Of ThiefCon Chicago (the continuing story...)

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

So I posted the pictures, and now here's the words to go with 'em.



The where/when/what:

Anderson's Bookshop
Naperville, IL

Wednesday, August 8, 2012 (7:00pm)

Meet & Greet/Book-signing with Megan Whalen Turner!

Sounisians present: freenarnian (me), ladraove (of the great smile and epic brown scrubs!) and lurker Priya (we love lurkers... used to be one myself...) Chime in if you were there and I missed you!

I'd say approx 20 people were there, including my party of 9, though I didn't do an official headcount.

Before I get started, allow me this one disclaimer: I'm recording this all from memory, a week after the fact, with the help of my friends' recollections. Someday, I will learn to take notes! Until then, this account is patchy at best. (Again, if you were there and remember something I left out, chime in!) Also, I sat myself down and gave some thought to whether there was anything I should omit, knowing how Megan likes to be mysterious keep a low internet profile... and really, I couldn't think of anything. Everyone there seemed aware (or possibly scared) of the Not Telling policy. :)

So, so, so:

My friends and I arrived at the bookshop at precisely 7:00, after an hour and then some in traffic (but we knew it would be worth it). I was wandering toward the back of the store, looking for the seating area, when a lovely face in one of the aisles turned towards me and... I realized I was looking at the author herself! I'm pretty sure I startled her for a moment with my outburst of "HI!! I'M FREENARNIAN FROM SOUNIS AND YOU'RE MEGAN WHALEN TURNER BUT YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY AND HERE ARE ALL OF MY FRIENDS TOO!" (Sorry, Megan!) Then I went back to being my somewhat shy self while Megan greeted everyone and everyone grinned and blinked back at her in a state of happy shock. Then she excused herself, as she was on an errand to collect some books to discuss during her talk, and we filled the extra two rows of chairs the store kindly brought out for us (way to double demand, yo). (Actually, we raided the YA section first, to pick up various copies of her books... and ran into her again... I promise we weren't stalking... and my favorite moment of the evening was when she took the copy of Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith that I was showing to my friends. There was a time, before we all discovered MWT's books, when Crown Duel was the It Book amongst us, and it's always fun when you meet someone else who likes it, especially when that someone is MWT! Anyway, moving on...)

Books Megan talked about (the ones I remember):

- Eragon by Christopher Paolini
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
- The Floating Islands - Rachel Neumeier
- The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones (and another... I think it may have been Dark Lord of Derkholm)
- Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith
- Shiver, Lament, and Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
- White Cat - Holly Black
- Kiki Strike - Kristen Miller
- Girl of Fire & Thorns - Rae Carson

She mentioned the amount of book recommending that goes on here at Sounis, and how similar our tastes tend to run... with exceptions like Eragon vs. Twilight. Apparently there's a divide... her readers tend to like one or the other, but not both. (I guess I would fall somewhat awkwardly into the Eragon camp.) She had nice things to say about both, however: She looks forward to seeing what Paolini writes now that he's finished with the Inheritance Cycle, and Meyer writes purple prose really, really, really well. ;) (Insert funny story here, in which she was stuck alone in a hotel room with Twilight and decided to read it.)

She was full of praise for Jones, Smith, Miller, and Stiefvater, but said she liked Stiefvater's Lament and Ballad better than the Shiver trilogy. I've forgotten the exact reason she gave, but I remember her saying something about liking the sarcastic kid who plays the bagpipes. (It's been a while since I read Lament but I remember liking him too!) I didn't get a chance to ask her if she'd read The Scorpio Races... it's by far my favorite book by Stiefvater. Just sayin'.

She hadn't finished reading The Floating Islands but said it reminded her of Patricia McKillip's earlier novels, and she liked it so far.

