Authorlink with Heather Clark & Jennifer A. Nielsen

My library is renown for their author events, and the pandemic ruined my chances of meeting many authors. BUT! Author events are back!! My friends and I had the pleasure of attending a launch party for Lemon Drop Falls. It is Heather's debut book, and it sounds lovely. Jen was there to help introduce Heather and talk about the book. They also talked a little bit about Jen's upcoming book.  

What I took from the event:

-  Books are important. They are powerful. They change lives. 

-  There are books that are windows that let us look into other people's lives, and there are books that are mirrors that reflect who we are and our lives. We need both! Window books and mirror books are equally important. 

-  When bad things happen, it gives us the ability to change. We can pick up the pieces and become something amazing. Others need to hear our stories. We can help each other.

-  It is never too late to accomplish your dreams and goals. No more excuses, just do it.

Heather's book is about a personal experience. She went through some health problems and almost died. It was very hard on her family. They couldn't afford therapy, so one of her daughters talked to a school counselor. At first her daughter wouldn't talk about her feelings, but the counselor gave her a lemon drop and said that talking about your feelings is like a lemon drop. You must "brave the sour to taste the sweet." Talking about our feelings is hard, but once we start, it is a sweet and relieving experience. Heather's daughter was able to open up and she had a wonderful experience with her school counselor. 

Lemon Drop Falls is about a girl who loses her mom, and the struggles she has to go through because of it. Heather said that the mom in the book is very different from her, but her story is based on her own. 

The book sounds amazing and healing. Jen said the book is beautiful and does an amazing job at giving children permission to talk about their feelings.

We got to meet both authors and get books signed. These authors are remarkable people, and they are so giving. I told Heather that I'm trying to work on communication with my 12 year old daughter. I said that I thought her book would help. Heather took the lemon necklace from around her neck and gave it me. She said to give it to my daughter. She also made sure I got some lemon drops from the swag table to give to Gnome. 

Gnome was so excited about the necklace. She loves it, and I hope it is something she remembers forever. 

It was an amazing night! #BooksChangeLives

Sara B. Larson Author Event

A couple weeks ago, my friends and I went to an author event! It has been a long time, and it was fun to get back to doing what we love.

Sara was at the Provo Library with Erin Summerill to talk about Sara's new book.

Erin played a few rounds of Truth or Dare with Sara. It was awesome! During the truths, Sara talked about her difficult pregnancy, and how her baby and book were taking all her brain power. She also talked about how social media has changed writing for her. She wants to get back to writing for her, and not for critics and fans.

The dares were hilarious!

The first dare was to act out animals from her book. She got on the floor and made noises.

The second dare was for Sara to act out a scene in her book with her fingers. I got a video of this, but it won't upload.

During the Q & A, Erin incouraged dares, and I dared Sara to do some moves from Swan Lake, we got some Dirty Dancing instead.

 Here is Sara and Erin signing our books.

For some reason, I can't find the picture with us and the authors. Oh well!

It was fun night!

Kathryn Purdie

Kathryn Purdie was at the Provo Library last Tuesday! It was the launch party for her debut book, Burning Glass.

She had SO much energy, and I don't know if it was from excitement or nerves or both. She kept getting distracted from saying hi to random people she knew in the audience. She had a pretty big crowd at the library! I was really shocked for a debut book. She has lots of friends and family members.

Here are a few things Kathryn talked about:

-    Kathryn wanted to be an actress. She has been in a ton of plays, and she thought she would be doing that the rest of her life.

-    She donated a kidney to her brother Matt. It took 3 years before the doctors would let her donate even though she was a perfect match. There was a lot of medical and technical stuff to deal with.

-    Kathryn is an avid and dedicated journal writer. She has filled a lot of journals!

-    The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is the book that inspired her to write.

-    After several rejected books, Kathryn decided to write about and empath. While she was recovering from donating her kidney, she became very in tune with other's feelings. She talked to her uncle about how she was feeling and he told her to write a book about an empath.

-    Burning Glass flowed from her. This story felt different, and there was no resistance in writing it. 

 I got a fuzzy picture of Kathryn signing a book.

Here is me and my group of friends with the author!

Lindsey Leavitt

On Wednesday, I went to see Lindsey Leavitt with my friends!

