- January 20th, 2008 at
7:00 am by --KALEB NATION-- -
Kaza Kingsley is the author of the Erec Rex series. Already there are two books out in the series, titled The Dragon’s Eye and The Monsters of Otherness.
Thanks Kaza for being here. First, for all the writers here, I have always been curious about that very first book signing, your first time out with your published book. How did that go and where were you? What did you do to prepare?
My first signing at Borders Books in Cincinnati was fantastic. Of course it helped that everyone I knew and their brother showed up to support me. I was floating on air, truly. I didn’t do much to prepare – I didn’t even do a reading at that signing. It was too busy, so I just socialized and signed books. A lot of fun! Then I had a party at my house that night to celebrate.
You appeared at the Book Expo America some time ago to promote your books. What was the BEA like your first time there as an author?
That was an amazing experience. The Javitz center was enormous and packed with people. And the signings I did were incredibly busy. It was a little overwhelming – my publicist had given me a list of people to meet, but only a few of them were at their booths.
The best part was winning a bunch of awards at the BEA. ForeWord Magazine Awards took place in the middle of the Javitz center, and Erec Rex won silver for YA Book of the Year! The worst was that I got incredibly sick the second day I was there. It was hard to even walk. I had been throwing up all night.
Have you ever walked into a bookstore and stumbled upon your own book when you weren’t looking for it?
- November 19th, 2007 at
6:00 am by --KALEB NATION-- -
I realized this morning that I never posted anything about the Texas Book Festival weeks ago. I went there to meet with authors and mingle with other book-minded people. There were plenty about, an entire schedule of big names including Rick Riordan, the big kids author of the moment who is writing the Percy Jackson series.
There was secret service everywhere, because Jenna Bush and Lynn Cheney were coming. I almost ran into all these guys with suits, little diamond collar pins and curly headphone wires. They were serious. I went to the end where Jenna was going to come in, without knowing where I was, and they were all looking at me, a whole group of them and police. I realized she would be coming from that street because it was filled with black SUV’s. I spun about and started right off in the opposite direction.
I went there hoping to see Rick Riordan, Kimberly Willis Holt (I won an autographed book from her 2 weeks ago), Jenna Bush and meet with April Lurie, who I have met over email. I ended up seeing none of those, but I did get to see Rick Yancey, Sherman Alexie, Neal Shusterman and this oddball:
One of those things you only get to see in places where authors congregate.
- November 12th, 2007 at
6:00 am by --KALEB NATION-- -
It has become quite interesting discovering how many authors were first published as teenagers. This is certainly an encouragement, as for the longest I thought Paolini was the only teenage writer and author. I discovered that there are quite a few others who were published as teens, some of them below:
S.E. Hinton’s first book was the Outsiders, the second biggest selling book for Young Adults in publishing history- over 8 million in print! Christopher Paolini’s first book was out when he was 19 and has sold over 9 million as well.
This is a growing list, so if you know any more email me and I’ll add them.
–Added November 14 2007 – Thanks Cat- I added Catherine Webb
–Added November 19 2007 – Thanks Mimi- I added Eze Eribo.
