Weekly Geeks this week is quite the fun one. Our task is to take you, our readers, on a literary tour of the part of the world where we live.
Jill includes a couple of fun questions such as:
Do you live in a place where a famous author was born? (not that I know of) Does your town have any cool literary museums or monuments? (no again) Does Stephen King live at the end of your street? (He doesn't, but a couple of Brandons who are getting more and more famous nearly do!) Was Twilight set in your hometown? (I don't live in Forks, but Stephenie Meyer DID go to school right near here at BYU.)
I can't think of any museums, or fun literary landmarks, but we do have lots of very cool authors that live here in Utah.
Brandon Sanderson: Making quite the name for himself these days after having been chosen to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I really need to read them. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy his own Mistborn series and his fun kid's series about a kid named Alcatraz. And his crazy writing podcast.
Brandon Mull: I'm reading Fablehaven #2 right now, trying to catch up, because I'm feeling left in the dust with everyone around here raving about the latest #4 Fablehaven. Last year, after he came to my kid's school for a visit, we went to his signing and stood in line for three hours. It was worse than my Stephenie Meyer experience. He was cool though. But the line was.... insane.
James Dashner: He started with a little series by the name of Jimmy Fincher. We got the very first book way back then, then all the rest that followed. My kids loved them. Then, he started another series called The 13th Reality, which is finding a much bigger audience. And now, bring on The Maze Runner! It was fun hanging out with him at Natasha's house last January too! :)
J. Scott Savage: Many of you may remember him from last summer when he blitzed the book blogging world with an amazing blog tour of his very first fantasy kid's series, Farworld. I got to go to his launch party last fall and that was a blast.
Shannon Hale: I meet her a couple of years ago when she came and talked to the kids at the library. No one really knew who she was at that point, but we all totally fell in love with her, she was a blast! And now, the rest of the world knows it too, and if she ever came back to the library, we'd have to fight for a seat and wait in a three hour line!
Sara Zarr: Sadly, I haven't meet her yet, or listened to her talk at some sort of event. Still, I own and have read both her books and look forward to more. I bet she was at the big signing event last Saturday that I couldn't go to. I will get her to sign my books one of these days! I will!
Other local authors that I've met and/or hope to meet soon:
Oh, I almost forgot! Orson Scott Card grew up just down the street! I have friends that knew him back then and they said his was a strange and unique family. Surprise surprise.
I'm sure there's a ton I forgot. But I'll never get this posted if I don't just hit the button now. I hope you enjoyed my little local author tour.
Have you read books by any of these authors? Which was your favorite?
This was a Weekly Geeks that I don't want to pass up as well, I hope I can get my post done before the week is over.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Richard Paul Evans and Carol Lynch Williams!
See. I knew I'd forget some. I need to go to some event where these authors hang out!
ReplyDeleteFrom the ones you've listed, Shannon Hale is by far my favorite.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of good authors! You live in a literary place, it seems. :)
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of lliterary figures in your part of the world!
ReplyDeleteLiked knowing about them.
WG: Salman Rushdie
I love Shannon Hale - I'm totally hoping to meet her some day.
ReplyDeleteAnd I LOOOOVE Sara Zarr. She spoke at TLA in March and was so lovely in person.
I won a copy of Farworld by J. Scott Savage and he sent a friendly email and autographed for me, seems like a really nice guy. The other author I am familiar with is Orsen Scott Card and I loved Enders Game.
ReplyDeleteI love this WG theme, I enjoy learning were different authors are from -Like Utah!
Very cool. So many. Enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteHere’s mine, Detroit City Poets
Pussreboots: I'm really lookin forward to reading her latest book The Actor and the Housewife.
ReplyDeleteKailana: I guess there is a lot of writing going on around here.
Gautami: Glad you enjoyed the post. Had you heard of any of them?
Janseen: Shannon Hale is so much fun!
Icedream: He is really nice. I hope he makes it big.
Susan: Thanks for dropping by!
This is good! I know I wouldn't have been able to come up with that list. That really makes Utah seem even more awesome! Thanks for posting this so that I could be reminded of how many cool authors we have around here. :)
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