She went on to say some great things about so-called "boy books" vs. "girl books" and why it's silly to place books so rigidly in one category or the other. Everyone knows that girls read "boy books". And from MWT's experience raising sons, she knows boys will read certain kinds of "girl books". She gave Kiki Strike as an example of a book her son loved, whereas "he wouldn't touch Girl of Fire & Thorns with a ten-foot pole". A lot of it has to do with how confident the female protagonist is, how exciting the story is, vs. how sappy/emotional/angsty it is.

When she finished her talk, we were assigned numbers which were then drawn from (a hat? bowl? mug? round-ish object?) in exchange for shiny foreign additions! I got The Thief in Japanese! (Yuuuuss!)

After that she took questions, and that's when I really wished I had brought a notepad and pen for jotting down the details of her answers (which were wonderfully insightful and/or detailed).
- Someone asked her about her experience of living in Norway. She talked about how unfailingly polite the people in Norway are, and how this effects the cultural atmosphere. She also talked about their traditional fairy tales, and the common theme of being polite, good, kind, etc., instead of being the "ash lad", so-called because he sits idly and pokes at the fire. She retold the tale of a boy who leaves home to make his way in the world. In the first village he comes to he discovers a dead man encased in a pillar of ice, and entreats the people in the village to give the man a proper burial. This being done, he embarks on whatever quest (saving the princess, or some such) and is helped three times by a clever fox. At the end of the tale, the fox turns out to be the spirit of the dead man, repaying the boy for his good deed.
- Someone asked her if she thinks travel is good for writers... the short answer was "Yes".
- I asked her if there was anything about the writing/publishing process she wished she'd known when she first started out (when she was doing the "writing exercises" that eventually became Instead of Three Wishes.) The short answer: "No." I guess that shows me! ;P She did lament/joke about wishing she wrote faster...but, she has good reasons for taking her time. For example: "I have three children who might survive to adulthood!" Everyone got a good laugh out of that!
- My friend asked her about methods of introducing young children to books, and she replied with her own experience as the youngest child in her family, having the adults play audiobooks for her. (This struck a chord with me, as I wasn't interested in reading until I heard the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre adaption of Prince Caspian when I was like, 10 or 11, during a roadtrip in my friend's car. So yay for audiobooks!) She also talked about reading being a private experience, and letting young readers be alone with their books. I thought it was a great answer!
- Surprisingly, no major questions about the Queen's Thief series or her future books were asked!

I'm sure there were more questions... but I'm not recalling them at this time.

And then we got in line to have our books signed and pictures taken before the bookstore closed... and all in all, it was a great event with a truly kind, witty, intelligent author and everyone enjoyed it! Thanks again, Megan, for taking the time to meet up with your Chicago-area admirers! Let's do it again sometime! :) (You may even get more earrings out of it!) (Whut? Me? Bribing Megan? Nooo...)



And hey, did anyone go to LeakyCon and see Megan there? If so, please tell us about it!

Comments

[ilonaotus.livejournal.com]

Eeee, sounds absolutely wonderful!

Do you remember what she said about the Tough Guide To Fantasyland and Dark Lord of Derkholm? I absolutely love Diana Wynne Jones' books and The Dark Lord of Derkholm is one of my favourites and the Tough Guide to Fantasyland is always a delightful read. :D

[ladraove.livejournal.com]

If I may chime in here...my only recollection of what was said regarding those two books was that Tough Guide to Fantasyland picked apart and made fun of every fantasy cliche/trope in the book, and then Dark Lord of Derkholm took a lot of the previously mentioned elements and subverts them quite well in an awesome book. I wish I could recall more but I do know that whatever it was that was said made me put both of them on my to-read list!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

What she said. =D (I was assembling a much hazier, less eloquent response in my head, until I saw you'd answered already! Yay!)

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you guys had a fantastic time. Too bad I live all the way in Canada or I would so be there the next time. Oh well, maybe someday.

That's interesting that a lot of readers will like either Eragon or Twilight, but no both. I wonder why?

[xoxeskel.livejournal.com]

My guess: different genres. Eragon is high fantasy, right? I feel like high fantasy is one of those things that you either love or you hate.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me that the Queen's Thief fandom would find a home among many different types of readers, because it kind of defies the normal genre divisions. Readers like it because it's Good, not because it's more of a particular kind of All Right.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I was going to say, 'maybe because readers can only defend one inane series at a time...?' But before anyone beats me over the head with their favorite inane book: I jest! I read all of Paolini's books and liked them well enough for what they were, even if I point and laugh at them sometimes (and to be honest, I'm insanely jealous that he wrote and published Eragon when he was 15). Whereas I'm in no position to remark on Twilight, because I haven't read it. So. :)

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

Meyer writes purple prose really, really, really well I laughed really hard at this.

Also, I've read all the books she mentioned! That's a first for me! And The Floating Islands is fantastic; Rachel Neumeier is amazing.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I'm very intrigued by The Floating Islands! Thanks for the second recommendation!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Gosh, it sounds like so much fun. Thanks for the update, freenarnian ! It's great to hear the details.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

My pleasure.

[qwentoozla]

Thanks for the report! It sounds like you had fun!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I did indeed. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds like all flavors of awesomeness.

I just have to say that I'm gobsmacked that Eragon and Twilight were even in the running when MWT was in the room - I could barely keep my eyes open during the first Eragon book (it felt like Lord of the Rings Lite, or like someone who's been homeschooled and raised on a rich diet of truly good fantasy but hasn't yet developed a style that isn't plagiaristic) and the Twilight series were hilariously flawed (like, what does Bella love Edward for, other than his flawless nose? And why is the main character such an insult to intelligent and proactive women everywhere? And why can't I seem to make heads or tails of why characters say what they say in response to each other? Most of all, why am I wasting time on this? and other questions of equally frustrating nature), though entertaining in a I-need-a-book-in-the-ladies'-to-keep-me-occupied sort of way.

Whereas MWT is beyond the exquisite heights of awesomeness, and every time I reread it I find deeper layers... I give workshops on writing and literacy in schools on the East Coast, and often take my MWT for certain interactive exercises with my groups. I think I'd bring along Twilight or Eragon only if I needed a stepstool behind the podium.

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting!! It sounds like you guys had a great time, and I love reading about people who had the chance to see their favorite authors =)

What is very strange is that the more I read about MWT's reading interests, the more perplexed I am that I ever fell in love with her books. I mean, don't get me wrong--they're awesome and my favorite and Megan's awesome etc, etc, but aside from a love of Diana Wynne Jones, we have really different reading tastes. For example, she said she liked Lament and Ballad better than Shiver, but I loved Shiver and couldn't even get past 30 pages of Lament, I thought it was that bad. And then in a previous post many moons ago, she talked about how she didn't love fairy tales when she was younger, but I devoured those things. I suppose I shouldn't just assume that a favorite author madly loves the same books, but it's just a bit funny how things turn out. =)

[(Anonymous)]

Um, hi. This is a bit late, but I did attend Leakycon, so assuming you guys are still interested, I'm just going to write what I remember. Some of it might be a repeat of what you already know.

