Archive | Authorial Adventures RSS feed for this section

LeakyCon 2012: Day Three

27 Aug

Faster than a sexy chupacabra, our last full day of LeakyCon was upon us. While we were excited for the day ahead and all the shenanigans that surely awaited, it was tempered by the knowledge that too soon it would all come to an end. But the encroachment of real life would not give us the wizard mopes. With caffeine firmly in hand, we set forth for more wonderful LitTrack panels, the hilarious Mark “Reads” Oshiro, and cosplay!

I Was a Teenage Author
Moderator: Maureen Johnson
Panelists: John Green, Holly Black, Margaret Stohl, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Stephanie Perkins

Last year’s runaway favorite, this panel was repeated with some new faces and some familiar ones. Daniel Ehrenhaft read some “rock” lyrics from his days as a former song writer, complete with a song about McDonald’s. That boy was really wed to his job, even if he never stole the salad bar. Margaret Stohl read some truly painful teenage angst poetry, which was rife with ridiculous symbolism and metaphor. Thank you for all your readings about scratchy lamps and particularly about erect pens. John Green read from a story about fireflies and lost youth. Although somehow the reference to “‘Firefly’ metaphors” made the audience think immediately of Nathan Fillion and not the insect. Once again Stephanie Perkins read from her teenage diary about her then boyfriend and now husband Jarrod (happy face!) and Holly Black read from her ridiculous fantasy novella. Specifically about potions that could make you fall asleep for a few minutes OR FOREVER!

Hearing the ridiculous stuff your favorite authors wrote in their youth is a hopeful experience for any aspiring writer, that’s for sure.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , ,

LeakyCon 2012: Day Two

24 Aug

Day two started off bright and early (well, early for people who watched vampires eat placentas until 3:00 AM) with the second annual Lit Day. Or rather “Lit Track” as it was called this year as the event was expanded to a whopping two days. Seriously, Lit Day = love.

The D Word: Diversity
Moderator: Kate Schafer Testerman
Panelists: Rebecca Sherman, Jennifer Laughran, and Maureen Johnson

Kelly and Cassie-wa had big plans of waking early, showering, grabbing breakfast, and getting to this panel on time. They made it to the last 20 minutes (we blame it on Twilight). Which they were kicking themselves over, because it was such a fantastic group of authors and agents. The panelists frankly discussed problems in the publishing industry, like how does one change an industry that says black people on covers results in fewer sales? Authors want to write stories that speak to their readers, but how can they do this when others are worried about the finances? Maureen Johnson lightened the mood (of course) by talking about how one could reveal aspects of a character without it being too overt. Like how could JK Rowling have revealed Dumbledore was gay without it being awkward in terms of narrative. Her point was that JK couldn’t write about Dumbledore’s dating profile on maturewizards.com or anything like that. Diversity is an incredibly tricky concept to define and create authentically. Really thought-provoking and excellent discussion was happening, and then some over-eager Ravenclaw raised her hand. She prefaced her question by saying it may be too advanced for the panel (oooof), and then blathered about privilege. Kelly and Cassie-wa cringed a little, but the panelists were pros and answered with ease.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

San Diego Comic-Con 2012: Cassie-la’s SDCC Recap

20 Jul

This year as a belated birthday present slash sort of business trip, I was lucky enough to get sent to the nerd mecca that is San Diego Comic-Con… International. I know, I don’t like the addition of international either. Founded in 1970, the four day and now five night event has become known as the ultimate pop culture convention specializing in movies, television shows, and to a lesser extent books and comic books. Of course that didn’t stop me from making my journey as literary as possible at America’s largest convention.

Within this post you will find me squeeing over the fact that I got to meet and get an autograph from author Margaret Atwood, detailing just what it was like to be a zombie in the first ever Walking Dead: Escape San Diego obstacle course, and discussing how the literary nerd in me died when I got to hang out with Amber Benson and Bill Willingham at various after parties. Not to mention meet and network with a variety of like-minded individuals. See: nerds.

