My BookCon Experience (Part Two)

Hello lovely people!  Oh my gosh....it's finally done. Yep. Transcribed 40 minutes of video. Took me almost 6 freaking hours!!! (this just goes on to show how much I love you guys) Anyways, please enjoy the vids and the fruits of my sweat, blood and tears. ***Please note that transcriptions may not be definitely are not 100% accurate as it is a common fact that I have the tendency to mishear things!***

Panel Title: Dystopian Futures: Are the Science-Fact-Or-Fiction?
Moderator: Veronica Roth
Authors: Danielle Paige, Marie Lu and Alaya Johnson

Veronica: So let's just sit back and absorb their intelligence...To the authors Alright guys, I wanted to ask you first of all to tell us a little bit about your books, so that we know what we are talking about. To audience We are going to be talking about YA sci-fi and fantasy today, in case you haven't read the panel description. Alright, so, Danielle, want to start us off?
Danielle: Yeah. Uh, hi. My story is called Dorothy Must Die. The short version is that it is a book where another girl lands in Oz via a tornado and has to fight an evil Dorothy. Insert audience laughter. The long version is that this girl named Amy Gumm who comes from Misison, Kansas and her friends--well, she doesn't have any friends--she's bullied and has an awful mom and no dad and all she wants to be is not there. So when her trailer gets picked up and she lands in Oz she is really happy to be somewhere else, only Oz is different now. It's dystopian--the yellow brick road is crumbly and there's a dog munchkin in the middle of it. Audience laughter She (Amy) finds out that Dorothy is evil and that she has to take her down in order to save Oz. [To do so, Amy] joins a group of revolutionary witches--formerly bad [witches], now sort of good. And they want her to first take the scarecrow's brain, the lion's courage, and the tinman's heart. And then Dorothy must die. Passes mic to Marie Lu

Marie: Um, Legend is set in a dark futuristic LA and it's about this 15 year old boy named Day who is America's most wanted criminal and he's being hunted down by a 15 year old girl who is America's most gifted prodigy. Ooh's and Ahh's from the audience And she thinks that this boy has murdered her brother who is her only family. Um, but of course they discover a lot of things along the way about the government. It's a 3 part series, so, that's it.
Alaya: So the Summer Primce (vid cuts off here because I almost dropped the camcorder. But basically Alaya talks about her book for a few minutes)

Veronica: A lot of times, when people ask me what inspired your books, I kind of like, squinty eye at them like "Oh, I don't know. Was there one thing?" But I do know that usually there are a few things that interested me, that kind of worked their ways into the books. Whether they directly inspired or are just things I think about all the time..anyways, to authors I was wondering if you could share some of [those things] were with us. And I'm going to--hold on, let me--walks over to grab a chair. Somebody asks "Are you sure?" Yeah, don't worry about it audience laughs. Roth carries a chair over and sits by Danielle.
Danielle: jokingly What was the question? Alright, for me, I guess Dorothy happened because I was thinking about, um, what would happen to her when she goes back from being a hero and being in Oz and being--like everyone loves her and she's done this amazing thing--and then she goes back to Kansas where it's all black and white--and I love Auntie Ann/Em/An and everything--but if your friends don't believe you and, you know, you were cool back there and don't really want to go back [to Kansas]. So I thought that Dorothy would start to sort of want, and out of that want she became a little less nice. And when she gets back to Oz, stuff happen and that makes who she is when you meet her. says something I can't quite catch When I watched the Wizard of Oz I loved Dorothy but I always wondered how she stayed so meek when all these terrible things are happening and she was just so, kind of even, considering that--and I wanted to play with that.
