My First Solo Reading!

THE ARC for SOMETHING REAL…cover reveal coming soon!

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Wheelock College in Boston to do a reading for SOMETHING REAL and a YA Q&A. This was my first reading on my own and the start of working to get the book out there, since it comes out in about THREE MONTHS! It wasn’t my first *official* reading, since I read an excerpt from it at the awards ceremony for the 2012 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award (which I, along with one other YA author, received for SOMETHING REAL, then titled Streaming). That reading was way more nerve-wracking – you try reading your debut novel in front of Lois Lowry while she is sitting in the front row. The lack of author icons notwithstanding, this was a really great opportunity to test the waters and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of readers. HUGE thanks To Gillian Devereaux, who organized the event. There were over thirty people there, most of them students or faculty at Wheelock, which is a college focused on social work and education. An entire aesthetics class attended, as well, which brought up lots of interesting questions regarding YA book covers and how to view YA in the overall literary canon.

A view from the back – look at all these people!

I admit, I was a bit nervous before I got there – you never know how many people are going to show up. What if it was just me and the janitor?! (Alas, he or she didn’t make an appearance). Well, actually, my husband came along (and took photos and was generally supportive and fabulous, as usual). I knew he would laugh at the funny parts. Worries about attendance aside, I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice-sized crowd. Most of the time was spent on the Q&A, since I find readings to be a bit awkward (this is maybe just my thing, but I’m not much of an auditory person – my very favorite writer could be up there reading from their new book and I’d have trouble focusing). I think some authors are great at reading aloud, whether or not their work seems to lend itself to that medium, but I’m not at that comfort level. I recently went to a reading where David Levithan shared some of Two Boys Kissing and he killed it. I had major reading envy. Even so, I actually enjoyed getting to spend time with the characters again and it was cool introducing them to new people – kind of like having your parents meet your boyfriend for the first time.

The Q&A was AWESOME. I have never heard such probing, insightful questions at any panel or reading I’ve attended. We pretty much covered everything I care about in regards to YA, from what makes a book YA to authorial responsibility. It was really funny to see how few people raised their hands when I asked who read YA, but then when I shouted out specific book titles (Hunger Games, The Book Thief), all the hands went up! I do think there is still a YA stigma out there, but I also think that a lot of people are still not really sure if a book is YA, children’s, or adult. I like to think everyone walked away from our time together feeling pumped to read YA (and hopefully SOMETHING REAL).

Having fun answering questions and doing an advanced copy giveaway

After the reading and fun YA trivia game with ARCs as prizes, I got to sign my very first copy of SOMETHING REAL (it was the ARC, but it still counts!). This, more than anything else, made me feel like an *real* author. The whole event was sort of like a coming out party, though I’m no debutante.

Signing ARCs! I love my readers already!

I’m really looking forward to future readings, not because I want to read my book out loud (not sure if I’ll ever think that’s fun), but because I’m really excited to engage with other readers. Maybe I should start sneaking onto panels or something. Below is the content of a handout I gave to everyone, a YA “cheat sheet” with resources on writing, YA, and a book list.

Thanks, Wheelock! I had a blast.