Book Talk: Kim Harrison
Went to University Bookstore in Seattle last night to witness a reading/signing by mega-selling urban fantasy author Kim Harrison.
Or, to be more precise, I left the DJ at 6 p.m.. The signing was at 7. University Bookstore is located 9.5 miles from the DJ. One hour and thirty-three minutes later I arrive at the bookstore, sweaty and cross and having missed the reading and half the Q&A that followed.
I HATE Seattle traffic. Hate it. Hate it with the fire of a thousand suns and the glare of Paris Hilton's artificial tan.
I hate Seattle parking too, but that's an entirely different rant and would detract from the point of the post, which is that what I did manage to see of the Q&A was very informative and the signing was suprisingly un-awkward, given that I have a tendency to stammer and babble around industry pros.
Author signings are a whole other animal from authors at cons. The people who show up to signings are a) fans b) frustrated writers and c) stalkers. And there was me, but I fit into the fan-who-happens-to-write category. If you're at a signing keep it light. Don't attack the author asking if they'll read your MS. Ask good questions during the Q&A and thank the author for coming, unless the author was a giant dickhead, in which case you are allowed to collect a signature and sell the book on eBay.
Kim Harrison is a very sure speaker and offered some good insight into her writing process as well as answering 8 billion questions about who her heroine is finally going to end up in the sack with. (You get these questions a lot if you write urban fantasy with a female protagonist. I've asked myself this question about Luna more than once.*) Kim shared that she wrote many, many short stories before starting to write Dead Witch Walking, which is a common theme among pubbed writers, I find.
I have not written and/or pubbed many short stories, because I am way too verbose to keep things under 10,000 words.
An audience member asked Kim how she came up with one of her characters, and Kim responded "She was just sitting in the bar!" This is the best answer ever.
All in all, a fun evening with some good info and a very nice inscription in the front of my brand spankin' new copy of Fistful of Charms.
*The answer is "pie."
Or, to be more precise, I left the DJ at 6 p.m.. The signing was at 7. University Bookstore is located 9.5 miles from the DJ. One hour and thirty-three minutes later I arrive at the bookstore, sweaty and cross and having missed the reading and half the Q&A that followed.
I HATE Seattle traffic. Hate it. Hate it with the fire of a thousand suns and the glare of Paris Hilton's artificial tan.
I hate Seattle parking too, but that's an entirely different rant and would detract from the point of the post, which is that what I did manage to see of the Q&A was very informative and the signing was suprisingly un-awkward, given that I have a tendency to stammer and babble around industry pros.
Author signings are a whole other animal from authors at cons. The people who show up to signings are a) fans b) frustrated writers and c) stalkers. And there was me, but I fit into the fan-who-happens-to-write category. If you're at a signing keep it light. Don't attack the author asking if they'll read your MS. Ask good questions during the Q&A and thank the author for coming, unless the author was a giant dickhead, in which case you are allowed to collect a signature and sell the book on eBay.
Kim Harrison is a very sure speaker and offered some good insight into her writing process as well as answering 8 billion questions about who her heroine is finally going to end up in the sack with. (You get these questions a lot if you write urban fantasy with a female protagonist. I've asked myself this question about Luna more than once.*) Kim shared that she wrote many, many short stories before starting to write Dead Witch Walking, which is a common theme among pubbed writers, I find.
I have not written and/or pubbed many short stories, because I am way too verbose to keep things under 10,000 words.
An audience member asked Kim how she came up with one of her characters, and Kim responded "She was just sitting in the bar!" This is the best answer ever.
All in all, a fun evening with some good info and a very nice inscription in the front of my brand spankin' new copy of Fistful of Charms.
*The answer is "pie."
