Emilie's Book World: Lesley Livingston Event Recap

This week the Ottawa Public Library is having its first ever Teen Author Week. Because it happens to be at the same time as the Ottawa Writers' Festival, there are a lot of great YA authors that are participating. Last night I went to one of their events where I had the opportunity of meeting Lesley Livingston, the lovely author of Wondrous Strange, Darklight and upcoming Tempestuous (by the way if anyone wants to hook me up with a copy I would be eternally grateful).

The event was taking place in the auditorium of the main branch of the library. It was scheduled to start at 6:30 and I arrived at about 6:15. There weren't that many people yet but as it got closer to starting more and more people started showing up. Lesley herself arrived and she was really friendly talking to everyone. She seemed really happy and excited to be there which only made things that much better.

When things started off, Lesley talked about Wondrous Strange and Darklight, telling those who hadn't read the books what the story was generally about. She talked a lot more about the first book, just because she didn't want to give anything away from Darklight in case some of the people who were there hadn't read it yet. She also had an ARC of Tempestuous with had many people thinking about tackling her to get their hands on the book.

After that, Lesley read an excerpt from Darklight. The reading was really great. Also being an actress, Lesley had a different voice for each of the characters, something I had never really thought about when I was reading the book. It's really different to hear the story being read out loud than it is to just be reading it for yourself. She read from the beginning of the book, the scene where Kelley is in Central Park rehearsing her lines and she is "attacked" by what she then thought was a mugger.

After some begging on our part, Lesley gave in and read us an excerpt from the beginning of Tempestuous. At that point everyone was really quiet and listening closely to what was being read. The scene was just about Sonny being in the New York subway. She stopped before the end of the chapter but just to tease us she told us that last sentence of that chapter completely out of context. Essentially it was something about Sonny not expecting to die in a certain way or something along those lines. That had the effect of getting everyone really quiet for a second and then everyone saying there is no way Sonny could die.

Lesley also talked about two upcoming projects, one a stand alone title and the other another series she says those who loved Wondrous Strange will also love. After that she started taking questions. There weren't that many questions asked but the few that were turned out to be quite interesting. I asked her about whether there was some kind of agreement as to the organization of the Faerie world. I have been confused about that but I now have an answer! Basically there isn't. During this time she also had a lot of great stories to tell. If you ever want to meet the actual real life Sonny, just go to the Hudson Hotel in New York City and ask for Sonny at the front desk.

The second part of the event was three local teenage bands each playing a set. While the first band was setting up. Lesley offered to sign books, and I of course hurried to get mine signed. I talked to her while she was signing my book and asked if I could take a picture with her which she accepted. This was also the time that everyone was trying to get away with grabbing Tempestuous but no one was really serious about it. While some of the bands were playing, I talked to Lesley some more. She is really fun and a really great person to talk to.