A friend and I attended an author event last night. We were there to see Kelley Armstrong as fans of the Otherworld series for adults. But the event, the Dark Days Tour sponsored in St. Louis by Left Bank Books, was centered around YA books so Kelley was talking about her new high fantasy novel for teens, Sea of Shadows.
The HarperCollins publicist who moderated the panel is standing. The authors are Danielle Page with her first book, Dorothy Must Die; Kelley Armstrong with Sea of Shadows, Kiera Cass with The One, and Kimberly Derting with The Taking.
The other three authors are all new to me, but I’m a fan now! After hearing about their books, I want to read them all and their backlists, too.
The youngest members in the audience were there for Kiera Cass who has written a series about princesses, beginning with The Selection that is dark enough to be included in the Dark Days Tour. Two young women behind us, veterinary students at the University of Missouri, drove all the way from Columbia to see her. They reported that the books are really cute. A large number of tweens in the audience apparently agreed. There were very few men in the audience — most were escorting their daughters (which was also really cute) to this event to meet Kiera Cass.
My favorite question of the night was from one of those young audience members and she asked, “What are your favorite books?” My favorite answer was from Danielle Page who said Dickens, Austen (especially Persuasion), and…Marissa Meyer. Am I weird that her answer made me want to read her book? Dorothy Must Die is a dark twist on Oz, where Dorothy has seized power, letting it go to her head, and a new girl from Kansas needs to make things right again.
Our line to get our books signed by Kelley Armstrong ground to a halt when someone brought, apparently, every book that Kelley ever wrote to be signed. I took advantage of the wait to get a photo of the signing table.
Signing table of the Dark Days Tour. Kelley Armstrong is in the foreground. Danielle Page is having her photo taken with a fan. Kimberly Derting and Kiera Cass are at the far end of the table.
Author events are more common than they used to be in St. Louis, but I don’t attend very many. Perhaps, I should. This was a fun way to interact with readers and writers. Do you go to author events?
