Fierce Reads Signing Recap + Giveaway

Hi, guys! Emily here! Let me tell you what I did Friday night!

Fierce Reads authors: Ann Aguirre, Elizabeth Fama, Lish McBride and Marissa Meyer were in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 21, 2012 for a discussion and signing. I cannot even begin to explain to you how awesome the event was!

A couple of weeks before the the signing, I was asked by Macmillan to be the featured blogger at the event. (I still can't believe it.) I was given the opportunity to interview the authors before the discussion and signing and given a set of the novels to giveaway!

Interview with the Authors:

1. When in your life did you realize that you wanted to be a writer?

Marissa Meyer: Always.

Ann Aguirre: In third grade, when I was eight years old, I entered a writing competition and made it to State Finals. I got to meet Shel Silverstein and realized that writing could be more than just a hobby. That you could get paid to do something you love.

Lish McBride: Always, though I had a stint where I wanted to be a vet. Then I realized you have to poke animals with needles.

Elizabeth Fama: I've always been academic. I wanted to be a professor. Even when in biology class, the best part for me was writing up the reports. That's how I knew.

2. What was your initial reaction to find out you where going to be published?

MM: I got the call from my agent and started doing some serious excited dancing and jumping around. When my husband, who was then my fiancée, came home from work, I broke down and sobbed with happiness.

AA: I wrote my first novel at fifteen, got my first rejection letter at sixteen. I, then, wrote a LoveSwept novel at nineteen that was again rejected. I wrote a historical novel at twenty-one that was rejected. The stories I wrote were constantly said to be "not market suitable" because they were darker and full of angst. After sixteen years of rejection, I wrote Grimspace at the urging of my husband. My agent at the time said no, so I got a new agent, who didn't even represent sci-fi novels. She actually represented romance, which is what I believe Grimspace to be. So we sent in the manuscript on my husband's birthday, which I thought was a good omen. I'm an international author, so I often conversed with my agent through the internet. She pinged me and let me know that someone wanted Grimspace. I broke down with excitement. Our housekeeper was worried that I was sick because of my reaction.

*As Ann discusses her long history with the publishing process, Lish says that she wanted to make a paper crane house of her rejection letters and then probably burn it.*

LM: As seen in the back of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer: I think I just ran around going, "Eeeee!" and then called every family member, friend, passing acquaintance… I couldn't afford to do much else. We'd just moved cross-country and I had only finished graduate school a few months before. Probably someone bought me a drink, perhaps even dinner. My friends are pretty awesome and they take me to dinner for things.

EF: When I got the call for my first book, I started crying while I was at Seaworld.

R - L: Marissa Meyer, Ann Aguirre, Lish McBride, Elizabeth Fama and Me

3. Why young adult novels?

MM: Because I started writing when I was sixteen. I wrote a knock-off of Lord of the Rings, only instead of a hobbit, my main character was a princess, who had to save the world. As I got older, my characters never did.

AA: My kids actually asked when I was going to write one that they could read, so I said that my next series would be a young adult series.

LM: I wrote my first book as my college thesis. I didn't even think about the age it was for as I wrote. If you can back up your information in a YA novel, like why there is a talking head in a box, publishers are willing to give it a try.

EF: Young adult novels have to be plot driven. Books changed me as a kid and shaped me.

4. If you could switch places with a character from any book/film/show, who would you be and why?

MM: Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. *scoffs* For Mr. Darcy, of course!

AA: Kaylee from Firefly. She's cute, perky, has a great sense of humor and is liked by everyone.

*Both Ann and Lish had trouble deciding. They said there were so many good characters to choose from!*

LM: Since we are in Cincinnati, Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison's series. She's kickass.

EF: Irene from Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. For Gen!

*Elizabeth Fama told me that Megan Whalen Turner lives in Ohio and I almost died.*

R - L: Me, Marissa Meyer, Ann Aguirre, Lish McBride, and Elizabeth Fama

5. What is a book you think is highly underrated?

MM: Entwined by Heather Dixon

AA: Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

LM: The Kingdom of Xia series by Cindy Pon - Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix

EF: Catch & Release by Blythe Woolston

6. If you could claim a book as your own, besides the one that you actually wrote, what book would you choose?

MM: The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling *laughs*

AA: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

LM: The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett

EF: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder

6. Given the choice, would you rather read the same book every day for the rest of your life, or as many books as you could with only one day to read them?

MM: Same book from the rest of my life.

AA: As many as I could in a day.

LM: First choice.

EF: As many books as I could in one day.

7. What kind of music do you listen to when writing?

MM: I don't really listen to music, unless I'm in a café while writing. I do have a playlist, though. I listen to it when I'm brainstorming, like when I'm on the treadmill. When I listen to helps generalize a mood for when I start to write.

AA: For fight scenes, a favorite of mine is Bodies by Drowning Pool.

*Audiences laugh, and someone starts to sing the lyrics*

LM: I don't really listen to music because I don't really pay attention to it when I start writing. The music could finish after thirty minutes and I wouldn't notice. Though all of my chapters are named after songs. When I do listen as I write, my music is all over the place.

EF: I don't listen to music as I write because it interferes. I can't hear my own writing when I'm listening to music.

