queensthief | London!

emerald-happy.livejournal.com posting in

Sunday was the long-awaited meeting of rowana penguinkye Penguin's mom,gauroth, her daughter, hebe0 emmaco me and of course, Megan Whalen Turner. It was an amazingly awesome day.

In sneakiness worthy of Gen we quickly stole the big purple armchairs in Starbucks and set up a small shrine of books. Rowana poked everyone for intelligent questions. I was quite nervous and kept exchanging awed looks and idiotic grins with Guin of the Pen. But Megan was lovely and so interesting and funny to talk to and it was great to meet up with so many other Sounisians. I promised Megan that we would all meet up again and throw her a party.

Megan complimented sounis on being one of the largest and most active fan groups on the internet. She was amused how many sounis introduction posts begin with “HOMG I LOVE YOUR BOOKS!” and then “But no one else I know has read them!” Her mom and her mom’s best friend would phone up Borders and order her books, but they knew who she was and that she’d order more a week later so they brought lots in. When someone else Megan knew tried to get copies directly, they were told that they had all sold out on the East Coast!

We then talked about booksellers ripping off Canadians and taxes on books (with helpful insights from Penguin’s mom and Emma telling us how books in Australia are more expensive but you can get a wider variety of American AND British books.) Penguin’s mom and Megan talked about the original Borders where the Borders brothers worked and used to find books for everyone and how employees had to pass a strict test to work there but now it’s global, that doesn’t happen.

Megan said that she went to Hampton Court with her kids and in the maze she heard parents calling their kids names. They had cute names like “Lucy” and “Charles” as opposed to “Britney” and “Tiffany”. Penguin gave an amusing impression of elderly Britneys and Tiffanys in an old folks home, and added that Belfast also had adorable children. Apparently, there were two kids who were going to be called Peanuts and Popcorn but got called Cathy and Kitty instead. (Not short for anything.)

She is going to St Pauls soon because of Joan Aiken’s books, which Megan read when she was ten. Apparently, they each had an unbelievable, wacky plot aspect such as a really long gun that shoots across the Atlantic or putting St. Pauls on rollers and rolling it into the Thames. Until she read the latter, Megan wasn’t bothered that the books were unbelievable. I volunteered to try putting St. Pauls on millions of roller skates because I am crazy. Penguin was up for it too. *high fives*

We talked about snow days and cold days in the U.S and how children used to walk to school, but now get a bus. Megan was amused that she only got one visitor a year in Chicago but 11 in North Carolina. There so could have been 12, y’know… ;-)

Hebe mentioned how one branch of her family tree had many Marys and James and it got veeery confusing because there was even a widow called Mary and a widower called James who married. Megan said, humorously thoughtful to Hebe “Wait…and did he just marry his aunt…?” She said how people forged documents to become a Daughter of the Revolution and how it’s silly because they all had so many kids and so many grandchildren and great grandchildren that it must apply to pretty much everyone.

The book covers: she loves the Instead of Three Wishes with the little pictures even though they are inaccurate. She adores the new KoA, although laughed at the new The Thief cover: “Please, how did he get that in his hair!” – meaning the huge Hamiathes gift in the picture. She does love them though because of the elegant details. The Brit covers aren’t being printed anymore because the new ones have been so successful.

The ugly Hephestia cover came about because Megan asked that the main character not go on the cover. Hence people thought it was Jesus and was a biblical story.

Apparently IOTW was first published by Sharyn and then got bought by Troll, which is a school bookclub thingy.

She mentioned the Shannon Hale interview via email and how she gets so many fifth graders bluffing. This boy called K--- had written her such a letter so she phoned up his school principal and said who she was and explained it was okay if K--- didn’t like the book. She’s a really good anecdote teller – did the telephone actions and everything.

MWT: It’s Megan Whalen Turner here. I just got an email from K--- and… *slowly* he doesn’t seem to have read the book. It’s okay y’know…

Principal: *silence*

MWT: Is he struggling?

Principal: *quickly* No, K--- is not struggling. *more silence*

Megan could tell by the silences that K--- was going to be in so much trouble.

She means to update her website (since being poked about it by Checkers) and post the letter from K--- with the names/address cut out and say this is how NOT to write a fan letter. Like a good Bagelhead, I offered the help of sounis to write a good example. She wishes people would say what they thought, unlike in the fan letter writing competition Peggy told her about.

Cue for the evil Bagelhead to mention Bear and the famous purple ink. Megan recognised the handwriting from the first letter of Bear’s and that’s how she knew the second was from Bear. “déjà-vu” she said, adding, “I think Bear reads the first book and reads the third book and pretends that QoA doesn't exist. Or that it was all a bad dream.”

