Back from Decatur
I had an excellent time at the Decatur Book Festival! Thanks to all of the organizers, especially the people at Little Shop of Stories, for inviting me and putting together a marvelous three days of reveling in books.
Look! A girl named Linden made an Astrophil!
The photo doesn’t do her creation justice. The spider’s legs were actually hinged, and it was a very solid, impressive construction. Linden could give Master Kronos a run for his money.
Me with friends at the festival’s author party:
(from left: Vicky Shecter, me, Christina Gonzales, Cinda Williams Chima, David Levithan, and Jim “Werlin”)
Here are some things that writers said during their talks that stayed with me. I’m not putting quotations around their words because they are remembered, and not exact:
*Jonathan Franzen, when talking about what you do, as a writer, when you know something is dead on the page: It may mean that you cannot write this scene, because YOU are missing something. You will have to change yourself first to be capable of writing it.
*Kathleen Duey, on world-building in a high fantasy novel (meaning, books that take place in completely made-up worlds): Read history. It helps to know that if a city has a port, it will have immigrants, and if it has immigrants, it will have an influx of different cultures and religious beliefs, as well as a cheap labor force, and that someday—maybe not right away, but in three hundred years—that city might very well have a revolution. If you read history, you will know how cultures unfold in time, and that will help you invent.
*David Levithan, on writing romance: There is nothing more romantically exciting than seeing two characters verbally play, to give and take and be on the same wavelength, building off what the other has said.
There was a lot of Mockingjay talk at the festival, and I was glad to find that most people are pleased with how things turned out. I was (and can I just say how much I love Haymitch? I swear, he is my favorite character after Katniss and Peeta).
[Mockingjay SPOILERS in the comments below!]
I was sad Haymitch went back to being a drunk. The theme of drug abuse in Mockingjay was way overplayed. I DID like how it turned out, though.
I say nothing helps worldbuilding like running a roleplaying game campaign.
Also, squee, wee little robospider!
I was sad that Haymitch went back to being a drunk, and also sad that he was forced to return to 12 to watch over Katniss, but I think these were the right narrative decisions. War damages people. Abuse of power does the same, and sometimes there is no way to recover.
I LOVED the moment when Haymitch voted for the new games, because it really relied on the reader to interpret his motivations and his understanding of Katniss’s own (my interpretation? He knew EXACTLY what she had planned).
I didn’t have a particular problem with the substance abuse theme. Again, it’s a war story. People get injured and need morphine. Morphine is addictive. That trajectory is realistic enough.
I’m skipping the Mockingjay spoilers for now, since I haven’t had a chance to read yet, but I wanted to say that Linden’s Astrophil is just gorgeous! How amazing that must feel to have fan art made of your books, Marie.
Also, any word on the title for Book Three? (I have a list of books to purchase in 2011, and there’s a blank spot waiting for yours.
)
Hi Shveta—
Yes, I was so impressed by Linden’s Astrophil!
As for Book 3, I’m editing it right now. It’s called The Jewel of the Kalderash, and it will be out in August or September of 2011 (I’m not exactly sure of the date yet). I can’t wait to see David Frankland’s cover for it (I love his covers for the first two books).
Thanks for your interest!