In My Mailbox (3) and Breathless Reads Tour Stop Recap

So, yesterday I attended my first YA book signing! A couple middle grade authors have attended my schools in the past few years, but I've never been able to go to a Young Adult signing until now, so this was my very first.  When I saw that this Breathless Reads stop was less than an hour from where I live, I nagged my parents endlessly until they finally agreed to chauffeur me there and back.  I am so, so glad they did.

The tour stop . . . was awesome.  First, someone who I assume was part of the tour asked them a lot of cool questions and gave each author (Marie Lu, Beth Revis, Jessica Spotswood, and Andrea Cremer) a chance to respond.  There were a lot of cool questions and answers, but a couple in particular stand out:

The questioner specifically asked Beth who David Tennant would be playing if Across the Universe became a movie, and Beth informed us that the entire character of Harley, from appearance to personality, is based off of David Tennant and his somewhat crazy (but absolutely adorable/lovable/awesome) portrayal of the Doctor.

When asked what they would do if they were dropped into their world for a day with nothing to their name, Marie replied with something along the lines of "I"m assuming I'd be in the poor district, so . . . I'd try to find Day, but I wouldn't be able to, so I'd find a Republic flag and just run around going 'YAY WOOHOO GO REPULIC!' so they'd love me and send me to college and then I'd fight against them from within."

After the questioner was done, they were opened to the audience.  People asked some great questions and I really liked hearing their answers (particularly because they had me laughing 90% of the time).  Some more memorable ones:

All of the authors agreeing that YA "is not a reading level, but rather a style of writing."  I wholeheartedly agree to this.  YA isn't just fodder for teens; if it was, there wouldn't be such a wide audience of adults who enjoy it.  YA authors don't dumb their books down to fit this genre, which is why the best YA books can be enjoyed by people of all ages. That is one of the many awesome things about YA: it appeals to the widest crowd.

When asked about the creation of characters and character names, Beth admitting that the first person to die a gruesome death in AtU was named after an incredibly obnoxious student of hers.  She said she was straight with him about it, and he didn't mind, but then all of her other students insisted that THEY wanted to be killed off, so everyone who dies in A Million Suns is named after one of her pupils.

Marie admitting that when she made outlines, her characters often got different ideas.  This has always been my problem with outlines.  I tell my characters exactly what they're supposed to do, when they're supposed to get certain places, and then they decide to take a course completely their own.  She said that in one draft she literally did not realize a plot twist was going to occur until the moment she wrote it.  This led to the scrapping of an entire outline.

And lastly, Jessica and Andrea saying that their favorite part of making characters was having the characters surprise them, learning things about them they hadn't known before.  This was another thing I could relate to; it's really awesome to see your characters sort of grow before your eyes.

Finally, once these questions were done, we got to the signing.  This is where the IMM part comes in! The only books of theirs that I owned were Legend and Across the Universe, so I hurried to the back and convinced my mother (read: begged and pleaded and bargained for about five minutes straight) to help me pay for A Million Suns, Born Wicked, and the entire Nightshade series.  B&N cards only go so far.

When I reached their table, I got each book signed and personalized, in addition the tour poster we were all given for free. Besides my name and theirs, each author wrote a little saying that applied to the book they were signing. Sadly, I was idiotic enough to forget my iTouch, so I do not have pictures of the tour stop itself, but I do have pictures of the books and their lovely signatures!  I apologize for the poor quality; these are from my iTouch, which is not known for having a fabulous camera.

Across the Universe                                                

(already owned this one, but that's irrelevant)

"Reach for the stars!"

A Million Suns

"Seek the truth!"

Legend

(which I also already possessed)

"Walk in the light."

Born Wicked

"Blessed or cursed? You decide."

Nightshade

"Dream wild."

Wolfsbane

"Keep up the wild hunt."

Bloodrose

"Seek your own path."

And finally, along with these fabulous books, I got some gorgeous bookmarks from the lovely Wendy Higgins.  

So there you have it!  The tour stop was a ton of fun, and if any of you live near upcoming stops I'd highly recommend you drop by.  This was definitely an awesome experience, and I now have even more books to add to my TBR pile.  I really need a new bookshelf.

What did you guys get in your mailbox this week?  Feel free to link to your IMM in the comments!