Alaya: Have you seen to freaky sequel where there's this evil witch that cuts off her head and she has this room full of heads and it was like my favorite thing when I was 10! Everybody laughs 
Danielle says something about characters but I can't quite catch what she said
Veronica: to Alaya and Danielle You're darker than I realized! everyone laughs
Marie: Legend was inspired mostly by Les Miserable and when I say that I was being [inspired] I mostly mean that I was meditating one day, just lying on my carpet and I was watching Les Mis on TV--and it was like the old movie version with Liam Neeson, yeah, and I was like "It would be really cool if you had a teen version of this, with a teen criminal versus a teen detective. Uh, so teen Valjean and a teen Javert. So that was the original seed if this inspiration for Legend. And uh, I sort of took that idea and put it aside and I couple of weeks later I was online and there was this really interesting map that I saw and an article about what the world looked like if all our freshwater ice melted and the oceans rose by 100 meters. It was just a really fascinating map to see because you saw all the continents changing. Europe was gone and Australia was like there were two Australia and in the states, there was this huge lake that stretched from LA all the way up to San Francisco. And I live in LA, so my first thought was "I'm going to destroy LA. That's going to be awesome!" audience laughs But it's kind of sad that my first thought wasn't "Oh, this is so tragic--which it is--but I was like: This is going to be awesome." more laughter So, I just flooded my city--I mean, LA was little bit dystopian to begin with even more laughter from audience So it wasn't like a huge stretch of a description. So, I took that and combined it with the idea of teen criminal and teen detective. And that was the beginning of the story.
Passes mic to Alaya
Alaya: Yeah, so The Summer Prince. I always have, like 20 things that I am thinking about. And one day I was in the bathtub and I was like "Eureka!" It took me--you know, I've been thinking about it for 5 years, but, there was all sorts of elements that I have to mature enough until I can put them together. So, probably the very first seed of this The Summer Prince came 5 or 6 years before I even thought of writing it, which was when I visited Brazil with my sister who...was Portuguese and my sister was there to study the Japanese-Brazilian population for her thesis for geography. I did not know you could do that for a thesis in geography, but you can, and she spoke Japanese and she spoke Portuguese and so she went there and we had and amazing time...and I remember walking with them [her sister and her husband] and we were in a street market and I saw these women--sort of backtracking a little bit--
So...there was only 30 minutes of memory left on my camcorder so I decided to stop filming for now and then pick up again once the talk has turned onto the proposed panel topic: Dystopian Futures

Veronica: So this is the opposite of a vampire movie. Alright, well one thing that I think you all are very successful about your respective book is something that I find very difficult myself is illustrating what's happening in the other parts of the world, beyond the part you are focusing on. So, you know you find out to Marie in the Legend books what's happening in all these other countries and how their technology differs and to Danielle you also find out what's happening in different parts of Oz. And you get to explore.  So I was wondering, how do you approach world building at such a large scale while holding the tension in the local conflict and the global situation and how that can contribute to the conflict. Tell me your tips.
Danielle: Well, with me I started with evil Dorothy and the idea behind it is that she is draining the magic out of Oz. So each community in Oz being affected differently, like Munchkin land--and it's different. And she affects [each land] in different ways; so the munchkins are all in hiding, but she could go to a different place and people are actually working for her, for Dorothy. And for me, it was just about how does evil affect each community. And like do you want to go work for her so you can survive or do you hide out or do you don't want to or do you fight? So, most of the munchkins want to fight. It's like each person, each place behaves differently.
Veronica: Did you enjoy going through each part of the Wizard of Oz and warp it or change it?
Danielle: Yeah, I like doing it, as the idea is kind of like coming from the inside out I know this sentence doesn't really make sense I think I misheard a few words--sorry! Things like the main characters, like the lion's courage--he's now over reacting when before he was so meek that now he's sort of worried about [how he looks]; the scarecrow and his brains--he's now a mad scientist; the tin man has a bit of an obsessive obsession with Dorothy because he loves so much. So I had planned with taking those aspects of the world and warping them.
