Pen Fatale Event Recap

Pen Fatale Tour

Lynnwood WA

7pm October 13th 2011

with

Alyson Noel, Jessica Brody, Mary E. Pearson and Gabrielle Zevin

I did get to the event an hour early and I got one of the front row little green seats, not very comfortable. They each told a little about their books and than went to the fun Q&A part. I did take notes during the event so I could remember how they answered. It was actually really helpful and I will be doing it from now on, much better than trying to remember as many questions and answers as possible.

*Answers are summarized*

Q&A

What inspired your books?

Brody: The show Hills, Jessica thought they made really bad decisions and she thought she could make better decisions for them.

Pearson: She almost lost her daughter to cancer, lucky she had a curable cancer, but if she had been sick 15 years earlier she would have lost her.

Zevin: When she writes a book she likes to be able to answer a question in the book. She wanted to answer the question can we overcome a legacy of violence.

Noel: Lost a few people in her life in a very short time span, she wanted to explain death.

When did you start writing and why?

Noel: At 12 due to parents discord she started writing "bad poetry". During high school she started writing short stories. She got her short story read out loud during class and it changed her whole outlook on life and made her feel like she wasn't a loss cause. Faking 19 was the teacher that inspired her to write.

Brody: When she was 7 years old she wrote the Puppy and the Kitty. It was bound and she was so proud and wanted to be published. You can see the bound book at the bottom of her Bio page.

Pearson: She was in character form when she was little. Her parents even had to refer to her as her character name otherwise she wouldn't respond to them. One day when she was at a store she got separated from her parents. The retail worker kept asking her what her name was and Mary kept insisting her name was Little Red Riding Hood. The worker became exacerbated after continually asking her, so she went over the speaker asking "The parents of Little Red Riding Hood your daughter is looking for you"

Zevin: Guns & Roses, boyfriend... and I missed the rest of it while I was taking notes.

What is your favorite color?

Noel: Purple, she even wore purple pants to one of the Dark Days stops

Brody: Purple like her cover and matching marker to sign with

Pearson: Aqua like her scarf she was wearing

Zevin: Black, she likes to wear black but her house is all white

Zevin, how did you decide what to make illegal?

A chocolate store moved into the neighborhood and she ended up having a dark chocolate induced migraine. She also found it interesting that chocolate is graded like alcohol, 20%, 50%, 90%.

Brody, who made your book trailer?

She actually made it herself, well called in some help from her friends since she use to work in the movie production business. The process is long, stressful and lots of fun "labor of love", this was also her 1st time directing. 

Noel, what inspired Haven's character?

Haven is a congealment of many different people Alyson knew in her life. Haven and Ever can never be truly best friends because Haven is jealous of Ever. Haven is prickly, a difficult person who wants someone to love her. Alyson always felt sorry for Haven regardless of what she did to her character. 

Pearson, what made you come up with putting their minds in black boxes?

Research is great procrastination. Scientists are trying to stay alive long enough to scan their minds in 20 years to save themselves. The mind is the last frontier and it is so complicated and unknown.

This was another fun event, the 4 girls had lots of fun giggles and they loved the group of 4th graders that came to the event for Alyson Noel.

I hope they will all one day come back to Seattle, we loved having them.

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