Whirlwind week already and I am finally getting a chance to chat with you! Weekend away, start of the week out of town for work, and then…. what I want to tell you about today… the Patrick Ness event in ST Paul Minnesota at Magers and Quinns book store.
To bring you up to speed, Patrick Ness is the author of the Chaos Walking Series, the first book being The Knife Of Never Letting Go, which I read in fall of 2011 and flew through the following two books in the series.
SOOOO GOOD!
When I read that Ness was coming to Minnesota I could not believe it. Currently living in London, his only Minnesota stop on his tour for his new book, The Crane’s Wife , was the day after the books release date, this past Tuesday. Honestly – I really did not even know what the book was about. This for me… was all about Ness.
My friend Amy (crazy adventure friend and book club cohort) joined me, having also read and loved the Chaos Walking series. We arrived early as we expected there would be quite the crowd, purchased our Crane’s Wife books at the book store and asked the nice book store guy if we would hold two spots once they set the chairs up, for the Brainerd girls who drove two hours to the event. He said he would… and we went down the block to my favorite Thai restaurant.
When we came back, sure enough, two seats were saved for us right up front. RIGHT UP FRONT. Like, Patrick could have spit on us close. 😀
When he came out to talk he was funny, although admitting he wasn’t feeling well and therefore was requesting that someone out of the audience come up and read him the questions for his time with us…. and so…
Amy did. 😛
The first question on the page was, “So Patrick, tell us a little about yourself?”
He was fun and interesting. He talked about his books, and then her read a bit out of The Crane Wife, explaining that it stemmed from a story his teacher used to tell to the class when he was 5. He said he loved that teacher. He wanted her to be his mom and his wife…. at 5 years old, he felt they could work out the age difference somehow.
When Patrick read from the Crane Wife, although he denied it, his voice was perfect for narration. I fell in love with the story – through him… and suddenly couldn’t wait to read it. He has a personal story within the book that he shared with us…a childhood happening that he tied into the read. Again… I wanted to read the book more that ever.
Patrick talked about his YA books, which included the Chaos Walking series *sigh* and a book he released last fall, More Than This. He says each book he writes has a theme song that he listens to over and over again during the writing process. I found that fascinating.
I wish I would have taken notes, but early on in his talk I was uploading that first picture of Amy to Facebook and he called me out of the crowd …ok, not the crowd as I was sitting about 18 inches away from him and asked if I was playing Candy Crush. Oops! Embarrassing! I put my phone away which is what I take notes on too… 😀
Patrick had some advice for want to be writers:
- If you think you have a good idea, wait. If it is good… things will be added on to it to make it grow in your mind.
- Write something you want to read. Do not write for the masses thinking you will create the next vampire story, or dystopian war story because that is what is popular… you have to LOVE it. You will never make it through the writing if you do not love the story yourself.
- Be original. No one knew that they wanted a Harry Potter, until we had him. No one knew we wanted Twilight or a Hunger Games.
If you ever have the opportunity to see Patrick Ness in person, please do. If I could have him come for Wine and Words this fall I would, but the man’s schedule is crazy busy. Absolutely if you have the chance to pick up the Chaos Walking series – do it. I love these books. There is a little buzz saying they will be movies and oooohhhhhh I hope so. 😀
I found this one Amazon under his description of himself and loved it:
Things you didn’t know about Patrick Ness
1. I have a tattoo of a rhinoceros.
2. I have run two marathons.
3. I am a certified scuba diver.
4. I wrote a radio comedy about vampires.
5. I have never been to New York City but…
6. I have been to Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo.
7. I was accepted into film school but turned it down to study writing.
8. I was a goth as a teenager (well, as much of a goth as you could be in Tacoma, Washington and still have to go to church every Sunday).
9. I am no longer a goth.
10. Under no circumstances will I eat onions.
So in answer to my Patrick Ness question this morning, what would Patrick do? he would write… he would run… he would keep it fun and keep it real.
And finally, (and this I am pretty excited about!), my friend Stacy who writes over at The Novel Life, started a weekly meme called Ask The Bloggers. Her first one went up today and I was thrilled to be a part of it. She started by asking us “If you go back to just before you started your blog, what advice would you give to your former self?”
Book Journey 