Last month, I was excited to check off a huge item on my professional bucket list - be part of a presentation at a national conference. I'd requested to present at a YALSA conference before and was rejected, but this opportunity came to me.
The panel of authors was amazing. I loved all their books.
Marissa Meyer:
Michelle Jabes Corpora:
And I'm waiting desperately for the last book in the trilogy
Randy Ribay
Emiko Jean:
What a line up right?
And I was lucky enough to moderate the panel.
We had a lightening round of getting to know you questions where we learned about the author's favorite writing snack, if they're a plotter or a panser, if they listen to music when they write, and a book they recently read and enjoyed.
I asked questions of each author. And then the crowd asked questions.
Emiko Jean has a fantastic secondary character in Jiji, the main character's grandfather. We talked about him.
Marissa Meyer talked about the struggles of writing with someone else and what happens when you disagree. She also talked about her favorite types of escape rooms and tactile vs technological pieces.
Michelle Jabes Corpora talked about how she writes the books as written and not each character's story first and then pieces together the story. She also talked about social media and using it as her real self - not always with make-up and not always polished. Because being real is important - especially for teens. There will be a
snake with her on book tour and in some videos.
Randy Ribay's book is about the possibility of death, so he talked about what he would do with his last days. He also talked about colonialism and how stories are erased from cultures. His story is steeped in Filipino mythology with his own twist.
There was a lot of laughter.
Of course, I was awkward, but I hope in the best way. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but I think it went well. And it would be fun to moderate more panels/author chats, so let me know if you need one!
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