Here is Jayne, Tori, and Suey

Me and Jenny

Lindsey was at the Provo Library promoting her new book The Pages Between Us. She did a good job promoting it cause I wasn't going to buy a book that night, but I ended up buy it anyway. I also bought a copy of Sean Griswald's Head! I'm such a sucker!

Erica introduced the author.

Lindsey was really funny and energetic. She knows how to win over a crowd.

Since Lindsey co-wrote the book with Robin Mellom, Lindsey called up Robin and they did most of the presentation together. Lindsey held the mic to her phone so we could hear Robin. She was on a train to LA.

Some things Lindsey and Robin talked about:

-    The book is written notebook style. The two main characters write notes to each other in a notebook.

-    Lindsey and Robin emailed the story back and forth. They each wrote for one of the MCs, and they wrote back and forth like they were writing in the notebook.

-    The whole book took about 4 months to write.

-    The project was supposed to be a secret, but Robin let it slip to her agent.

-    The book got a lot of interest, so it went to auction. They chose to have it published by Harper because Harper was the one that would produce the book the way Lindsey and Robin wanted it.

-    The book is very visual with notes and lists and stuff. Lindsey and Robin are very pleased with how it turned out.

This is Lindsey signing her books with her daughter on her lap. Her daughter broke her arm, and she wasn't feeling good.

Here is our group picture with the author. The person who took our picture didn't zoom in. Grr!

Jayne and Jenny ditched us, but the rest of us kept tradition by going to JCWs for yummy food!

It was a fun night!

Ally Carter

On Monday, I went to The King's English with Suey, Tori, and Jenni to see Ally Carter. She was promoting her newest Embassy Row book.

 

I haven't read the Embassy Row or Heist Society books, but I've read all of the Gallagher Girl books, and I enjoyed them.

Here is me and the gang!

Here is Ally giving her spiel. It was short and sweet, and she answered questions for most of the time. It was cool. She talks fast, but you can understand everything she is saying. She was really hilarious and highly entertaining. She had everyone laughing and smiling the whole time. She also had a fun Oklahoma accent that just made her more endearing. It was a fun event!

Here are some things she talked about:

 -    When she got the idea for her first Embassy Row book, she brainstormed the plot out with Holly Black.

-    She has always wanted to write a story about teens that live on Embassy Row. She was intrigued by kids having to grow up on a street with different languages, different culture, where everyone has diplomatic immunity, etc.

-    When asked who her favorite couple from her books was, she replied with Mr. Solomon and her. She would really like that. Ha!

-    The 10 year anniversary of the Gallagher Girl books is coming up, and they are getting new covers! Ally is in the middle of writing epilogues to add to each book. They will be from a different perspective than Cammie's. 

-    The hardest book she has had to write is Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. She still had her day job at that point, and she had to write late into the night and into the morning. She talked about how hard it is to write a sequel. She wrote 3 completely different plots for that book. She kept saying how that book almost killed her.

-    Ally's advice for aspiring writers is to write! Don't be afraid of bad words. She related writing to an old hose. You have to let the water run to get the dirty water out.

-    She doesn't do a lot of research for her books. She makes up most of the gadgets and names them herself.

-    Ally loves to read historical romances. She thinks they aren't that different from what she writes.

Here is Ally signing books! She was so kind and talked to everyone in line.

Group photo with the author!

It was such a fun event! Thanks King's English!

Valynne's Launch Party

I'm still behind on posts! It just never ends! I need help!

A while ago I attended Valynne's launch party for Ink and Ashes.

She had a great presentation and wore an awesome Kimono!

Things she touched on in her presentation (I actually took notes this time!):

-    Valynne wrote the book for her younger sister a long time ago. She wanted to give her sister a book with a character she could relate to.

-    The characters in the book were named after Valynne's sister's best friends.

-    Valynne didn't know how to write a mystery, so she bought a book on how to write a mystery after she won the New Visions Award.

-    She talked about how authors are very aware of their weaknesses, and they are glaring them in the face during the writing process.

-    Since she won the award, she had a lot of say in the cover. She even got the New Visions Award emblem changed.

It was a great presentation, and Valynne spoke from the heart. She feels very strongly about a lot of things, and it was nice to hear her speak so passionately about her opinions.