Marie: I think--it was all chaos when I was creating the world. I'm very much a panster, where I just write by the seat of my pants, like "Let's see where this goes!" So I didn't really know much more about the world when I was writing about the first book. I knew I would include it at some point...but basically I drafted it in my head about the parts of [the world] that I knew I was going to cover. It was basically like "This is going to be dystopian #1 and this is dystopian #2 and this is #3" and these were basically parts of the world I was going to cover [in the book], but I didn't know exactly what these worlds were going to be [how these "dystopians" were going to fit into the novel]. And as I was going, these [ideas] just sort of came to me. I knew I wanted to create multiple versions of what a dystopian world would be like. So that was kind of like a guiding light even though it was just pandemonium getting there. Once the first world was done I kind of used that as a basis to figure out the next one and the one after that. And a huge part of the inspiration was also trying to make it so that people could see that all these worlds were very different and that they all had problems in different ways. So, there's no real dystopia, there's no utopia; it's all, you know...it's kind of like the real world we all have. Things that are wrong with each country--you don't really know which one is actually the one that is wrong. So that was kind of what I was playing/planning with as I went along and eventually it all sort of came together.
Veronica: Yeah, I really loved how they retroactively made the initial situation--the situation you're introduced to--seem not quite as dystopian as I was anticipating. And so, I was kind of like, "Let's go back to where June and Day--"
Marie: Let's go back to a dictatorship right now. That seems really fair.
Alaya: to Marie I love the dystopia that follows the dystopia and that it's like a sub genre....to audience I am an obsessive world builder. And not so much in a sit down and write out the rules of my world and have maps and stuff all over. I like to let it--let everything hang out in my brain for a while. I figured--I don't actually write down my story ideas when I first get them. I figured if they were good enough they would stick around--I would not be able to forget them. And so I use it as a a weeding out process. I mean, I will be writing other things--I'm writing my vampire novels for a year but I'm thinking about Summer Prince and in it what's happening. And somehow, if that world feels real enough, then that's when I start writing everything down. And then, you know, I have a notebook and I write things in it, stream of consciousness, long hand, like "this is a terrible idea--what about this?" That sort of thing. Eventually, I want to get to a point where I feel so immersed in the world that I can just write about a person in it, and not like a traveller, but like a person living in the world. But the thing about this is that it's a little bit tricky because the reader is not actually in my mind...they are readers in 2014 US and around the world, so I wrote the first draft without explaining anything, and I had people read the book and they said things to me like "So there's a summer king every year and he doesn't die? laughs...to put this into context, The Summer Prince is about a world in which every 5 years a young man is chosen to be the King and at the end of 5 years he dies I apparently didn't explain that at all, so I had...I went to all of my drafts and it wasn't as if my drafts...it wasn't so much world building; I'd already done that [in my head], but I had to edit it enough so that people could understand it and I hated explaining things, so I was like "If 50% of the people could understand it, then that's fine." everyone laughs
Danielle: For me, I focused so much on the exposition I actually had to take out parts so that it felt more natural.
Alaya: I could definitely learn from that because even now people will ask me [about the world] and I'm like "How did you not understand that?" Like, I expect people to be taking notes, like they are basically reading a text from a different society and they are anthropologists and they are putting together [what the society is like]
Marie: I like how you do that though, because it's like you tell everything you think [readers] need to know and just sort of add it in as you go. That way, people get just enough information to get by.
Veronica: to AlayaYeah, I never got an exact definition of what a--how do I say the word, "waka-waka"? Alaya nods--I never got an exact definition of what that was, but then gradually I started to understand it because I'd seen it in context so many times...
Alaya: Yes, that's what I promise to you! By the end of this book you will understand everything.
