Alexandra Bracken is a New York Times bestselling author, Eliza Wass is an American author who grew up in a strict religious bubble, and Melinda Salisbury is a young adult fantasy author. The
I had been up since 5:30am, worked until 2pm and then went home changed, had a nap and off I went again to this event I stumbled on. I had not read or really heard of any of the panelists before but had seen some buzz around ‘Passenger’ the novel from Alexandra Bracken.
Laure Eve, an author herself, was the host of the evening. With such a broad range of personalities and backgrounds it meant the panel was quite lively and insightful. “do you ever self-censor whilst writing?” was interesting for someone like Wass who came from a strict religious upbringing, so her whole life centred around censorship to an extent.
I think this was a very interesting question particularly when there were a few moments of mispronounced words/stumbles which became a running joke and i think at a YA event it’s important to remember an audience in this case as some were quite young, and had parents accompanying them, and self censor to an extent.
Another question I found helpful was: “What do you wish someone had told you at the start of your career?” There is a lot more to writing a novel, then writing everyday. The editing and marketing take a huge amount of time up. Alex Bracken was only in London for 2 days on her book tour.
and then the lights went out- there was awkward talk as we waited for them to come back on
The signing line was intense. A few girls had the entire back catalogue of Alex Brackens books, so the the signing would take over an hour. I picked up Passenger and was able to have a chat to Bracken, who was a bit thrown by my accent, about moving countries and attending events to meet people.
Disclaimer: Featured photos are saved from internet sources and are not the product of my own skills. All workshops/events are paid for by me and all reviews are mine from my own notes, opinions and experiences.