In an effort to cater to the fact that this is a literary blog, all literary themed panels, encounters, and other such nonsense will be highlighted in bold. If you however are also interested in television related media, all that will be available for your reading pleasure in the non-bolded sections. Especially you “Community”, “Legend of Korra”, “Firefly” and “Supernatural” fans!

Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

Kelly’s Literary Adventures in London

13 Jun

Oh hey there. So it’s been a few months since I’ve posted – grad school kicked my butt for 16 weeks straight. After which I went almost immediately to London for a summer class on libraries and archives in the United Kingdom. I spent two glorious weeks in “class,” if one can call attending tours of libraries, museums, and archives (with supplementary lectures and biscuits!) class. Yet the library gods have deemed it credit-worthy, and I am certainly not complaining.

Besides getting credit for drinking cider and visiting awesome libraries, I was of course thrilled to be in England for literary reasons. It’s the land of Shakespeare and Austen, Phillip Pullman and JK Rowling. London permeates the texts I’ve read throughout my life, and even the streets are filled with constant reminders of literature. Metal placards are placed casually on the sides of buildings, proclaiming my favorite authors lived and worked around me. Yeats worked in a house around the corner from my hotel, which is now a shop of some kind. Freaking Yeats! Walking around London was this weird collision of fiction, history, and the present, and I’ve tried to articulate some of my favorite/nerdiest moments below. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , ,

BookExpo America: Cassie-la’s BEA 2012 Wrap Up

8 Jun

BookExpo America is a four day event in New York City celebrating all things bookish. From physical books to digital publishing, the conference unveils the hottest titles for the fall, and is the biggest book trade fair in the United States. The event is open to industry professionals like bloggers, book retailers, librarians, and the press and is the go to place for ARCs (advanced reader copies), getting author autographs, and meeting tons of contacts in the book publishing world. Networking and book appreciation is what makes BEA so wonderful and exciting, you will never find yourself in such a literary centered environment. Reading isn’t weird at BEA, it’s recommended.

Besides getting to meet authors, network, and connect with fellow book enthusiasts, BEA is all about the swag. In the two days that I walked the floors of the Javits Center, I picked up 12 books, 3 totes, 2 pins, 1 wand, 2 preview samples, and 1 attache case. Unlike some other BEAers, I was very selective with what I picked up. Not only did I not want to drag too many books around with me, but I didn’t want to take books home that I would never read. Especially if other book lovers really wanted that book which held no interest to me. It’s surprising how people are so willing to just grab books willy nilly that they will most likely never read.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

We’re All Going to Die: Kelly Covers the 2012 Tour de Nerdfighting

13 Jan

Who: John and Hank Green
Where: Symphony Space, NYC
When: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Why: To promote his new, shiny novel The Fault in Our Stars, John Green is travelling around America in a van. Well, all the non-snowy parts of America. And the van is huge and emblazoned with his name (with Hank’s much smaller underneath – younger siblings always get second billing!). Essentially, they’re like rockstars… but smart, and with sock puppets and modest costume changes.

We of course had to be there. Sadly, Cassie-wa was unable to attend (since she has that pesky thing called a job) so I brought my younger sister Breanna along. All Vlogbrother fans, we were thrilled to see them (and also happy that John was not in an Orlando hospital, à la LeakyCon). The very boisterous crowd was filled with many teens wearing varied nerdfighteria gear, fezzes, and Harry Potter colors. We had our signed copies of TFIOS (each with a Hanklerfish!) in hand, programs out, and cameras at the ready. The curtain was drawn up, revealing a puppet stage, out of which emerged an arm covered with a bespectacled argyle sock. The New York stop of the Tour de Nerdfighting had officially begun.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

No Clever Titles, Just Awe: Kelly Sees Joan Didion Speak at the New York Public Library

24 Nov

Who: Joan Didion
Where: New York Public Library
When: Monday, November 21, 2011
Why: Recounting my last literary adventure, I wrote of how David Sedaris piqued my interest in creative nonfiction. Once you enter that genre, it doesn’t take long to run into Joan Didion. Her work is mountainous – talked about with reverence by writers, recommended constantly by those who’ve read her. The essay topics range from politics to migraines to waiting for Jim Morrison to show up at the recording studio in the ‘60s. There is wry humor and details that make the pieces pop and perfect pacing and endless superlatives that I could lay at her insanely talented feet. But when I think of Joan Didion’s writing – I think of her writing. She wields words with a surgeon’s precision. Or maybe she’s more of a magician – getting the reader to look one way and then realize we’ve been led the entire time.

