Dark Days Tour Recap

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend HarperTeen's Dark Days tour as it stopped at Books & Co in Dayton, Ohio. There has been an increase in the number of amazing author signings in the Dayton/Cincinnati area of late, and I can only hope this trend continues because it's hugely exciting for me to get the chance to meet and chat with such a wide variety of talented women.

Rae Carson (The Girl of Fire and Thorns Trilogy), Amelia Kahaney (The Brokenhearted), and Mindy McGinnis (Not a Drop to Drink) were all a part of this leg of the tour, and I was given the chance to spend a few minutes with them before the event started (I even managed to form coherent sentences this time, WELL DONE ME!). Since time was a little short, I decided to forgo actual interview questions and instead torture all three of them with word associations. I like to keep people on their toes you see ;-) They were up for anything though, and I have to admit to enjoying hurling words at them probably more than I should have. Below are all their responses, plus some pictures from the event as well as highlights from the general Q+A session.

WORD ASSOCIATIONS

Chapter 1

Mindy: Sucks (as in the writing of it; she said her actual first chapter doesn't suck ;-)
Rae: Revision
Amelia: Hard

Heroine

Mindy: Strong
Rae: Fun
Amelia: Super

Love Interest

Mindy: Dead
Rae: Hot
Ameila: Villain

Journey

Mindy: Internal
Rae: Interminable
Amelia: Indomitable

Family

Mindy: Dead*
Rae: Pain in the butt
Amelia: Out to lunch

*we all had to laugh at this point at the seeming death theme of Mindy's answers and how well she obviously fit on a tour called Dark Days.

Revision

Mindy: 6 months
Rae: Personal hell
Amelia: Redemption

Book Cover

Mindy: Beautiful
Rae: Fantasy
Amelia: Sexy

Leader

Mindy: Hard
Rae: Elisa
Amelia: Corrupt

Challenge

Mindy: Disaster
Rae: Writing
Amelia: Transforming

Fear

Mindy: Death*
Rae: Life
Amelia: Rebirth

*we all snorted at this

The End

Mindy: Angry
Rae: Triumph
Amelia: Twist

Writer

Mindy: Work
Rae: Sucker
Amelia: Poor

Imagination

Mindy: Flowing
Rae: Livlihood
Amelia: Atmosphere

Regret

Mindy: Theme of book
Rae: Perpetual
Amelia: Heartbreak

Future

Mindy: Bleak
Rae: Shades
Amelia: Lies

• • • • • • • • • • 

Q+A HIGHLIGHTS
(a huge thanks to Cathy for taking notes while I tweeted and took pictures)

• The idea for Not a Drop to Drink came from a fresh water shortage documentary Mindy saw called "Blue Gold". In the book, people in the country have water and people in the city want it, so her protagonist learns to be the type of person to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to the pond she guards. She called the book "Little House on the Prairie on crack". Win.

• Amelia was asked how the idea for a character with a hummingbird heart came to be and she said she was doing research on hummingbirds and discovered numerous interesting facts that were catalysts for the book. A hummingbird's heart beats 10x faster than ours, and if it stays still too long, its heart actually stops. O.o

• All three ladies were asked what they enjoyed most about writing for a teen audience. Rae said she loved that teens were open to anything and tended to be less prejudiced and judgmental than adult readers, but she acknowledged that a huge chunk of her readers were in fact adults. Amelia chimed in with some stats she'd read in an article, saying nearly 35% of YA readers are between the ages of 18 and 35 with another 15-20% consisting of the next age bracket up.

• Both Mindy and Amelia said they were huge fans of Stephen King when they were teenagers, and Rae devoured every single Nancy Drew book she could find, sharing a story about getting out of class by pretending to go to the bathroom only to wander down to the library to see if they'd gotten a new shipment of Nancy Drew books in.

• The last question they were all asked was what they wanted readers to take away from their stories. Rae said she's not big on moral messages, and she just wants readers to have an overall experience. Amelia said there's some thoughts on trusting boys running through her story as well as a look at political corruption and class distinction. Mindy wrapped things up in the best possible way saying, "You probably shouldn't shoot people". Awesome.

I had such a great time with all three of these authors, each of whom was incredibly personable and easy to talk to, and I hope they had enough fun in Dayton that they might consider coming back in the near future!

Rae Carson, Amelia Kahaney, Me, and Mindy McGinnis

Rae, Amelia and Mindy getting ready to answer questions

Rae Carson

Amelia Kahaney

Mindy McGinnis

Mindy very appropriately brought bottles of water (with snazzy labels!) to the signing, along with fancy water droplet stickers made for her by author Sherry Thomas (The Burning Sky)

Summer Fun HarperTeen Style: SPF9 Epic Giveaway

Who's excited for summer? *raises hand* Though it's not quite as exciting as it was when I was in school and summer meant 3 months off, I still love this time of year, and the people over at HarperTeen are trying to make it even better with some amazing giveaways and opportunities to experience their books. Love it.

Before I get to all the giveaway goodness though, HarperTeen has a few other things made of win I wanted to share with you. First up:

See the art.

Spread the love.

Join the Resistance

Love is not a disease.

Follow the above link to join the Resistance from Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium by sharing some beautiful posters with your friends to help encourage recruitment.

EPIC READS

Have you heard of Epic Reads? No? Well HarperTeen has recently launched EpicReads.com, a central location of awesomeness for all of HarperTeen's books, and now we can all officially join. Yay! The people at Harper can explain it a bit better than I can, so I'll let them give it to you straight from the source:

EpicReads.com is the new hub for all of HarperTeen’s books. We’ve also launched two channels, for readers who prefer particular genres. If you’re a huge fan of paranormal or dystopian fiction, PitchDark.com is the channel for you! Rather read about romance than werewolves? Then you should definitely explore the StoryCrush.com channel! Each channel has its own blog, contests, polls, quizzes and forums – so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved, win free books, & chat with authors!

I just registered this week, I hope to see you guys on there!

YA CRUSH TOURNAMENT

This tournament isn't related specifically to HarperTeen but I wanted to include it because it should be a blast. The YA Sisterhood is hosting their Crush Tournament in which all our favorite book boyfriends go head to head to see who's the hottest crush of the year. It's nomination time again, and now through June 19th you can nominate your top 10 YA crushes and see who's already topping the list.

Topping my personal list this year is The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer's Noah Shaw, followed closely by Kaidan Rowe of Sweet Evil. The fabulous Michelle Hodkin is offering fans extra incentive to add Noah to their lists (as if we need it) by offering up a special scene of our choice should he receive enough nominations. Maybe it will be another scene from his POV! You can find all the details on Michelle's Blog.

SPF9 GIVEAWAY

Last but not least, I have the SPF9 Giveaway (from HarperTeen):

Did you know… books provide excellent shade? HarperTeen is giving you the chance to sample your very own Sun-Proof Fiction with nine of our most fantastic summer reads in paperback. During the month of June, we’ll be tweeting our favorite beach reading photos with #spf9 hashtag, giving away books and more on HarperTeen’s Facebook, and spreading the word that books can be better than sunglasses.

To enter the giveaway, just visit HarperTeen's Facebook Page.

WAIT! Before you run off and enter (because this giveaway is unbelievably awesome), HarperTeen has given me the privilege of hosting a separate giveaway here on the blog. Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below and you'll be entered for a chance to win. Giveaway is open to US residents only, good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway