This past weekend I attended the first (but hopefully not last!) Bar Harbor Book Festival, and I had a blast!
I went into the weekend expecting a good time just based on the fact that I was going to meet some of the wonderful writers I’ve met online in the past few years, and that we would be talking about one of our favorite topics: Books! And indeed, that was probably the best part of the festival. All the authors I met were wonderful and I wished I had had more time to talk with everyone.
It was particularly exciting to meet Carrie Jones (NEED) the rockstar organizing force behind the festival, and her smart and awesome daughter (who helped out a LOT). Carrie had ARCs of CAPTIVATE (sequel to NEED, coming out this winter) at her table and I think many of us were plotting ways to abscond with one. They were beautiful!
I also got to meet up with my fellow Inkie Ellen Booraem (author of the thought-provoking, funny, quirky fantasy novel THE UNNAMEABLES). Ellen is so smart and projects this wonderful aura of good humor and wisdom that I can only aspire to one day emulate. Plus she is a Diana Wynne Jones fan which predisposes me to like her. I am very much looking forward to her second book, which I don’t know if I can talk about, but which sounds delightful.
I got to meet my second “in person” 2009 Debutante, Erin Dionne (MODELS DON’T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES). Erin is just as classy and smart and capable and charming in person as I expected. It was also great to see fellow Mainer-Deb Megan Frazer (SECRETS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY) again too, even if I was envious of her beautiful book poster and her delicious mini-goat-cheesecakes.
Here we are, getting into the spirit for our panel on “Creating Strong, Unconventional Female Characters in YA and MG”.
The panel with Erin and Megan was really fun. I loved hearing both of them delving into the themes of their books and the journeys that their characters each take. I will admit that at first I was worried I might just be barging into a topic that was more appropriate for Erin and Megan’s books (which both deal with issues of body image and beauty pageants) but the more we talked about it the more interested I became in the parallels between the “beauty queen” concept and the “princess” motif that figures in many fairy tales and fantasy novels. One of the things I wanted to avoid in FORTUNE’S FOLLY was having a main character who starts off as a princess by birth, or who becomes a princess because she marries a prince. That’s not to say external validation isn’t nice, or that what other people think doesn’t matter. But it was important to me that Fortunata to not just be waiting for someone to put a crown on her head to validate her as a person. Likewise I am so proud of Dara (in SECRETS) and Celeste (in MODELS) for finding inner confidence. As you may be able to tell from my babbling, I had a great time on this panel and I am still mulling it over.
Later that day I had the pleasure of hearing readings by Shawn Stout (FIONA FINKLESTEIN, BIG-TIME BALLARINA), Robin MacCready (BURIED), and Carrie. Shawn’s book had a delightful middle grade voice (and some wonderful character names!). Robin is a member of the in-person writing group I’ve been meeting with since this summer, so I already knew she could kick out taut and driven YA drama, but it was fun to hear her actually read it aloud. Then Carrie read from GIRL, HERO, a book I had sadly overlooked but now am very interested in reading as I loved the main character’s voice.
On Sunday I was one of the eager crowd who settled down to listen to Bethany Hegedus (BETWEEN US BAXTERS) and Kekla Magoon (THE ROCK AND THE RIVER) talk about “Why Writing Rocks”. The third panelist was sadly unable to make it so Kekla and Bethany ended up talking mostly about their promotional partnership. They both attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and had gotten to know one another over the years, but it wasn’t until they both published books with civil rights themes that they came up with the idea of doing joint events to promote both books. It was a very inspiring story, and I know I was not the only one who came away with the desire to try something similar: group bookstore events, group library or school visits, etc.
One of my favorite parts of the panel was when Bethany shared with us how she doesn’t just keep a “To Do” list. She also keeps a “Ta Da!” list of things she’s accomplished. Ever since that I’ve been saying a silent (or not-so-silent) “Ta Da!” whenever I do something. Another noteworthy bit: Kekla and Bethany talked about finding complimentary scenes in their books (for example, scenes that explore similar questions in different ways) to feature as part of their school presentations. They talked about turning these scenes into “reader theater” and shared some stories of how successful that had been for them with the kid audiences. I am definitely inspired to try to come up with a “reader theater” of my own for FORTUNE’S FOLLY now. It sounds like such fun!
The last panel I participated in for was “Why Write for Kids”. Since all of us panelists were writers of MG or YA (Robin, Shawn, Bethany and myself) and a good part of the audience was as well, we didn’t have to get into any fights about why kids books are just as important as adult fiction. In fact, my memory of what we did say is now fuzzy, leaving me with a general impression that my fellow panelists are wise and thoughtful ladies. Next time I need to take better notes!
We had a nice little post-Festival outing for drinks (which gave me the chance spend a bit more time with author Crissa-Jean Chappell, whose book TOTAL CONSTANT ORDER has been in my radar since I read a blurb and saw it features a teen dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder). By that point I was having a hard time keeping my extrovert costume bright and shiny. So although I was sad to say goodbye, I was also glad to have some time to go back to being an introvert, and just be quiet and think about all the good stuff.
On a somewhat-Book Festival related note, I visited Sherman’s Bookstore while we were ambling around town and they were very warm and helpful. They even gave Charlie a dog treat! If you are shopping for books in Bar Harbor, they have quite a comprehensive collection (at least for PB/MG/YA, which is where I was shopping).
And that was that. I am already looking forward to a 2010 Bar Harbor Book Festival! Thank you Carrie, for putting this all together!
For the non-Book Festival details of my Bar Harbor excursion, you can go here.
Tags: events