Magician, surgeon, whatever metaphor you want – she is one of the most brilliant writers alive and I was beyond thrilled to see her speak at the New York Public Library. Interviewed by Sloane Crosley, a young humor essayist, Didion was witty, honest, thoughtful, sometimes abrupt, and a total badass.

Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

Authorial Adventures: David Sedaris in Morristown

21 Oct

Who: David Sedaris
Where: Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ
When: Thursday, October 13, 2011
Why: David Sedaris is like a gateway drug into the world of creative nonfiction. I was sucked in by Holidays on Ice, a collection of essays about the joys of the holiday season. For how could you not love the grown man who works as a Macy’s elf, and, bored with his job, makes up lies like “Step on the Magic Star and you can see Cher!”? Or that bad children no longer get coal; no, Santa “comes to your house and steals things.” While Holidays got me hooked, my favorite collection is Me Talk Pretty One Day, with stories focusing on communication. And learning how to say things in French like “you now need to deliver the afterbirth.”

Naturally, when Mr. Sedaris was speaking in Morristown, I jumped at the chance to see him.

Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

LeakyCon 2011: Day Two

21 Jul

The main event on Day 2 of LeakyCon was the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. We did not go see it. Mostly because, as we’ve mentioned time and time again, we do not like the Harry Potter movies. We admitted this to Scott Westerfeld when we ran into him the morning of the movie release (“Have you guys seen Maureen?” he asked when he saw us, as if we would know) and he replied, “Good for you!”

So we haven’t seen the movie yet, but what was cool was that LeakyCon got some special privilege to allow everyone at the convention to see the movie at 6:00PM despite the fact it wasn’t released elsewhere until midnight. We say this was cool for everyone else, and also cool for us because all the lines in the hotel magically (ba-dum-pum) disappeared. The line to pick up movie tickets was probably the longest at LeakyCon–which is saying something! Following the LeakyCon Twitter feed was an emotional experience in itself. Several people decided that “SobbyCon” was a fitting new name. The ever-evil Maureen Johnson even tweeted a pic of John Green trying to cover his tears. Note to self – never show weakness around MJ. For us, of course, “SnarkyCon” may have been a better choice.

However, there were some awesome shenanigans during the day. We were treated to two AMAZING performances – Potion Master’s Corner followed by Potter Puppet Pals on the main stage. That’s right – we went to a place where the internet is real!!

Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

LeakyCon 2011: Day One, Lit Day

19 Jul

As you probably know from reading our numerous posts on the genre, we are all HUGE YA fans, so we were super stoked when we heard that this year LeakyCon would be holding its first Lit Day. Hopefully it won’t be the last! It was run/moderated by YA author Maureen Johnson and featured herself and fellow authors like Scott Westerfeld, John Green, Stephanie Perkins, Robin Wasserman, David Levithan, and Libba Bray, as well as publishers and agents such as Barry Goldblatt, Jennifer Laughran, and Julie Strauss-Gabel.

Best day ever, right?? Yes. But surprisingly enough, the day started off rather poorly.  We rolled down to the convention floor at 7:30am, fully costumed as hipster wizards (complete with Harry Potter themed PBR cans), but even our disaffected hipster sneers couldn’t handle the complete chaos that was registration. We waited in line for roughly 90 minutes and moved forward about five feet. A “this is poorly organized” chant was needed, but it was far too early and there was far too little caffeine in our blood. The day was looking bleak. It began to look bleaker when the staffers decided to dissemble the lines and call out everyone’s names instead, especially because they seemed to misplace large chunks of the alphabet.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,207 other followers