Last Friday, I attended a super fun book event:
James Ponti was at RJ Julia's with Alyson Gerber.
He was talking about the newest CITY SPIES book: London Calling
Read my review here.
James is always funny; I laughed so many times.
He asked kids in the audience about their favorite middle grade authors - several mentioned were his friends. Then he texted them to see who would text back first (Sarah Mlynowski -Author of the Whatever After series - won)
Alyson asked really great questions.
My favorite was about research.
James talked about how he liked to travel to the places in his books but when he couldn't, he would use all the resources available to him. For example, for the Istanbul scenes, he talked with his Turkish book editor who had lived there all her life. He learned about some secret passageways from her.
If he can't find someone to talk to, he uses videos for research. There's almost always a video online that will walk down roads and he can see everything.
Or he will talk to his neighbors about certain ideas.
On Naming Characters
Besides the main characters who are named after the city they lived in; the other characters are named for people in James's life: his mother, his editors, people who help with research....and in a funny tale he told, his sister the tour guide.
There were jokes about other authors.
On writing:
Both James and Alyson talked about how writing mysteries for kids is different than adults and honestly, I never put it together, but it makes sense. Most adult mysteries deal with solving a murder. But rarely in mystery books for kids does someone die - and if they do, it's off the page (like a cozy). The action and danger have to be there. The stakes have to be high. You can't have any boring moments, or the kids will put down the books. It's a different set of skills.
Did you know that City Spies has been optioned for a movie? I really hope this happens!
It was great to meet Alyson.
She's a fashionista who grew up in New England.
Her childhood librarian was in the audience (how cool was that?)
She writes:
Read my review of The Liars Society here.
* Book 2 comes out in April and I can't wait!
Look at the cover!!!!
This was such a fun event! And I'm so glad I got to go!
No photos were taken this time because I was sick with a cold and didn't want to make anyone else sick.
Here's one from our first meeting (this is now the third time we've met)
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