Megan only got into reading the Lymond books because she needed a long book to read when she was snowed in in Alaska. She got a lot of her DWJ books discarded from libraries. She likes the old covers from the 1970s rather than the very bright new covers, especially, as Hebe mentioned, Conrad’s Fate.

Just as she was about to leave she asked us what we thought about Philip Pullman: “The books, the person, anything.” Her thought was that the sudden fuss about the books was mainly because it was directed towards Harry Potter earlier, even though HDM had been around for a while but since they were harder to read than Harry Potter, they got less slating until the movie made the storyline/themes/plot/everything easier to take in.

And now the crazy details…

Checkers is an excellent BNF, and hence why she is Checkers Malone forever more. I showed her Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb and Megan burst out laughing and was really surprised to see it a continent away and two months later. Nice one, Ro and Super Check.

The first time Penguin spoke to her, Penguin was very calm but also mentioned Hero Worship several times and I understood exactly what she felt. Penguin and I had several giggling fits and Megan asked us what was funny and we just laughed loooads.

I was the first one who saw her. We had got a table of big purple armchairs and I was watching the staircase and she came and I smiled and waved. Me and Emma both jumped up to offer her seats and we offered to get her coffee but I promptly forgot what she wanted, but Emma remembered and went to get it.

Megan had silver earrings, with amber set in them. Studs with an olive leaf shape hanging from them. Her socks were black with red hearts.

One of the first things she did was say “You’re Em!? Have you brought Sophos and Eddis?” and I babbled “yes, yes! They’re here!” and she gave me a hug off Sharyn and I was like HOMG I’VE HUGGED MEGAN AND SHARYN. She loved the dolls and can’t wait to see a Relius one. She thought I was guilt tripping her by giving them to her. I was NOT. She emailed me later to say she had forgotten to repay Emma for the latte and I joked it was all the same plot.

When we took photos, Megan took ones of me and Penguin about 5 times but I always blink with the flash, something which I get twitted about a lot. I explained I had my yearbook photo taken 30 times and that nothing short of no flash was going to do it.

There were several Vivian Van Velde books Megan liked (yes, I know what you’re thinking), but I can’t remember which ones.

Then there was this exchange:

Me: Does the Magus have a name?

MWT: Yes, he does

Me: Can you tell us what it is?

Everyone else: *giggles*

MWT: Noooo *funny look*

Me: *bashful look*

Later I realised that funny look was actually a super quick Gen-esque raised eyebrow. He's probably called Lucy or Tiffany, y'know.

She signed our books. Ro’s win the Best Loved Book Competition – or maybe not – they really need sellotape, bless. Apparently, Megan’s Sutcliff copies are just as battered.

She voluntarily – no one mentioned it – tried on a red beard, one of which Hebe made and fastened it to the back of her bag when she left before any of us could even think of saying “DO EEEET” like Bear. They were very suited to Nahuseresh. We had lots of fun, trying them on, and taking photos. Everyone looked great. In the words of Peggy: “Score!” *applauds Hebe*

Megan’s happy not to be a member of sounis so that we could say nice things about next book on unlocked sounis posts, then write “See locked post” for ranting about the elephants and dancing bears. She loves the readaloud which Checkers sent her.

After 2 hours, 10 min of talking, she went back to her family in the BM. I promised the cookies wouldn’t turn them into dragons or anything. Before she crossed the road I remembered to ask “Jade would like to know Relius’s age for fanfic.” She smiled and said she would look forward to the doll but wouldn’t tell. Then she crossed the road and we prayed out loud she wouldn’t get run over. I yelled belatedly and idiotically, “Don’t get run over, Megan!”

So we headed off in search of food and found a Greek restaurant. I forgot to try balance olives on my nose.

Oh, and the moral of the story: books rule.

Current Mood: weird

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

gauroth.livejournal.com

That's a lovely write-up! I (and Sacha) had a wonderful time. It was great to meet everyone and talk books: I have never met so many people in the same place who like to read what I like to read. Books definitely rule!

From:

sandtree.livejournal.com

London AND meeting MWT? You lucky ducks! :P

From:

emerald-happy.livejournal.com

*quacks accordingly*

From:

peggy-2.livejournal.com

Great write-up, Em! Thanks for so many details!

What an awesome meet-up :D

(btw - did anyone check to see if Megan's socks matched?)

From:

emerald-happy.livejournal.com

they did. though Emma won the coolest socks award

and Gen

London!

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