From Where I'm Standing [16] - Roadside YA Tour

It's been quite a while since I've gotten to go to a book event, but on Friday the 24th I got to attend the Nashville stop of the Roadside YA Tour! It was held at Parnassus Books and featured four amazing authors: Tessa Gratton, Natalie C. Parker, Bethany Hagen, and Julie Murphy!

Traffic was horrendous in Nashville so instead of visiting some places before the event, we (my mother and I) decided to go straight to the bookstore even if we were going to be extremely early. It worked out though and we got great seats.

The moderator was the amazing Courtney C. Stevens, author of Faking Normal, and she did a great job. She asked fantastic questions and got the authors talking easily, making this one of the best panels I've ever seen.



So much was discussed that it's hard to recap everything, so here is (in short) what I learned:

L-R: Courtney C. Stevens, Julie Murphy, Natalie C. Parker, Bethany Hagen, Tessa Gratton

Natalie C. Parker is a BAMF. Not only is her day-job title incredibly long (like a paragraph) and she is crazy-smart, she's also fun and witty and sweet. I've been following her career since 2011 when I participated in her Call Me Icarus critique project, which was really enlightening for me, so I've been looking forward to buying her book and seeing her for quite a while. She even recognized me (by my name because we were both Parkers).

Julie Murphy is a woman after my own heart. So much of what she said about her life and writing process connected with my own and it was encouraging to see her success. Her sense of humor felt so much like mine and I loved how she had woven some of her own life experiences thematically into her book.

Bethany Hagen is multi-talented --- librarian, author, mother, and 3-time karate black belt. I loved how she spoke on the legitimacy of the teenage experience, and she also had some great writing advice: keep writing no matter what, because your Moment may come when you least expect it.

Tessa Gratton is scarily intelligent, and she's still as hilarious as the first time I saw her. Her writing advice was not only the funniest (because of how expressive she is), but it was also my favorite of the night: if you don't love what you're writing, you're DOOMED.

If you get a chance to see these authors in person, I highly suggest you take it. It was worth the trip and even my non-bookish mom, who's never been to anything like this before, had a great time. You can find links to the Goodreads page for each book below. Happy reading quirks!

Side Effects May Vary ~ Beware the Wild ~ Landry Park ~ The Lost Sun

Authors from A to Z: Z

Authors from A to Z is a posting challenge hosted by

Heather at Proud Book Nerd. The challenge is simple: each day for the month of June (except Sundays) share your favorite authors whose last name corresponds to the letter for that day.  
For more info, click the photo.

How I'm participating in the challenge:

This year I am going to try to highlight just one author each day that I am really taken with. If I can't come up with one, it may be a book, a song, or a surprise!

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you have followed the Authors from A to Z challenge this year and to Heather at Proud Book Nerd for hosting such a fun event!

Z = Markus Zusak

Here we are at the end! I know I'm a day late in getting this challenge finished, but I couldn't leave it incomplete. I am also very glad that I had an actual, no-foolin' Z author to use this year! When I realized that I'd read not one but two books by this author and liked both, lets just say there may have been a fist in the air.

I am even more glad that I got to read Markus Zusak's books. I had heard over and over again how amazing The Book Thief was, and after convincing myself (you know how I am when it comes to the possibility of the sads), I read it and it was brilliant. Literally, brilliant. The narrator is Death, after all. Then it was suggested to me (by none other than up-and-coming author of the recently acquired novel Faking Normal, Courtney C. Stevens) to read another of Zusak's books, I Am the Messenger. I enjoyed that one as well. If you want something different, smart, and thought-provoking, read a Zusak novel.