Monday, May 12, 2008

The first big gigs: Young Authors and Denver!

I always love it when bands schedule a short tour right before their new album comes out and you get a sneak peek of their new material. So I’m doing that a little bit for IWBYJR. Well, I mean, I have been reading sections of the book at open mics and local events for a while, but now I have swag to give away and can answer questions about writing and the publishing process and stuff, too. Basically these are bigger, better events that are a preview of my tour and the stuff I’ll do after the book comes out.

I did my first major event this weekend. I was a panelist at Young Authors at Columbia College Chicago. I helped coordinate this event for four years while I was at Columbia, so it was really amazing to be invited back to be a part of it in this way. I got to answer questions about my writing process and publishing for high school students. It was my first ever experience on a panel. I’m glad that I was with such a great group of authors (Don DeGrazia, Colt Foutz, and Drew Ferguson), who had really insightful things to say and taught me a thing or two and we were in front of a very savvy audience of teens who asked great questions. I actually felt surprisingly comfortable up there and didn’t have a whole lot of brain freezes or anything. Good for a first time out. The best part was talking to the teens afterwards and hearing them read at the open mic at the end of the event. I always loved that part when I worked on Young Authors, so I made sure to stick around for it, and I was not disappointed. There was some extremely powerful, sad, hilarious, and daring stuff. Much better than I was when I was in high school. So I hope they all keep it up.

My next event on May 25th at 2 pm at the Mercury Café in Denver is exciting for several reasons:

  • It’s my first out of state event (this also makes me completely nervous that no one will come so if you are near Denver or have friends in the area please please come or send them!)
  • It’s my first event with musical accompaniment, which given the subject matter of my book and my not-so-secret desire to be a rock star is so appropriate and I want to do more of these kinds of events if possible.
  • My musical accompaniment is the River Rise, a band that one of my best friends in the whole world Eryn plays guitar and sings for. She is like one of the best people to try to this music/literary combo event thing out with because she is so talented and easy-going and helpful and with her up there I will be less nervous.
  • We’re doing a raffle for one of my last available ARCs of IWBYJR.
  • Eryn made this sweet-ass flyer that she intends to plaster all over Denver (if you click on it, it will open in another window so you can zoom in and read it better):

So yeah, please come see us in Denver in less than two weeks!

After that I’ll be doing some more sneak peek gigs with swag and book giveaways at Printer’s Row Book Festival in Chicago, Summer Fest in Forest Park, and at Old School Records in Forest Park. Check out my gigs page for info.

PS. Melissa Walker has a great opportunity for teens on her blog today. Check it out here!

1 comment:

Keri Mikulski said...

Sounds fun, Stephanie. Enjoy!