{"id":2150,"date":"2015-07-25T11:48:20","date_gmt":"2015-07-25T18:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2015-07-29T13:35:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T20:35:41","slug":"pasadena-loves-ya-fantasy-sci-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2015\/pasadena-loves-ya-fantasy-sci-fi\/","title":{"rendered":"Pasadena Loves YA: Fantasy & Sci-Fi"},"content":{"rendered":"

recap by Hadley, teen\u00a0blogger<\/p>\n

\"fantasy<\/p>\n

The\u00a0YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy panel\u00a0featured Jessica Brody,<\/em> <\/strong>author of the Unremembered<\/em> series,<\/em> Romina Russell,<\/em> <\/strong>author of Zodiac, <\/em>and Kiersten White,<\/em><\/strong> author of Illusions of Fate. <\/em>The moderator of the panel was Livia<\/em><\/strong> Blackburne<\/strong>,<\/em> author of Midnight Thief<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What makes your story unique compared to other books of the genre?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

White:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cIn Illusions of Fate<\/em>\u2014<\/em>and I was talking to a friend about this recently\u2014I feel like I understand exactly what a book would need in order to capture the largest possible audience and just really take off. I can\u2019t do it, because I can\u2019t write without feeling like I\u2019m also being devious, so maybe my previous life was also as a thirteen-year-old, because I just have to feel like I\u2019m getting away with something. You see a lot of funny, paranormal romance books, there are more now, Rachel Hawkins, but with that one, I was reading all these super serious books, and I\u2019m going, \u2018If your boyfriend is a 100-year-old vampire who sparkles in the sunlight, that is super funny.\u2019 And so I wanted to write a paranormal romance that was a good paranormal romance but also poked fun at that, so I had to feel like I was getting away with something. And it was the same with Illusions of Fate;<\/em> I wanted to write a really good fantasy novel, but I wanted to write also the chosen one arc. You see that arc, like, \u2018Simply because of who you are, who you were born, the fact that you exist, you\u2019re the most important person in the world.\u2019 I wanted my main character to live in a world that said to her, \u2018Simply because of who you are, and how you were born, you do not matter.<\/em>\u2019<\/em> And the challenge then was to write a book in which there were big stakes and there was magic, and she couldn\u2019t do any of it but she was still determined and smart and confident and hadn\u2019t let that break her. So that, to me, was the spark and the reason why I wrote Illusions of Fate.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Russell:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cZodiac<\/em> is a book about a girl who wants to save the universe, and I feel like we\u2019ve seen that a lot, and it\u2019s about a girl discovering herself and discovering her voice, and I feel like we see that a lot as well. I think some of the different things are\u2026 I hadn\u2019t read a book where there were planets were based on each zodiac sign before, so I thought that was a lot of fun to develop, and I\u2019m sure a lot of stuff in Zodiac<\/em> has been done. I think the two things that kind of, for me, I wanted to be different about Rhoma [the female protagonist] was I didn\u2019t want her to be a natural fighter, or someone who is naturally aggressive. This last time I said that she\u2019s more Prim than Katniss. She is more gentle, and I wanted to explore what that person would turn into when thrust into a more violent world and role. And two, she can\u2019t wield a weapon, just like I can\u2019t. She\u2019s not athletic, and she\u2019s definitely not a fighter, and I was like, \u201cWell, how would that person save the world? How do you save the world when your weapon is your voice, or your heart?\u201d And so many of, I think, the scars that stay with us are actually emotional, and they\u2019re not really physical, and so I thought it\u2019d be really cool if the realm that this was fought on was actually psychological and more kind of your soul as opposed to a physical fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brody:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cLet\u2019s see, my series is unique because it has a girl who\u2019s been genetically modified. No, that doesn\u2019t work. My story is unique because it has an evil corporation. No, that doesn\u2019t work. My series is unique because it has memory loss! Nope, not that one either\u2026 To be honest, there is something I think that makes it unique\u2014I can\u2019t tell you because it\u2019s the spoiler\u2014but what I want to tell you is what I tell all aspiring writers or writers alike: what makes it unique is because you wrote it. A lot of young writers are like, \u201cI\u2019m so scared of someone stealing the idea or someone writing the same thing.\u201d No one can write the same thing. You can take the same plot line, the same plot, the same synopsis, the same chapter outline, and give it to all four of us, and we\u2019d give you four different books because we are four different people. And that is what makes everyone\u2019s book unique. You\u2019ve heard the old adage, \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as an original idea.\u201d It\u2019s totally true. All you have is an original take, or an original voice. I urge you, any writers out there, I urge you not to look for an original idea but to look for your voice because that\u2019s the only thing that can make a book truly original.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blackburne:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cWhat I do like about Midnight Thief,<\/em> and what I think is unique about it, is that I love playing with the complex moral dilemmas in the story, questions about how far do you go to fight for justice. If you harm some innocent people along the way, is it worth it if it will save more people in the long run? And that was a lot of fun to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Romina<\/a>
Romina Russell, author of Zodiac signing a Pasadena Loves YA tote for a fan. Photo by Katie Ferguson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A question from the audience: What are your next books or series about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brody:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cI paid her to ask that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blackburne:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cThen I guess you should answer first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Brody:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cI just finished my next book, which I\u2019m so excited about! It\u2019s called A Week of Mondays.<\/em> I\u2019m going back to my contemporary comedy roots, no more sci-fi for a while. It\u2019s about a sixteen-year-old girl who lives through the worst Monday of her life, including her boyfriend breaking up with her, and then she wakes up the next day and it is the exact same Monday.<\/em> And she has to go through this horrible day, including the awful breakup, over and over until she figures out how to fix it. So it\u2019s a little bit of a Groundhog Day<\/em> with a teen girl. It will be out in pretty much a year from today.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Russell:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cMy next book is Wandering Star,<\/em> which comes out in December, the sequel to Zodiac,<\/em> and then book three comes out December 2016. And in the meantime, I returned to my ten-year-old work in progress, so just to show how the length of time it takes you to finish a book totally depends on that idea. Zodiac<\/em> took a few months, I\u2019m not kidding, and this other book that\u2019s so much shorter and less involved is going on ten years. So I mean really, there\u2019s no rhyme or reason. For writers out there, if something isn\u2019t working, try something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

White:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cMy next book is called And I Darken.<\/em> It\u2019s coming out next summer, and it\u2019s the one that I mentioned that\u2019s a historical fantasy set in the Ottoman Empire. The main characters are brother and sister. One of those is Vlad the Impaler, if you know who he is. Super fun, cheery historical figure to write a book about.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blackburne:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cAnd the sequel to Midnight Thief<\/em> is probably at the printer right now, it should be coming out in August.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

recap by Hadley, teen\u00a0blogger The\u00a0YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy panel\u00a0featured Jessica Brody, author of the Unremembered series, Romina Russell, author of Zodiac, and Kiersten White, author of Illusions of Fate. The moderator of the panel was Livia Blackburne, author of Midnight Thief.   What makes your story unique compared to other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51,50],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs-and-events","tag-authors","tag-book-festival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ZwbD-yG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1838,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2015\/pasadena-loves-ya-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2150,"position":0},"title":"Pasadena Loves YA: THANK YOU","author":"Jane Gov","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Uniting fans and authors... 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