A couple of fun literary things that happened
I was in Utah for a few days last week, visiting friends and family in my old stomping grounds. It’s always nice to see my bros and hos in the Beehive State.
On Monday, a couple of fun things happened. I had a few minutes before I was supposed to be somewhere, so I stopped at the Barnes & Noble in Orem to browse. There was an exceptionally large crowd of people milling around, many of them youngsters, so I wondered if I’d happened upon a field trip of some kind. Then I saw that an autograph-signing was in progress, featuring Brandon Mull, author of the “Fablehaven” books.
Brandon and I are both BYU alumni, and we’ve occasionally crossed paths over the years. He was part of Divine Comedy, the sketch troupe that was inspired by my Garrens Comedy Troupe, and now of course we’re both writers. Except he writes fiction, and he has fabulously well-attended book-signings.
He was nice enough to send me a copy of the first “Fablehaven” last year, and I raved about it briefly in my blog at the time. I knew the second book, “Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star,” had been released, and I realized as I was saying hello to Brandon here at Barnes & Noble that I hadn’t seen it yet. When I told him that, he said, “Oh, didn’t they send you a copy?” I told him indeed “they” had not, but that I would eagerly await it if they were going to. Hooray for connections to people who offer free copies of their novels!
I congratulated him on his success and turned to go, whereupon I nearly knocked over a display for “New Moon,” the sequel to “Twilight,” written by Stephenie Meyer, who I happen to know is a devoted EricDSnider.com visitor. “Twilight” is a teen-romance-vampire story, and a very good one at that, and now I realized I had TWO sequels-to-books-written-by-people-I-sort-of-know that I needed to read. Stephenie wasn’t on hand to offer me a free copy, though, so I’ll have to make other arrangements. I must put a cap on the mooching off my novelist acquaintances lest they start writing unflattering mooch characters based on me. (Possible fictional name: Eric D. Schnorrer.)
The second fun thing that happened Monday night should probably be a separate entry, and so it shall be.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:14 am
A sweet Mormon girl writes vampire novels? I am definitely going to check out Meyer’s Twilight. Fablehaven looks good too.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:07 am
“my bros and hos ” -So all women are prostitutes? Or just women you’re friends with?
May 24th, 2007 at 8:09 am
You were in proximity of the Orem Village Inn. I wonder if the second fun thing that happened occured there.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Oh, drat. I meant to go to that book signing, but I somehow got the idea the 21st was next week (that’s how alert I am). I missed a chance to run into two great writers, darn it.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Twilight and New Moon are very good.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I haven’t read the Fablehaven books, but I’ve heard good things and am definitely interested. Meyer’s books are great–even if you’re not a teenage girl. The third book in her twilight series is coming out this August. I highly reccommend them!
May 24th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I preordered the new Fablehaven book, and didn’t realize it had been released already, because I have not received it. I guess it’s time to preorder the new Twilight book, too. Although apparently that hasn’t worked out so well for me so far.
May 25th, 2007 at 2:09 am
OK, OK, OK FINE.
I wasn’t going to read the Meyer books. Too many people have raved about them to me and the old bookstore employee snob in me decided she wasn’t having any of it. However, if you’re a fan, they go on the list. Behold the power of Eric!
May 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I have never understood the If-everyone-loves-something-it-must-be-awful line of thought. Sometimes the public likes crap, but sometimes there is a good reason that something is popular. Shakespeare was popular in his day.
May 25th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Keep in mind that when the hoi polloi rave about books it’s because they don’t read very often and don’t have a truly comprehensive scale for rating. It’s one thing when my neighbor who doesn’t read recommends a book to me. “Yes, I’m quite sure that Jan Karon writes lovely books.” It’s quite another when Eric does. I’ve known Eric for a long time and we share similar tastes in literature. If someone I trust raves about a book I’m more likely to read it.
As for the bookstore thing:
It’s not that the public doesn’t EVER know what they’re talking about; it’s mostly a rebellious thing. You get to the point that if enough people ask or bug you about a book it turns you off to it entirely.
May 25th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Talk about coincidences. I visited the post office/general store up at Riverwoods while waiting for Pirates 3 to start, and the girl there was reading Twilight. Her first reaction to everyone’s enthusiasm was also “yeah, yeah, sure, sure,” and now she can’t wait for book 3 to come out–and she’s still halfway through the first one. Guess I’d better look up a copy.
May 28th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Another fun book coming out soon and written by a BYU grad is Shannon Hale’s Austenland. I work in a bookstore and I got an advance copy last month. It was hilarious. I would recommend it to anyone. She is the author of the Goose Girl series and Princess Academy.