Houston Teen Book Con 2015

Rose and I recently attended the 2015 Houston Teen Book Con. We had a very full day of author panels. After which, there are now a bunch more books we want to read. But we managed to not buy a single book. (Go #ShelfLove Challenge!)

I found that the overall take-away from all of the authors was that stories and characters really do surprise authors, even the authors who plan out their books. And that a good book should answer the question of What If? It never occurred to me in all the books I’ve read  that authors may not always know where a character is headed. As for the What if? question, I appreciated learning that authors have a basic idea when they start writing. And the favorite book of a lot of the authors was The Outsiders or Catcher in the Rye, neither of which I’ve read.

 

 

The Keynote speaker was Gayle Foreman. She started her presentation with 90 seconds of silence. And it was amazing to me how not quiet or silent the audience was. There was loads of grumbling and staring at phones. The real point of this activity was that inspiration cannot come with all the distractions we have today. So put down your phone for a few minutes and just let your mind wonder. It’s a great take-away for every day use. How can you experience life if you are always looking at it through the screen of your phone.

 

Rose and I attended all but one of the panels (sorry, graphic novels are not our thing).

The first panel we attended was “The Hardest Thing”. This panel included Gayle Forman and Elizabth Wein. The topic description is realistic fiction. And if you have ever read books by any of the authors, you’ll understand why. The books by these authors include some heavy topics like suicide, arranged marriage, and funerals. All of the characters’ mothers are dead (which is just a weird coincidence, and not planed). The panel, for me, was the best of the day. The format for Teen Book Con is to take questions from the audience, and then each of the authors responds. The panel was asked some excellent questions, and was entertaining in their responses. One question was which author had the most outlandish story of research for one of their books. Elizabeth Wein went wing riding on a bi-plane for her most recent book. And loved it. I, personally, am not sure that wing riding would be for me.

The second panel we attended was “The Truth About Love”. This was the contemporary romance panel. The most entertaining author of this panel was David Levithan. He answered the question of which song best represents a character from your book by singing a geometry problem (we were in high school class room). He also explained the What If for his book Everyday. This book answers the question of what if you woke up in a different body every day. Alexis Bass also stated that if there are no tears in the author (while writing), there will be no tears in the reader. Very true point.

 

The third panel of the day was “The Secrets That Bind Us”. Action and adventure were the theme of this panel. First note, Henry Turner has a SUPER DEEP voice. He should read books! Henry also said that if you want to be a writer, be a reader first. A reader of all kinds of books. All of the authors in this panel agreed that sequels were very difficult to write. But then I had to ask myself, if sequels are very difficult to write, why do so many books have sequels. Very odd.

 

“Reality Need Not Apply” was the forth panel of this day. This was the science fiction panel. And as a reader of science fiction, I now want to read books by all of these authors. Scott Westerfeld told an amusing anecdote about the What If for Uglies.  He had a friend who moved to Los Angeles from New York. The dentist asked where this friend wanted his teeth to be in 5 years, to get that perfect Tom Cruise smile that is prevalent in Los Angeles. And Scott thought, what if everyone had plastic surgery to make themselves “perfect”. Lydia Kang stated that she wants all of her science fiction books to be rooted in science. And Kristen Simmons stated that many science fiction books are based in reality first. I loved this statement. When I read science fiction or dystopia, I, too, find very real world similarities to many of these types of books.

 

The final panel of the day was “Magical Mayhem”. This was the magical realism/fantasy panel. Needless to say, Rose and I were worn out by the end of the day. I don’t have many notes on this panel. I did learn that magical realism is a genre (who knew?). I might have to check out more of these books. Or maybe I already have, and I classified them as Urban Fantasy. Sarah Cross’ statement about writer’s block was intriguing. She stated that writer’s block is a result of trying to force the story or characters to go in one direction, when they really want to go in another. This goes back to the theme of authors not always knowing where the story or characters are going at the time.

The closing speech was a conversation between David Levithan and Ally Carter. This was a bit odd to Rose and I. As they were really speaking to each other, and not involving the audience at all. Maybe this would have been better if it was more interactive.

Did you attend Houston Teen Book Con? What were your thoughts on the panels? Did you have a good time? I’m excited to see which authors will be attending next year.

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