There was a panel that was a conversation between MWT and Holly Black. Holly Black pretty much just interviewed MWT the whole time, with a few audience questions sprinkled in. Holly/someone asked about geography and setting, and MWT talked about traveling, and about how she didn't want to set the book in Middle Earth, but everything looks like Middle Earth, and everything that doesn't takes ages to describe, and she didn't want to spend pages familiarizing readers with landforms. But when she visited Greece, it was familiar to people, but not Middle Earth and a great fit. They also talked a bit about first person viewpoints, and how there was always an obligatory, "get the character in front of a mirror" scene. She also didn't want to do that (cue: I did everything wrong! joke). Holly talked about Ally Carter, and how her books were cons, and asked mwt point-blank whether she would consider her books to be a con. A lot of waffling, but a firm no. "I give you all the information you need, it's right there in the text. I don't lie. I don't trick the reader or give misinformation, I just like to play with general assumptions readers make." Which is accurate and all, and they went back and forth on that for a bit, but I was busy trying not to laugh, so I don't remember all of it. She also talked about how, when it first came out, no one spoiled her book. That astonished her, the young readers didn't, but neither did the librarians, who were recommending books to add to a library's collection. She said she was worried about making the twist too obvious when she was writing the book, because everyone was going to get it right away, but then no one did. It was mentioned that even knowing there was a twist was a spoiler in itself. She said you could pronounce the names however you want, she hated those long, unpronounceable names in fantasy books when she was a kid, so she'd just replace the name with one starting with the same letter. Both authors complimented each other a lot (lots of blushing on both sides) and MWT said she loved Tithe, because of how real the band scene felt, and how accurate it probably was. She mentioned that in Urban Fantasy these days, characters just feel like they're fulfilling roles or archetypes, and they don't feel real. She didn't have that problem with that in Tithe. She said it took her so long to write since she wrote everything out, and then went back and consolidated it into just a few sentences, but everything had to fit into those sentences. I think she also said she had written a lot of things that just weren't relevant to the plot, so she had to cut them. When asked if/when she knew she was writing a series, she said she was actually writing another novel after the Thief, that was unrelated. It wasn't going that well though. She didn't know that she was going to write a sequel until her agent/editor/publisher called her after she won the award and said, where's the sequel? She put the other book to the side and said, I'm writing a sequel! It was about an hour long conversation, but that's all I remember of it.

Priya

[(Anonymous)]

She also participated in this "Game Show" with a few other Young Adult authors. They were split into teams of three (John Green, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Stephanie Perkins on one and MWT, Holly Black and Robin Wasserman on the other), moderated by Maureen Johnson. Basically, each author had notecards in front of them with truths and lies. They had to pick one and read it aloud. The other side had to determine if it was the truth, or a lie. They could ask questions, any questions. MWT's was "As research for the Thief, I stole a car." She was brilliant, if I may. I was furiously trying to remember if I had heard her say anything about it on the internet, or here, but then again, that is an illegal act. She had details, like when and where and what (some type of military car) and how you drive it (stick shift) and how long she was in the car, and what it looked like. Nary a pause. It was a lie though, so she's a diabolical liar. And funny. I can't really remember the others, apparently Robin Wasserman doesn't eat fruit though. And there was something about someone stealing the salad bar at a fast food restaurant.

I didn't get a chance to go to any of her other panels, I missed one, and the others were either really crowded or the room moved. Conventions are crazy. I saw her at the Lit signing though (she remembered me!). I complimented her and Holly Black on having great secondary female characters and mwt said she was going to get around to having a female protagonist sometime. She said sometime. That implies a time. I blinked, with grace.

If anyone else was at Leakycon, I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff. It was an awesome convention though, if any of you are Potter fans, the next one is in Portland, Oregon. Leakycon 2013. Not unlucky, but cool. Anyway, sorry for the um, obsessiveness and long post. Here's to hoping I didn't post this entirely too late. And that I'm not weird. Or overly weird.

Priya

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you Priya!! I was hoping someone would report back from LeakyCon! I was starting to fear no one would. So thank you, thank you! (And no, you're not too late!) Sounds like all kinds of fun. The game sounds especially amusing! Wish I could have been there!

Thanks again for writing up the details (it can be quite a task, I know). I appreciate it muchly. :)

[deirdrej.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Priya, and thank YOU, Freenarnian!

I so would have loved to have gone, but had some really bad personal stuff, besides which it's almost impossible for me to go anywhere in the summer, unless I plan many months in advance.... Public librarians are pretty much stuck in their libraries over the summer and can't get out until school starts. (Though Mary & I did make it to Terminus years ago with our Wizard Rock band, but that's another story ;-) )

It's great to have such a detailed write up, and pictures! Thanks again, & have a good weekend.

D