Lisa Mantchev Book Signing

Lisa Mantchev

Book Signing

September 23, 2011

University of Washington Bookstore in Seattle

For

So Silver Bright

The concluding book in the trilogy 

Theatre Illuminata Trilogy

Eyes Like Stars (my review)

Perchance to Dreams (my review)

So Silver Bright (my review)

Reading

The reading consisted of Lisa reading a short story of the fairies that she created for ___(can't remember). Lisa was asked to create her own version of a classic fairytale using her characters. She made her own version of Hansel and Gretel, which mainly features the gingerbread house and fairies eating, of course.

(One day I need to just record the event. I'm not much for the video recorders, I prefer taking pictures and I guess I would feel like an idiot holding one. Hopefully one day I will get over my person issues and I can have a true accurate recounting of the event.)

Q&A

These are the questions that I can remember. The answers are paraphrased and written how I remember. 

My Question: When did you know which guy Bertie was going to choose? 

I hate love triangle and I initially had no idea who Bertie was going to end up with. The very end had me crying and balling my eyes out, but he was the right choice. I don't want to ever do another love triangle again, I hate writing love triangles but the YA genre loves them.

Question: How did you choose Bertie's mom?

I wrote the whole book not knowing who Bertie's mom was going to be. I knew a drowning was going to a part in the next book and she just revealed herself by the end.

Question: Why a lot of Shakespeare characters, what about others?

Write what you know and I know Shakespeare very well. The fairies were the first characters that made themselves known to me, since their part is very small I felt comfortable taking them and molding them as I saw them as characters. I had to be careful about which characters I could use due to ownership writes. This book is basically fan-fiction, but the publishers liked it. I didn't think Shakespeare would come to tell me I had gotten the characters all wrong. Since I already knew so much about these characters I didn't have to do any of the dreaded research.

Question: If an author were to die which of their characters would you like to use?

Well technically he is already dead but the guy who wrote Peter Pan, the right are very confusing and I need to research it a little more. In England people can't use Peter Pan, but in the US I think the characters can be used, I wasn't quit clear on it. 

Question: How involved was the theater in your life?

I have always done theater. I did school and community theater, but once I had to start getting serious about it and start training to do theater I had to rethink my goals. My senior year I went back to playwright.

Question: How did the story first start?

My friend dared me to write a story. What I thought was only going to be a short story ended up being a book and the book ended up being a trilogy. I hate trilogies, no matter how great book 2 is everyone always wants book 3 for the conclusion.

We all started joking about daring her for a new book.

Question: What's next?

I have 4 works in progress. A steam-punk series that might never see the light of day. I have left the series open for possible spin off series, but nothing is contracted. A Labyrinth inspired story with 4 princesses put into an oubliette. 

Question: Any movie deals yet?

Nothing yet. We still have rights to everything, foreign rights and even the audio rights for book 2 and 3. Book 1 was made into an audio and they did very well with it, I just don't think they realized the under taking in casting 40 people. Back to the movie part. I like the company that did Coraline, I think they did really well. I don't think the book would do really well as a live action, it would be better as an animation. I would also like to see it as a play and be taken to the stage.

Random Information

Book 1 was originally titled Scrimshander 

Inspiration of the faeries craziness comes from inside her head and her kids. Sugar Bean is a pirate princess and Tiny Doom's latest mischief was pulling out the baking sheets, stomping on them and holding a fist full off goldfish making lots of noise.

2 more free wallpapers are coming soon

She wants the illustrator to make the books into a graphic novel

If you would like to get your own signed copy of the book go to University of Washington Bookstore, I believe all the stock is signed. I not sure how to make sure if the book is signed, I have never ordered through there. I'm guessing you could also call the bookstore as well and order through them personally. Book only orders over $20 have free shipping. Those have her signature and the 4 stars around the title.
 

 Eyes Like Stars
For Kristina
Follow your stars!
Lisa Mantchev

So Silver Bright
For Kristina
Thank you for being a patron of the Theatre Illuminata.
Lisa Mantchev

I now regret not bringing my copy of Perchance to Dreams. I bought it from the University Bookstore (the golden sticker on the book in above photo) after she had the last signing there. Next time she has a signing I will bring it so I can have the tagline, I love those.

We also got these cute bracelets

Backstage Pass, the rest of it has the web address theatre-illuminata.com
I really like this picture, it looks like the bracelet and Bertie are in the spotlight.

The event was lots of fun and there was also yummy chocolate cupcakes. Lisa is an amazing person and I look forward to more of her books and more events in the future.

<3Books