Stay to the Lights

That's a great summary of Book Con, Steph! Boy was it crazy

BehrItAll

Thanks Jen!

It was crazy but a good time.

Stay to the Lights

Indeed it was

I'm going to a Romance book event in September here in Melbourne. Went to the last one in 2015, but seeing more authors this time around.

BehrItAll

Nice! Can't wait to hear about it.
Which authors will be there?

Pierce Brown will be at San Diego Comic Con.... and I am sad I am missing it.

Stay to the Lights

That's a shame you have to miss it.

A lot of romance authors you probably won't recognise.
https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a2&oe=5A0FA733

CityGal

That is quite the list, and sounds like a lot of fun, too!

Stay to the Lights

It was the last time I was there

BehrItAll

I am crossing my fingers for New York Comic Con.

Yea, I don't recognized the names.

Stay to the Lights

Yeah, I didn't think you would It's more NA/adult romance/erotica type books, contemporary romance. Not to mention most of them being Australian authors.

BehrItAll

I'm a bit behind on things with work and the holidays but I wanted to share some of the signings and panels I went to at New York Comic Con in October.

I'll start with Pierce Brown's signings. He was there Friday through Sunday and I went to every one of his signings and panels.

Friday, October 6

I met up with my friend Nikki as I was waiting on the queue at the Random House booth for Pierce Brown's signing.

I had my copy of Golden Son with me (Red Rising I had signed at NYCC in 2014 and Morning Star when it was released in 2016) and Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. Pierce's story is called "Desert Son."

While waiting I saw some people I recognized from the Facebook group. One man had shared a photo of himself in RR cosplay. He was wearing a wolf head cloak. I wanted to introduce myself and say hello but I didn't want to lose my place in line since Nikki had not come to meet me yet. I thought I'd see them later but I did not.

When it was my turn Nikki took some video but it got cut off so I won't even bother to share it. I'll just sum it up.

So a little background: I went to Greece last year and while in Olympia visiting the ruins of the site of the ancient Olympics I bought a gold charm of a laurel. I bought it because it also reminds me of the cover to Golden Son.

I told Pierce I went to Greece and showed him my necklace. He said I got my laurel and it's not bloody. Haha!

I asked how he came to write from Biggs Darklighter's point of view in Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. He said Del Rey asked him what he wanted to contribute and Biggs has always been a favorite character of his.

I told him he knows Star Wars so well because his interpretation of the scene was just like the movie. Pierce was surprised I read it already and I said it was the first one I read. (I still have to read the rest but since Pierce signed this copy I want to keep it clean and will listen to the audiobook instead. I also intend to ask the other authors to sign it someday.)

Then I spoke about the Iron Gold sampler.



I also asked who is his new editor since Mike Braff left. Pierce introduced me to Tricia Narwani, who helps him "sort out the madness." (I think that is what I remember him saying.) She's very nice.


Since photobucket won't let you share photos anymore without paying you can see the photos of Pierce here.
Saturday, October 7

Pierce Brown Spotlight
October 07, 2017, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
1A18
Pierce Brown discusses his No.1 New York Times bestselling Red Rising series, including the upcoming book Iron Gold, with Del Rey editorial director Tricia Narwani.

Happily the panel is on youtube.

There was an impromptu Q&A before the panel began that is not on the video. I asked Pierce if he would ever write from Sevro's point of view. He answered he didn't know and asked if we would read it. There was a collective "YES" in the room. Pierce asked what form, novel or short story...? I said "anything."
Pierce said maybe he'd write a graphic novel or a pick your (psychotic) adventure novel.

This is on the video (16:30) and one of my favorite parts when Pierce takes a poll of the fans' favorite characters. I think it is too hard to hear but my sister (wanting to be a trouble maker) calls out Roque (18:00). Pierce says "eww" but really I can make arguments in Roque's favor. Not that he's my favorite, but many fans hate him with a passion and I don't agree. Like, he's their most hated villain. Whatever.

After the panel my sister and I went over to autographing.

Pierce signed my sister's Red Rising and Golden Son copies.
He has said in the past that he doesn't write outlines so she asked him if he does know how he wants Iron Gold to end. He said he does.

So then I brought up the names out the hat story because at the panel (18:15) he said he put everyone's names except Darrow's in the hat, but I remember he said at Barnes and Noble in Feb 2016 that he left out Darrow and Mustang's name.

Pierce said I was right and that I had a good memory. He made a mistake at today's panel.

I brought my artwork that I got from the Kickstarter campaign and the "Legion Recruitment Poster" from Spoke Art.

