Photo Essay: Laini Taylor at the Portland Barnes + Noble

Laura, Sandra and I had great fun meeting up with our blogging friend Flannery from The Readventurer, who drove down from Seattle to see Laini Taylor speak at our local Barnes & Noble earlier this week. 

(Check out Flan’s recap here.) 

This BN actually has a great YA section, one of the better ones in town, actually. However, they’re not so great at organizing events. For example, this is a two-level store, but there was no signage indicated where the reading/signing was in the store, just that it was happening.  

I got the impression that the staff at this store didn’t realize that Laini is a pretty popular author, nor that Days of Blood & Starlight was one of the more anticipated YA books of the year. They didn’t have a lot of chairs and didn’t direct people to enter the drawing for what looked like some cool prizes of Daughter of Smoke & Bone jewelry. 

Shoe Watch!

Laura is not wearing flipflops, guys! Stop the presses!

My shoes. These are ancient, Spain-themed sneakers. 

Flannery wouldn’t let me take a photos of her feet. Clearly, she did not know CEFS event photography protocol. :)

Some interesting tidbits from Laini’s talk:

• She has treatment approval on the Daughter of Smoke & Bone script, which is kind of unusual for authors;
• She wrote DoSaB while she was trying to write a science fiction novel;
• In the rest of the world, the series is marketed at an adult novel, not YA (I have many thoughts on this);
• Laini tried to start the events of book two six months after the first book, but it didn’t work, which is why the sequel ended up being essentially a “war book” (which is why I’ve held off reading it); and
• The potential movie screenwriters are struggling with the ended flashback section in the first book, since it’s an unconventional approach.  

*Sigh* the drawing the BN employees didn’t announce. Obviously, none of us won. ;)

Sandra really loved Blackbringer, and Laini recommends is for younger readers who aren’t ready for the intensity of the DoSaB series. She also said that she and her husband, Jim Di Bartolo, would like to collaborate on a graphic novel for children sometime. How cool would that be? 

Laini seemed like a lovely person and her discussion of her writing process was fascinating. However, the highlight of the event was definitely hanging out with Flannery and one of her Goodreads buddies. Hooray for real-life connections with people who we know from the series of tubes that is the internet. 

Laura, Flannery and I with the copy of Love-Shy that the lovely Mandee sent all the way from Australia. (Laura and I aren’t really that short—Flannery is just making us look like we’re child-sized.)