Veronica: to Alaya I read the other day that you don't consider The Summer Prince so much a dystopian as a sci-fi because it seems [more similar] to other sci-fi [books]. And I was curious about that..I know you're not saying "just dystopian"...I guess what I'm wondering is to what extent do you think those two genres [are cross over]
Alaya: I think--I mean the the book that I feel most like "I want to write a YA version of this" was A Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula, which is a) just one of the best books I've ever read and b) it's just this astonishing work of science fiction that opened me up to the possibilities to what science fiction is. And it's genre bending and it's set in the super, dark, deep future novel; it has a gorgeous romance--and it just has all of these amazing things. And I thought "That's the kind of thing I want to do for YA. And it is [related] to dystopian for sure because it is dealing with political problems of a future society that reflect back on problems in our own society through that kind of speculative-fiction looking glass. And that I think is what dystopian is and if it by my personal definition, it would probably be something like "it is political and is kind of explicitly terrible in some why." And so I obsessed with creating a world of Ursula--I was memorizing passages from it and [used them] for my SATs too...so that was a thing I loved. But I also feel like there are other versions of science fiction...and it's not a flaw with dystopian--the reason why it works so well to reflect our worlds is because we experience the same things. I thought that I wanted to deal with the political issues that you deal with in dystopian, but have it be a little bit more nuanced, or make the nuances...basically what I wanted to do is once you get to the middle of the book, June fyi, this is NOT the same June from Legend--the main character from The Summer Prince is also named June is think that maybe June is kind of wrong to hate her society so much. Like maybe this is just her privilege talking and not how bad her society is. And I think that is something you can't really do in a classic Brave New World dystopian because it's trying for other things...it's almost more like a fairy tale. But it's like a science fictional.
Veronica: I was wondering, talking to Marie and Danielle, about what you found in the genre. I mean, after like, you know, creating the dystopian label. It was like a thing! How was that for you?
Marie: It was interesting. I think when I originally envisioned the book, I envisioned science fiction because I didn't really know about the dystopian thing. And it wasn't until I realized--I didn't realize YA was a "thing"--so [for me then] it was just "science fiction." And it wasn't until the publisher told me that it was dystopian and that I'd written something that falls into the dystopian category. I feel like that the current dystopian definition is a little bit different from the classic dystopian because dysotpian technically is a utopian--or a society that's masquerading as utopian, that people think is utopian but really is actually dystopian. Which is not a lot like what our stories are today because we kind of know [that it's] a broken society. I'm thinking of Shipbreaker which I think is constantly labeled as dystopian and that's more like straight out sci-fi because everyone knows that the world has gone to crap. It's not like a classic dystopian story. I think we all kind of get lumped into that same category--which is fine..I think that it has helped a lot of us...but it's definitely changed from what is used to be.
Danielle: I think for me I would consider Oz a utopia, so I [think that Oz can be literally] considered a dystopian, yet it's also fantasy at the same time. So it's kind of like high fantasy dystopia maybe?
Veronica: Isn't high fantasy mostly like, swords, horses, magic?
Danielle: Yeah, and I have magic--there are wizards! But I don't mind the label--I mean, if it helps everyone describe it.
Veronica: It was like the creepiest fairy tale thing I've ever read. Like, this is [disturbing/dystopian]. Alaya, when you say that you're dealing with a lot of political and real world parallels, I was wondering if you guys also have real world parallels. I saw some, but I wasn't sure if you planned them or did they just arise naturally.
Alaya: Haha, that's definitely seems like a kind of homework question. I definitely was referencing modern problems, because that's what science fiction does best--especially social science fiction. There's a strong influence of the legacy of slavery in [The Summer Prince that is very obvious]. And I had readers write to me [after the reading the early drafts] asking these questions like "It seems like these characters were preoccupied with slavery and race. Was that a thing in this world?" And I was like, "Brazil??" laughs So yeah, it's definitely like our world--I mean, yes it's in the future, but it's basically dealing with [problems] we're still dealing with. So my train of thought was: people are living longer and longer and there are more opportunities on the horizon that will allow people to live longer and that's great but it also means, can you imagine being a teenager in a world where the adults are 200? Like that is going to make it much longer for anyone to take you seriously. And so that was a huge element in the book. It's not like don't have this issue, where very talented 17-18 year olds who might 200-300 years ago just been considered adults and respected as such. And now it's like the accomplishments [of today's teens] are like "That's so nice of you. Why don't you come back when you're 30?" So I was doing that with a bunch of issues, like technological and differential access to technology between the statuses in society. It's a matrimonial society, so women have much more privileges in our society, but it's not like a straight out says something I can't hear So those are the things I like playing around with. Being able to make them different so you can look at them differently...kind of like warping them. The thing that this genre does so well is warping our reality--it almost makes it easier to look at sometimes.