My Kickstarter pledge reward was a set of 3 (16X20) handmade screen print featuring the artwork of Joel Daniel Phillips, as seen in Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star. Each print comes hand numbered from a limited edition of only 200 copies made.

I got the art unsigned and have been waiting for an opportunity to ask Pierce to sign them. He also dated them.

I asked if Joel will be doing the artwork for Iron Gold and Pierce said that Joel is really busy so he is not sure yet, but he hopes that he can.

See photos here.

Sunday, October 8

My sister and I went to this panel that Pierce was a part of.

This was a fun panel. My favorite part about it was when the authors were saying that you can write your own rules of myths but when you've established the rules in your story - stick with it. Obey them. If you write yourself into a corner you must figure out how to get out and not break your rules.

TV often breaks their rules and tries to go back, which is B.S. (I think Pierce said this and all I could think of was The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Once Upon A Time.)

I think it was Rachel Hartman who said that her friend wrote a thesis about how sic-fi readers have higher tolerance for having their expectations shattered. I agree. Sometimes I find stories too predictable.

Cressida Cowell showed her sketchbook of inspiration boards and research, which was really cool. I never knew that David Tennant reads her audiobooks and did so even before he was on Doctor Who. He's so busy now but is still loyal and still narrates them.

Pierce spoke about the two different kinds of research an author does. There's the glamorous research where you go down the rabbit hole on the internet. Then there is the weird research, like when he went into a sensory deprivation tank for 3 hours.

Other highlights of the panel:
Tropes that never seem to die: the dragon trope and zombie trope.
The dragon trope has two directions. The evil creature that burns cities and hoards gold or the all wise, magical creature that represents a taming of the wilderness.
Zombies have morphed over the centuries. The living dead, voodoo, now an apocalyptic virus. The all purpose metaphor is that death will come to us all.

After the panel my sister and I were starving. To save money we brought tuna sandwiches from home and didn't want to eat them while waiting on the queues as a courtesy to others. So we went to a table to eat and then went to A Wizard, a Dragon, and a Zombie Traverse into a Story Autographing. It was only going until 4:45 PM.

There was no line by the end of the session. We caught Pierce as he was about to leave. We had our Iron Gold character posters. I thought it best to get them signed now because I think the signing in January will be too crazy.

He asked if we enjoyed the panel. He saw my sister's head peaking out (we were sitting in front of Mike Braff, his former editor). Pierce said he winked at her but she didn't see. His winking weirded out the man in the front row. HAHA!

I said I read the Iron Gold sampler again and wanted to know if a certain asteroid scene was an homage to The Empire Strikes Back. He said yes and that he knows I'll be picking up on all the Easter Eggs. (Squee!)

Then he had to leave with his girlfriend and catch a plane. He said he hoped to see us at Comic Con next year (yay!). I said it would be in January at Barnes and Noble for the IG tour.

I'll be sure to post about that signing in January!

Stay to the Lights

That's great! Did you see anyone else?

BehrItAll

Thanks! Yes, I did.

Thursday, October 5

Katherine Arden was signing at the Penguin Booth at 1:30. They were giving out paperback copies of The Bear and the Nightingale. I also got my ARC of The Girl in the Tower signed. But the best part was that Katherine remembered me from last year! (I was so surprised and flattered.) She remembered that my sister and I were the very first people she ever signed for when they were giving out ARC of The Bear and the Nightingale and this year I would be the first person to receive a signed copy of The Girl in the Tower.



October 06, 2017

The next day I saw Katherine at a panel:
This panel was a lot of fun. Each author read a deleted scene. Katherine read what was the original opening scene to The Bear and the Nightingale. I think it gave away some information a bit too early and was glad another tale ended up in the book's opening scene.

Peter V. Brett read a funny scene about a fight with a spider. It was not accurate since he gave the spider stingers, but spiders bite. And there was a hysterical part about cracking the thorax open like an egg.

Rob Reid's was really entertaining and he really sold his new novel. (I bought it that Sunday.) So, a little background. He started writing a novel through reviews on amazon. He made up a persona, or alter ego, Charles Henry Higgensworth III. Higgensworth would get a third of the way into a review and then would complain about his life. After many reviews a detailed autobiography materialized.

He added the character and some of his reviews in After On. The deleted scene he read was a review from a German CD - Best of David Hasselhoff by David Hasselhoff.
It's deleted from the book but you can still find it on amazon.

It was hysterical, and when asked Rob admitted he never listened to the CD of David Hasselhoff's music. Of course.

I can't recall what Sylvain Neuvel read. But later on that day I did pick up a paperback give away of Sleeping Giants, so it is on my TBR pile.