Valynne signing my book!

Jenni, Jenny, Valynne, Suey, and me! We finally got a picture that isn't blurry!!

Bree and Katherine

I always forget to blog about going to author events! I need to be better about that.

On May 9th, I went to Bree Despain's launch party for The Eternity Key.

She calls this series The Little Series That Could because there has been so much opposition, but the series WILL be finished! It has been quite a journey for Bree, and I admire her for her diligence and determination to get this series published. I also admire her for loving her books so much that she would have rather seen the series die than put crap into her reader's hands.

Although she doesn't like to do it, Bree did a reading for us.

Jenni, Tori, and Suey were there too!

Bree signing the book!

She also had these cool Cupid's Arrow rings. Each color meant different things. I chose black which was anti-love.

A blurry picture of all of us 

On May 15, Jenni and I went to the Provo Library to see Katherine Applegate.

Here is Gene introducing the author:

Katherine had a great presentation. She told us the story of the real Ivan, and I was trying not to cry. She also told us about the book and the journey it took to being published.

I loved this picture! This is Katherine in her bed, in her pjs, with a notebook, and a TON of crumpled up pieces of paper. She said this is what an author looks like. Writing is process and it can be hard at times.

I bought the non-fiction picture book of the real story of Ivan for my daughter. Here is Katherine signing it.

This is the author signing The One and Only Ivan.

Another blurry picture with an author.

My new goal for the future is to bring a notebook and take notes and stuff during author events, and then I'll have info for blog posts!! I also try to put these up shortly after the event.

Ransom Riggs

On Wednesday, Jenni, Suey, Toto, and I saw/met Ransom Riggs!

It was a very short event, but it was still fun.

Mr. Riggs was on a tight schedule, so he did some signings before and after his presentation. I think they should always do this. It was awesome to be able to leave right away and skip the craziness afterwards.

Here is Suey and Toto smiling and meeting the author.

 Signing the book

Here is Jenni meeting Mr. Riggs.

His presentation was short and sweet, and so were his answers to a lot of the questions.

He was very funny and charming that way.

He talked about how he found old pictures interesting and started collecting them.

He approached his peeps and said it would be could to write a book about some of these old pictures.

Ransom Riggs is his real name.

He couldn't say much about the movie, but he hopes it is good.

After his stop in Utah, he was going to watch some of the movie being filmed.

He talked about how book people are much happier and nicer than movie people.

He is a very good friend of John Green.

Any deep meanings or symbols in his books were unintentional, but he thinks it's cool.

His next book is coming out this fall. It is the third and last in the Peculiar Children series.

The movie is coming out next spring.

I think that covers the bulk of what he talked about. 

It was so cool to meet this author. I love his books, and I'm SO stoked that Tim Burton is making the movie!

Marissa and Courtney

Right before comic con Suey, Jenni, Tori, and I went to see Marissa Meyer at The King's English. She was on tour for her newest book Fairest.

She was really fun. She was so happy and full of energy.

She read an excerpt from Winter! That was creepy and awesome!

She talked about her inspiration for Fairest and how she had to write Levana story before she could finish Winter.

She talked about inspirations for different characters.

Me and Marissa! She had this really cool backdrop.

We went to Noodles & Company afterwards for some tasty food!

 Last week was Courtney's launch party for Shutter!!! I was so excited! I've been waiting for this for years!

Courtney wore this super cute outfit, complete with zombie skirt.

She had an amazing presentation!

She talked about book godfathers aka books that have influenced her life and writing.

She showed a clip of Van Helsing.

She talked about 15 year old Courtney.

She talked about meshing different genres together.

She talked about a lot of things only a highly intelligent individual like her would know about. It was cool.

Signing my book!

Behind Courtney starting on the left is Me, Jenny, Jenni, Suey, and Toto.

Afterwards, we wen to JCWs for some grub!

We haven't been here for a while, and it was good to be back. We used to go weekly.

Upcoming Events:

Ransom Riggs

February 25

The King's English @ 7:00

Jennifer A. Nielson

February 28

Provo Library @ 4:00

If any of you would like to come with us, let us know! We'll save you a seat, and you can dine with us afterwards!