Author Visit (Penguin Teen Tour)

This last week I had the amazing oppritunity to meet four incredible authors: Alwyn Hamilton, Renee Ahdieh, Lesley Livingston, and Natalie C. Anderson. I absolutly fell in love with their books! So first off is some of my favorite things said during the Penguin Teen Tour. The book reviews for these four books should be coming soon. I'm really busy right now but they should all be out in the next week or two. I was going to put the reviews on this post but then it would be really long and I don't want to torture you guys!

My favorite part of the author visit (and okay there's two things) was that all the authors were super incredibly nice! They joked around a lot and were a lot of fun to be around. The second, was that the common theme among the books seem to be "Things go Horribly Awry." The tour ended up being called the Things Go Horribly Awry Tour!  ;)

At one point the authors were asked what the inspirations for their books were. My favorite answer was from Alwyn Hamilton. She talked about a review that was posted about the Hunger Games saying that it was unrealistic because women "can't be that strong"... I don't know about you but that ticks me off. She said she wanted to write a book proving him wrong, and I think all the books there proved that guy wrong!

I loved the responses they gave when asked about things they wanted people to take away from their books. Here's what they said:
Natalie C. Anderson (author of City of Saint and Thieves): Don't underestimate anyone.
Renee Ahdieh (author of The Wrath and the Dawn): There is power in stories. (Yes!)
Lesley Livingston (author of The Valiant): Stand your ground and fight. Don't back down. (Fight like a girl!)
Alwyn Hamilton (author of Rebel in the Sands): There's power in being a part of something bigger than you.

I have also compiled a list of things the authors use to overcome writers block. (Guys, this was the question I got to ask!!)

• Something you did before wasn't right so you need to find that mistake and fix it
• Get something down, even if it sucks
• Showers
• Walks
• Pushup
• Go somewhere and listen to peoples conversations
• Basically try to distract yourself in any way
• COFFEE!!!!!

My favorite thing about it though (okay I lied, this really is my absolute favorite) was talking to Alwyn Hamilton. Okay, seriously though I love her name! I love anything Hamilton so it's no wonder I fell in love with her books! We also talked about The Darkest Minds trilogy. Is anyone else excited to hear they start filming soon! It's my all time favorite book series and I just hope they don't screw up the movie. Fingers crossed! We also talked about Percy Jackson and our mutual dislike of Jason Grace. It's an unpopular opinion so I was super relieved to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't like him. But Alwyn is seriously one of the nicest people I've ever met!

And the most exciting news from that night for me was... drum roll...
Lesley Livingston is writing a sequel to The Valiant called The Defiant!
You might've already known that but it was news to me and I'm so excited!!

You guys need to read the books written by these four authors! Look for the upcoming posts. Make sure to follow (by email or bloglovin) to get updates on posts!