I had a lovely time at the Worcester Public Library on Tuesday! They have a really beautiful space, and it’s a great library with a ton of books run by wonderful people. We had a nice crowd including readers, writers, and friends, and my awesome friend Beth kindly took a ton of photos for me, so I can share some with you!
Here I am reading THE TETHERED MAGE in front of the backdrop they set up from these cool exhibit panel thingies they had around the library:
And here I am answering questions from the audience, which luckily did not include “Do you realize you’re wearing the same shirt as in your author photo? Do you even HAVE another shirt?”
I started out the “talk” portion mentioning how hard it is to answer questions like “What was the first book you wrote?” or “How many books did you write before you got published?” when you’ve been writing since you were a kid, complete with samples from my foolish youth. Here’s the Gargor Eats People page of the actual first book I ever created (at the age of 3 or 4), which I think I mention in the interview in the back of THE TETHERED MAGE:
And here’s a (very) thinly disguised Pern fanfic I wrote in a blank journal when I was 10 (LOOK I WAS REALLY PROUD IT WAS A BOOK FULL OF WORDS OKAY):
And here’s the big binder full of hundreds of pages of the book I wrote by hand, in pen, as a teenager (WHO NEEDS SECOND DRAFTS WHEN YOU’RE 15? YOU DON’T RULE ME YOU CAN’T MAKE ME EDIT!):
I had a great time taking a lot of really wonderful questions from a fantastic audience. Some great questions about everything from developing your own narrative voice, to the cover process, to questions about THE DEFIANT HEIR and what’s next beyond!
Here’s my favorite pic from the Q&A segment. I have no idea what I was saying. Maybe “You want to be a WRITER?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELF?! FOR MERCY’S SAKE, ESCAPE NOW WHILE YOU CAN!”
Thanks to the WPL and everyone who came by on a cold night!
Melissa Caruso 