Marissa Meyer Book Signing Re-cap and Giveaway!

Yesterday I went to Marissa Meyer's book signing event that was hosted in my little hometown of Vero Beach. We get a few YA authors through here every year but not very many so I was stoked when I found out Marissa was going to be there and that the event was early enough that I could go before going to work.

After a really nice opening from a young fan on the book, Marissa came out and talked a little about how she came up with the idea for The Lunar Chronicles and her road to publication.

Here are some highlights:

• Marissa Meyer started writing fan fics for Sailor Moon (a show I loved growing up)
• She got the idea for The Lunar Chronicles while writing a fan fic she entered into a contest
• Wrote first drafts of Cinder, Scarlet and some of Cress during NaNoWriMo.
• She wrote over 150,000 words that month for a contest going on. The winner got to visit the set of Star Trek. She came in third. The winner beat her by 1,000 words.
• Marissa Meyer comes from a family of proud nerds!
• She can entertain you with a bunch of history about fairy tales
• The movie rights for Cinder are in talks right now (doesn't mean anything is going to happen but there is interest)
• Marissa Meyer thinks Angelina Jolie would make an excellent Lunar Queen
• She just sold a standalone fantasy which is probably going to be her next book after The Lunar Chronicles ends

The question she answered that I found most interesting was when she answered why Cinder is set in China. Marissa explained that several historians believe that Cinderella was first told in 9th Century China because of the fixation on small feet and foot binding.  

Marissa Meyer reading from Scarlet

I have to say that I was pretty dang impressed. I've been to a lot of book signings but they're usually with multiple authors. To get up there and pull off talking by herself for almost an hour was really impressive. She was personable, knowledgeable, and completely engaging. This is even more notable because she had to handle some tough questions (like a little girl asking her why she was even in Vero) and she did it with grace.

Me, Marissa Meyer and my friend Andi (see Andi, you're famous now too)

After we all got our books signed and since it was such an intimate crowd we got to spend quite a bit of time chatting with her. 

My book signed. I got Scarlet signed too!

While I was there, I snagged an extra signed copy and some swag for you! So if you live in the US and want a signed copy of Scarlet, make sure you fill out the form below!

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