonderful mom and reader. You rock” and The Goose Girl (still to be read) with “For Natasha – Who is a true princess in disguise.” I thought it was fun that she took the time to write fun messages. And I realized that I left my copy of Austenland(my review here) at home. Didn’t even think of that one.

And if you’re wondering what Shannon was doing for dinner that night, I’ll tell you. Apparently having dinner with Stephenie Meyer. Fun! Visit Shannon’s blog here.

What a day!! So many authors. I only wish that we could have attended more of the readings and workshops but you can only do so much. And if you can believe it, this was the first annual Provo Children’s Festival. I can only imagine that it will only get better. There were also a lot of children’s picture book authors and illustrators as well.

So that was it. Hope you had fun reading all about it. And as I read these great books watch for upcoming author interviews because each one said they would love to do a Q & A. So if you’re not subscribed to my feed I suggest you do!

As for me, on to book reviews!

You should have seen it. Women (grown women here, not girls) were dressed up, wearing buttons, sashes, homemade t-shirts and the likes. Afterwards, I heard of many Twilight parties at the nearby hotel. When Stephenie walked on stage, the crowd went wild! It is fun to see authors reach celebrity status. Stephenie spoke for about 30 minutes and answered questions submitted from the audience. I was only halfway through The Host and was sure that she wouldn’t talk about spoilers but I had to plug my ears and hum to myself through several of the questions.

I regret not bringing my video camera so I could transpose her comments but this is what I could remember:

• On the Twilight movie, Stephenie said that she thinks everybody was cast perfectly and that they are all amazing actors. She’s obviously very excited. Watch the Twilight trailer here.

• Is that your face on the cover of The Host? What about the hands on the cover of Twilight? Stephenie said, “No, that is some beautiful model. And no, those aren’t my hands either.”

• On being named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine, Stephenie said that is was very surreal and she still can’t believe it. She’s happy that this year they decided to put everybody on the cover, so now she can say that she’s been on the cover of Time magazine. She wasn’t disappointed to miss the Time magazine party (she already had a book signing event) even when she heard that George Clooney would be there. It wasn’t until she found out that Robert Downey Jr. was there that she was utterly disappointed.

• What do each of the covers of your book mean? Do you like them? Stephenie really likes The Host cover and was pleased with the way it turned out. Everybody was on the same page from the start. She loves The Twilight cover and for her the apple represents the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. To partake or not partake? Stephenie hates the cover of New Moon (she doesn’t have any say in book covers) and the flower means absolutely nothing to her. She likes the cover of Eclipse and for her, the ribbon is representative of Bella cutting ties from her past.

• How did you come up with the character Ian? I have to admit that I tried not to listen to anything about The Host, but Stephenie said that Ian wasn’t supposed to be in the story. But once she wrote him in, he began to have a life all his own and she couldn’t stop it.

• In The Host on page number 200 and something, is that really a reference to Jim and Pam of The Office? Yes! Stephenie LOVES The Office and in fact was just watching it the night before. She’s surprised that anybody even caught the reference.

• How do you write and be a mom? Stephenie said that she is very fortunate to have a lot of help. Not only does her mom live down the street but her husband is now a stay at home dad (which I’m sure they are more than able to afford and kudos for a parent being at home). Both of her boys are in school now and she doubts that they even notice when she’s gone. When she writes, she can’t close her door because the house will go eerily quiet and she knows something is amiss.

• Do you have any regrets? Stephenie said that she was missing a kindergarten graduation on this trip (huge sigh from the audience). It’s hard to be away from home while on tour. Also, she said that she is a voracious reader and typically reads 3-4 books a week. The fact that she’s only read ten books this year (which I would love to know what they are) is a huge embarrassment for her.

• What advice do you have to writers? Stephenie said to write only for yourself! If you are only writing for somebody else then you will never enjoy it. She would still write all of her books even if they weren’t published and nobody read them. Having people actually read them is just the bonus. Visit Writers Market for more help.

After Stephenie Meyer’s question and answer, she began to sign books. They sold 1,000 tickets and each person could have an unlimited number of The Host signed and personalized, and two books from the Twilight Series. Some people had boxes of books and on average everybody had at least 3-4 books. Not once did she stop smiling or slow down. She started at 7:30 and 4 1/2 hours later she was done! I don’t know how her hand could even hold up. And nobody seemed to be upset at how long they had to wait either.

And I was really touched that right when they started they announced that anybody with small children or babies could come up first. Stephenie’s publicist even walked through the crowd to gather up those who didn’t come up in the beginning and escorted them right up. A few hours into the signing, I was able to chat with him and he said that it’s at Stephenie’s request because she knows babies, kids, and mom’s have a hard enough time without having to wait 3-4 hours in line. Nice, nice!

Of course, I brought my Twilight books and three copies of The Host. One for me, one that I’m undecided on what to do with and a library copy (yep, I’m actually returning a library copy signed, the librarians will have a little nice surprise). Because I was ushering, I was told that my books would be collected and Stephenie would sign them prior to her presentation. Of course, mine were forgotten. So I had to wait until the very end of the line (which was okay, because I had to be there anyway).  I was the absolutely LAST one to get my books signed!

She was very pleasant and I was able to say hello. I mentioned that I had a blog where I review all the books that I read and that everytime I put up a post about her I get a flood of comments and email (sent through my contact page) from girls who actually think that they are talking to her! So in essence I get a lot of her fan email. She laughed and said, “Just pretend that you’re me, email them back, and tell them that EDWARD DIES!”

It was a fun Friday night.

Stay tuned! My next post is about how on Saturday I spent the day with Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Sara Zarr and more! I’ve got photos to prove it. It was a very bookish weekend.

P.S. Stephenie is a Diet Pepsi drinker just in case you wanted to know.