They all spoke about their writing process.
Katherine likes to write her first draft by hand with a fountain pen in a notebook while sitting by a stream. She writes about 2,000 words a day. She then types it up while adding and making edits, and that becomes her second draft. She also does not outline. She finds she wastes time on an outline that she ends up changing anyway. She also said that she ended up rewriting The Girl In the Tower twice! More on that later.

Peter and Katherine would banter about their polar opposite methods. Peter writes a 200 page outline. He also keeps an excel sheet of his progress and how many words he writes a day. Something Peter and Sylvain spoke about was they thought when they quit their full time jobs they would have more time to write. They figured if they could write 1,000 words a day with full time jobs, then if they wrote full time it could be 3,000 words. The opposite was true because when they were working that time was used to process what they had written and come up with idea to further the story.

Peter also said there is no such thing as writer's block. Just write, even if it's about a spider that stings instead of bites. (Haha!) He writes five days week. He does not write while on vacation or on a book tour. By the end he's back to square one where he forgets how to write and makes a 200 page outline.

Rob is somewhere in the middle. He writes a vague 10 page outline. He types his drafts but edits with a red pen.

They also spoke about how they found their agents. Rob had written non-fiction books before writing novels and he described the difference.

With non-fiction you can get an agent and a book deal with just an idea and a sample chapter. (So he already had an agent from years ago when he wrote non-fiction.) With fiction you have to submit a manuscript and shop it around to find someone interested in publishing it.

Sylvain had an unusual story in that he got a movie agent for Sleeping Giants first. That movie agent then passed him onto a book agent. I think he said he has also sold the movie rights. I can't remember.

Peter (long story short) went to a networking event with a friend. I think he said it was SFWoA (Science Fiction Writers of America) and that friend introduced him to a big time agent in that genre. Peter mentioned to said agent that he was writing something but wasn't sure it was good. The agent said, "You don't reject your stuff. I do that."
Well he rejected his manuscripts twice and then recommended he read a how to write book. So Peter did and after that the agent loved what he wrote.

After the panel my sister and I went to speak to Katherine. So sweet that she remembered us. My sister asked why she rewrote The Girl In the Tower twice. Katherine explained that The Bear and the Nightingale that was published was only half of her original story, but when she went back to the second half it just wasn't working anymore. So she scrapped the whole thing and started over for the sequel.

We said that sounds like the best idea. We brought up how Stephenie Meyer went back to her original story for Breaking Dawn, but you can tell it doesn't fit in with the previous three books' narrative.

Sunday, October 8

My sister decided to splurge for Mark Hamill's autograph. (The price went up since he was last at NYCC in 2011). So in the morning she queued for his signing. Mark had the photo ops first, but the queues get really long real fast.

I left her briefly to go to Rob Reid's signing at Random House's booth.

After On I purchased book, but it was on sale (and I got an ARC for Daughters of the Storm by Kim Wilkins with the purchase). Rob's first book, Year Zero, was a giveaway. He signed both copies.

I was wearing my new Jurassic Park shirt and Rob was wearing a shirt with the Jurassic Park logo, only his said "Golden Gate Park".

Rob remembered me from the Deleted Scenes panel on Friday. (I was sitting in the front row.) I said the David Hasselhoff scene was hysterical and that really sold the book for me, and too bad it wasn't in the book (After On). But he said that the character who writes the reviews is in there and all the reviews are online.

I pointed out our sort-of matching shirts and asked for a photo.

Then he said that he hopes I like After On. I read the first page while waiting on the queue. It's funny.

Then I went back to wait on Mark's queue. It was a long wait. First he had his photo ops. Then he had a break and I assume had some lunch (it's only fair). So of course the autograph session stared like more than an hour late. The first people on the queue were cosplaying as Beauty and the (human) Beast. They were spectacular. Wish I had asked for a photo. Hundreds of others were asking.

Finally we get up to talk to Mark. Since my sister was the one actually getting her photo with him signed I just observed.

Mark saw their photo and said, "Look how cute you are." I think my sister was too nervous and I had to tell her afterward that he said this. She was concentrating on the whole speech she prepared.

She told him that we were at his conversation last night. Mark had said how when he got the script for "The Last Jedi" he was surprised/disappointed about how Luke had lost his optimism.

My sister said she agreed with that and added that Luke also lost his Original Trilogy persistence to save Ben/Kylo.

Mark responded that he "has to be careful" of what he says, but it's not a long wait. It will be answered before we know it.

We said we'd be there opening weekend and thanked him.

Stay to the Lights

I think I will have to look up Katherine Arden

BehrItAll

NikNak