Jedi by Knight

Hi guys!  I’m taking a quick break from writing (I just hit 16,000 words, which is way short of where I should be, but also more than I’ve ever written for NaNoWriMo before).

Last Sunday I was able to see author Marissa Meyer speak on her tour to promote her new book Heartless, the story of the Queen of Hearts before Alice.  I had already planned posts for this week and next about her wonderful Lunar Chronicles series (Cinder, etc), which are a futuristic sci-fi take on classic fairy tales (with a little Sailor Moon thrown in).  So this seemed very timely!

She was speaking at the lovely Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, and the ticket fee included a copy of Heartless, which she then signed for everyone.

I’d never been to a talk like this before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  I went alone, which was a terrible idea, first because the audience was primarily high school girls (a few adults, too: parents and librarians).  This seems obvious in retrospect, but I really felt old the whole time.  Like, really old.  Also, there were a lot of people there, so I stood in line about 1.5 hours for the signing, and by the end I was quite bored and tired.

Other than that, it was fun and interesting.  She briefly introduced the book and its premise, and because the whole event had a Wonderland theme, she invited several volunteers to the stage for a “tea party” where they showed off their “talents” of singing, reciting poetry, etc.  It was really cute and funny, and Meyer was very engaging.

She then took a bunch of questions, which were primarily about the Lunar Chronicles.  She also mentioned some upcoming projects:

• a Lunar Chronicles coloring book
•  a graphic novel series staring Iko (she said we’ll find out more about Iko and Kinney!)
• a new series coming next fall about teenager superheroes (which is pretty much my favorite thing).

Another reason this post is timely is that Meyer has been a NaNoWriMo participant several times, and many of her books got drafted during NaNo.  When she was signing my book, I mentioned that I was doing NaNo, too.  She asked if I was on track, and I had to say no!  >_< But she gave me some words of encouragement to keep going. ^_^