Ann Aguirre, author of Enclave and Outpost, the Razorland series

8. What author would you talk to, if you could, and what would you talk about?

MM: Jane Austen, just because I want to know what she was like. She was an unmarried woman in a time where that was highly unusual and I want to know what that was like for her.

AA: Sarah Teasdale. I'd like to know what made her write such heartbreaking poems and if she died with a broken heart because she choose financial stability over love. (She refused to marry the man she loved because he was a poor artist. They both ended up marrying other people.)

LM: Charles Dickens, just so I could punch him in the face. And Shakespeare, so I could ask about Bacon and whether or not he wrote the plays.

*When Lish stopped by just saying I'd want to talk to him about Bacon - the entire audience, including myself, thought she meant the food.*

EF: Jane Austen. My other would be Megan Whalen Turner, but I already met her and had milkshakes with her.

*I'm still so jealous over this!*

Elizabeth Fama, author of Monstrous Beauty

9. What is your guilty pleasure?

MM: Top Chef. If there was a Top Chef marathon, I could sit around all day and watch it instead of writing.

AA: Video games. Just because there are more productive things that I should be doing!

LM: I don't really know if I feel guilty. I just accept that I have a problem. I love really cheesy Lifetime and ABC Family movies, like that Christmas movie where Melissa Joan Hart kidnaps Mario Lopez? Yeah, I own that.

Elizabeth never told us hers.

10. What is next in store for you?

MM: I'm working on Cress, book three in the Lunar Chronicles. Cress is based off of Rapunzel, only Rapunzel is a computer hacker, who the evil Lunar queen has locked in a satellite. I'm also about to start working on my national novel, which is a YA fantasy.

AA: I'm writing book three, Horde - that's spelled with an "H." This book is going to be the biggest, badest and most epic in every way, including page numbers. I'm also working on a young adult paranormal that sold as "Mean Girls meets Doctor Faustus."

LM: I'm working on a series that set in what is pretty much the same world as the Necromancer series. It's about a girl named Ava, who can set fires with her mind. She's being forced to work for a mob. This project is in dealing now. I swear, it's humorous like Sam's story. Though if you haven't read the book saying it's funny is like, "He raises the dead. Terrible things happen. Ha!"

EF: I'm writing an alternate history story that set in the present, but things happened differently during the 1918 flu pandemic. The public was divided into day and night. A night girl falls in love with a day boy. There is going to be some civil rights commentary, I hope. I'm also working on a historical fiction novel that I will probably be writing until the day I die. It'll be published posthumously.

R - L: Marissa Meyer, Elizabeth Fama, Ann Aguirre, and Lish McBride

11. What is the most memorable line that you've ever written?

MM: The last line in Cinder: "But they would be looking for a ghost."

AA: "All she had to do was the unthinkable. Stab him in the balls."

LM: "Even pure evil loves David Bowie."

EF: "I am a prisoner of the tides."

12. What is some advice you have for aspiring authors?

MM: You become a writer because you can't see yourself doing anything else. Keep your passion.

AA: Quit writing, if it's too hard. If it's what you love, don't quit. Those who say they want to write, but don't take the time to do so, shouldn't become writers.

LM: Don't be afraid of the blank page. Take it a page at a time. Use the time that you are given and have a schedule. Be committed and keep going.

EF: It's your work, it's not romantic.

Lish McBride, author of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and Necromancing the Stone, the Necromancer series

Tidbits from the discussions:

*Marissa said if she has trouble figuring out how to end a book, she goes back and uses her first chapter to help her wrap up her book.

*Ann says her books are eighty percent action and fighting and fifteen percent kissing.

The audience questions about the last five percent and she replays, "Talking… Dialogue." We all joked about her math skills.

*Ann told the audience about Nora Roberts and how Nora said she's never read a book on writing because she would be pissed if she found out she was doing it wrong.

*Elizabeth wrote Monstrous Beauty on a dare from her kids. They dared her to write a young adult novel since it had been a decade since her last publication. They would toss ideas around during their jogs together.

*Elizabeth's daughter said to describe Monstrous Beauty as a combination of killer mermaids, Howl's Moving Castle and InuYasha.

R - L: Elizabeth Fama, Marissa Meyer, Me, Lish McBride and Ann Aguirre

These authors were hilarious, gracious and accepted my Sailor Moon cupcakes willingly. It was the first time I'd ever made cupcakes in my whole life. Marissa, Ann, Lish and Elizabeth were pretty much my test subjects. They went over pretty well… I think…

A huge thank you goes out to Macmillan for giving me this amazing opportunity and the novels of these lovely ladies to give away! And find the other Fall Fierce Reads tour stops HERE.

Now, want to win signed books by these phenomenal authors?

Giveaway Details:

- You may enter all giveaways, but you can only win one

- One Winner will recieve a signed physical copy of Enclave and Outpost by Ann Aguirre + swag

- One Winner will recieve a signed physical copy of  Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama + swag

- One Winner will recieve a signed physical copy of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride + swag

- One Winner will recieve a signed physical copy of Cinder by Marissa Meyer + swag

- Open Internationally

- One Entrant Per Household

- Cheating results in immediate disqualification

- Ends 10/8/2012

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Have a great week!