Sci-Fi YA Panel with Beth Revis, Amie Kauffman, and Meagan Spooner

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend an author event (my first ever!) with Beth Revis (Across the Universe series), Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (These Broken Stars). Lissa Price (Starters and Enders) and Jodi Meadows (Incarnate) were supposed to be in attendance as well, but sadly, snowstorm Pax had other plans. Beth, Amie and Meagan were fabulous, though, and I was so excited to get to see them!

The three authors first chatting among themselves and with readers about some commonly asked questions that they get. It was so hilarious to get to hear them talk about their own writing processes (apparently Meagan likes to talk to herself and act out scenes). I don’t want to play favorites, but Beth was definitely my favorite out of the three. She just has a fun personality and is super hilarious. She told a story about a time when she was enacting a scene with her husband. This particular enactment just happened to require a fake gun and Beth being held in a choke hold by her husband, and the UPS man just happened to be dropping off some packages at that time. ;)

Both books (Across the Universe and These Broken Stars) are set in space, and it was interesting to hear some of the research the authors had to do. Lots of visits to the NASA website! Apparently it’s now known that the Russians are much more daring in space than Americans…records of various accidents and stunts have proven that to be very true. Whenever Amie or Meagan mentioned anything regarding plot/climax in relation to the space topic, Beth would chime in and reiterate her love for explosions. She really does love blowing things up. Exclusively in her books, hopefully.

Some people asked about writing advice or book covers (the dress on the cover of These Broken Stars got a lot of attention…apparently these three draped it over a statue at Biltmore, just for fun!). My favorite question, though, was “Which authors are you most thankful to be friends with, excluding the present authors?” I know for a fact that Beth is pretty chummy with Lauren DeStefano, and Meagan mentioned Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss). Stephanie is another author I’d love to meet- she’s a fellow North Carolinian like Meagan and Beth. Beth then went on to mention the time she met J.K. Rowling, and almost threw up. I’m tellin’ ya, this woman doesn’t get any more hilarious. Everyone was in stitches.

When I had Beth sign my book, she was like, “Shelby?! Like the city? I have a character in A Million Suns named Shelby!” And I was like, “Awesome, that’s cool.” And then she was like, “But I kill her off.” And I was all, “Ok, I guess that’s cool, too.” Ha.

I had such a fun time just listening to Beth, Amie, and Meagan talk about writing and their books. And it was great chatting to fellow English majors in line! Finally, people like me! I really felt like I belonged. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for YA author events in my area.