Hey readers I'm back again! This time I'm here to give you the low down on the We Don't Need Roads Where We're Going Panel (editor's note: this is otherwise known as the "Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads" panel :D) which had Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder, Greg Leitich Smith, author of Chronal Engine, Jeff Hirsch, author of Magisterum, and Dan Krokos, author of False Memory. For those of you who like a bit of trivia, Jeff Hirsch hails from Virginia and can escape from a straight jacket while hanging upside down. Now, let's talk a little bit about the author's books. Marissa's novel is a futuristic re-envisioning of Cinderella; an idea she came up with when writing for a Sailor Moon contest in which a fairy tale had to be mentioned and a it had to be set in the future (although the original was about Puss in Boots). Rachael Cohn's book is about a 16 year old clone who serves as a companion to a family on a bio engineered island that's supposed to be paradise and the trouble she will have to face later on in life. Beta is the first in a four book series that will officially come out in about two weeks but is on sale here at the book festival. (SPOILER ALERT: the end of this book has a huge cliffhanger that Rachel Cohn as been confronted about many times already. Jeff Hirsch's book Magisterium is about brilliant 16 year old Glen (who is indeed a girl) who lives in a world where there is a rift in reality. On one side of the rift is a world based on technology and on the side is a world based on magic. When her father is arrested for creating something absolutely top secret. Now she must run across the rift to the Magisterium and find herself along the way. Dan Krakos' book is called False Memory and it's about a girl named Miranda who wakes up one day and has no memories. She eventually finds out that she has the power to inspire mass panic and that she, along with a boy named Peter, was raised to be a weapon of mass destruction. Now she must find out why she has no memory and try to stay alive in the process.
With introductions out of the way, let's move on to the next series of questions.
Q: How did you build your world?
A: Marissa: Her first novels were thinly veiled knock offs of Lord of the Rings and she's a huge Firefly fan, so she had a bit of a sci-fi/fantasy base already. She decided to do some research on what scientists can do today and looked up cyborgs, mixed the two together, and took it to the next level to create the fantastic world found in Cinder.
Rachel: If she was a good student, she'd say she did research on cloning. In reality, she didn't actually do any research. She just used the premise that cloning is real and let the voice of her characters take her the rest of the way. In her own words, she can't fake stuff she's not good at and science is definitely one of those things, so she didn't really care if the science was real or not.
Jeff: He really based the world off of his characters as well. There was some science mentioned, but it was more about what fit the story. One side of hsi world worked on a technological model and the other on a magical model. The system of magic however is really important and there wasn't much research on that. He really used this magic as a metaphor between Glen adn her being at one with the world.
Dan: He read an article on I-09.com about panic pheremones and how it's used among the animal kingdom. This really inspired him and thought he was cool.
Q: Why did you add a sense of darkness into your novels?
A: Marissa: When it comes to telling a good story, you need darkness; writing a story about a shinny happy world with shinny happy people just isn't interesting. It wasn't really so much as a choice for her because every story needs conflict and with conflict comes darkness. Cinder is the first in a four book series and she can guarantee us that there will be more darkness to come.
Rachel: Life is dark and darkness is everywhere. That's just life and it's going to be reflected in her novels. She tends to protect her characters most of the time and her editors are always like "we need more tensions in the novel Rachel". In her latest novel, Beta, however, she loaded tons of darkness onto the main character in the first fifty pages, so much so that her editors had to tell her to cool it! She did spread this out through out the novel before it went to print.
Jeff: Darkness comes up naturally with conflict and the only thing we can do with it is to make it as serious and detailed and interesting as possible.
Dan: Since all his answers were taken, he had to think about it a bit. He eventually responded by saying that all great books are about something wrong in the world and the character has to fix it.
Q: What do you all plan on doing next?
A: Marissa: Her next book, Scarlet, is the second in the Cinder series and is a twist off of Little Red Riding Hood and will come out next February. (Side note: this is not a companion novel it is a follow up)
Rachel: Her next book is title First and it's going to be about the original beings (the ones the clones were modeled after).
Jeff: Since Magisterium just came out, he doesn't have a title for his next book yet, but it should be out next fall. He did tell us that it's going to be a loose retelling of the Odyssey that takes place in the second American civil war.
Dan: His next book will come out in May.
Greg: His next comedy will be out in the Spring of 2014
Now that the standard questions were covered, it's time for the audience questions.
Q: Are there fairies in any of the books?
A: Rachel: "Not in mine, but now there will be".
Jeff: "I don't really call them fairies, but yes, there are fairy-like creatures in my book".
Marissa: "There are characters that are parallel to a fairy godmother but are more like androids".
Q: Who do you like better, Luke Skywalker or Han Solo?
A: Dan: "no comment"
Greg: Han
Rachael: Yoda, but if she had to chose between those two, Han
Marissa: Bubba Fed
Jeff: Han
Q: Where is your favorite place to write outside of your home?
A: Dan: The New York Public Library
Rachel: The rooftop of her LA apartment building because it's just peaceful and has an amazing view.
Marissa: Her porch at her home in Seattle (when it isn't raining)
Jeff: It doesn't really matter where he is so long as he has his "writing assistant", Rosie. (I'm going to assume Rosie is some type of pet because it was never really specified what Rosie was)
Q: What made you want to write and what would you say to those who want to write?
Jeff: His seventh grade English teacher gave them a creative writing assignment and he found out he loved to write. His advice to budding authors is to read as much as you can and anything you can and write everyday.
Rachel: She agreed with Jeff and added that there will be a lot of negative responses to anyone's work and that many publishers will reject her, but that you just shouldn't listen to what anyone else says. If you love writing enough, you'll get to where you want to go.
Dan: He worked at a gas station for 9 1/2 years and he used to read while one the job. One day, he read a book he loved so much he decided to start writing his own stuff and eventually got an agent. His advice is to persevere and never give up.
Marissa: She's always loved reading, even from a young age. Once she finally realized that people actually wrote the books she loved, she decided to become a writer herself.
This panel was amazing and I'm so glad I got to see these amazing authors interact with their fans!
Ta-ta For Now,
Laura
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