#SuperSummerYA with authors at Copperfields Books Petaluma!

It’s always an enjoyable time when I attend a signing at Copperfield’s Books. And even though the power was out in Petaluma, the staff at the store made the event still enjoyable! The skylights in the store kept it lit through the entire event.

The power outage only made it a more memorable event! Especially, when these awesome authors started talking about how dystopian books have got it all wrong, that we actually could totally survive an apocalypse. That made for quite a funny joke in light of (pun intended) the power outage!


I have to personally note a very embarrassing moment for myself (and I don't embarrass easily). I was recording this event on my phone since I was asked to cover this event and I didn't want to misquote anything that was said by the authors. So while I was sitting there listening to the authors, I started wondering if I was recording correctly, so (of course!) I started messing with my phone. And then right there in the middle of the event my phone started playing out loud for the all the audience to hear a part that I had already recorded. I went through immediate freak-out mode and didn't know what to do with myself. I felt my face turning red and I fumbled with my phone to try and turn the dang thing off. Thankfully, the authors were very kind to act like it was no big deal! Phew!

☆ Daisy Whitney ☆





Daisy was the moderator at this event and she made it a lot of fun to follow along and she kept the event moving smoothly. She's super funny too!

I added below some of the comments Daisy would respond with while interviewing the authors and that made the signing quite entertaining!










☆ Marissa Meyer ☆





Marissa talked about her favorite scene to write which was when Scarlet and Wolf are aboard the Maglev train. "...is pretty much my favorite thing I've written EVER...in my entire life." Daisy said, "You guys are going to have to tell me what page that's on!" "I can find it" Marissa says as she picks up Scarlet.





☆ Susanne Winnacker ☆



"Well my favorite scene is at the end so I can't really talk much because it's with the serial killer...so that's just way too much."

Susanne talked about how she had to do research on DNA because her character's ability is that she’s able to absorb DNA so Susanne had to learn about dormant DNA. She even learned about how some people are born with a tail. And she also did some research on dead bodies; for example, how a dead body would look if it stayed in the water for a long time.




☆ Debra Driza ☆





Debra talked about the research involved in Mila 2.0 and how it creeped her out. She didn't like the thought that people truly believed that in the future everyone will just stay home and live in a virtual reality, and how amazingly advanced humans already are at making androids.

Her favorite scene to write was also her hardest. She said, "It was really fun but really scary to write."



☆ S. J. Kincaid ☆



Talked about how her favorite scene to write in Insignia was when the main character meets his nemesis. It's in a mythology virtual reality scenario. "Were you smiling?" said Daisy Whitney. "Yes I was," replied SJ.

S.J. talked about how, while she was writing Insignia, she was also in nursing school working with people that were severely schizophrenic. This experience was a big inspiration in her story because a big premise of the story is about computers in people's brains.



☆ Shannon Messenger ☆



Her favorite scene to write was the kissing scene. She was always terrified to write the kissing scene, but she was able to do from the POV of the male character. She was scared about having to be descriptive and struggled with the thought that she would have to use the word "tongue." Shannon said, "We're in a boy’s head! And he's just like "yeah!"...The kissing scenes in book 2 are uh...I finally found a way to use that word tongue comfortably." Daisy's response, "I'm just going to say that my book is the boy's point of view... and they do more than just kiss."

Shannon is also an artist and she has some pretty awesome swag of her own personal art.

Shannon talked about how Keeper of Lost Souls was the book that took a lot of work, but Let the Sky Fall was the book she wrote for herself which kept her sanity through the revisions of Keeper.


☆ Melissa Buell ☆




Melissa’s research was based on her wanting to learn about medieval weapons, so she tagged along with her friends to a renaissance fair. Her friends required her to dress up, so she got herself all costumed up in 15th century attire. She was able to talk to the soldiers at the fair, and she got to pick up the weapons to get the feel of them. The following year, she went again and took her kids along.





Ending the night at Copperfield’s, signing books in the dark



And I ended MY night with this deliciousness!