Marie: Yeah, I think twisting it through the looking glass is the point of a lot of [science fiction.] It makes it easier to see today's problems when you see it in such an exaggerated form. I mean, there are definitely some things I didn't intend to put in--like, readers will be like "Did you really mean this?" and I'm like, "Yeahhh...I totally did that on purpose. Thought of that all on my own." There's definitely a few of those, but a lot of it was intentional because one of the most common things I get asked is "Do you think that the world can ever be like this? Do think think that this could actually happen?" And I'm like, "Well, it's already happened." Nothing in the Legend series is made up. It's all real. Everything that's happening to these countries has happened in the past. There's a specific scene about 2/3 into the book where there's soldiers on the roof and they're shooting down on a crowded square and I'm like, that was Tienanmen Square. It was completely inspired by that. It was interesting because I was growing up in Beijing when that happened in China and it was interesting because I was able to see it from the inside because from the inside you kind of see it as...it looks totally different when you're seeing it from outside of the country and how the media portrays it on the outside versus how you are being told how it happened from the inside. It's two totally different things. And I always find this interesting because often times when you're living in a dystopia it's hard to tell that you're in a dystopia because you think everything is normal there's no point of reference, until you go outside of your country. So that was something that I wanted to include in all of the things that happen in Legend--it's all pulled from real life, like the I don't know what word she said Movement in the 20th century when people thought it was perfectly okay to throw girls into insane asylums for reading too much, like that was a thing that happened and people thought it was normal. The Japanese internment camp, the Holocaust--these are all things that happened and are still happening now. I think it's interesting how we sort of normalize that and that's kind of like our own dystopia.
Danielle: For me, things started on more of a smaller scale with the examination of power and personal power because I just look...well, Amy is my protagonist and she gets bullied in school and when she gets sort of slammed not sure what that means she gets bullied on a much larger scale. My idea was that "What happens when you get power? When you haven't had power? I wanted to explore that through Dorothy and also through Amy. Dorothy's power takes over all of Oz and now that Amy's gaining power, she's wondering what she will bring to Oz as well.
Veronica: to audience Can I take some questions? takes a audience question that had been written down and reads it out loud What is it that draws you to the genre of fantasy and sci-fi as opposed to other genres?
Danielle: Well, I've written a lot of different types of things and for me, what I like about it is that you can have witches and magic and you can see things on a grander scale. I used to write on a smaller scale...and I like that I can now write on a larger scale.
Marie: nods Yeah, I like that too. I like the idea that you can just do anything. Which can be kind of scary too because I forget sometimes too--you get super excited about writing something like fantasy and I'm like "I'm god! I can do anything!" everyone laughs And then I'm like "Oh my god, I am god! And everything actually has to make sense!" So yeah, it's scary and fun I guess. It's just a bit strange with what you can do.
Alaya: I think that genre can be a little bit like a drug. Like, you just get hooked early and you can't get off of it! hear ye hear ye! I got hooked onto fantasy when I was in 2nd grade...still love fantasy now I started reading [insert name/book...can't make out the name/book title] when I was like 7 or 8 or something and I swear I've never been able to write anything since. I think it's changed my brain because...I'm like "I'm going to write a contemporary novel" and I can't...
Veronica: So sometimes I have an idea for a contemporary and I'm like, "How can I put in [zombies, magic, ghosts]....if nothing explodes in a few chapters, I'm like "I don't know..." Like, I actually don't know how to write a plot without an explosion.
Marie: So when you get stuck writing your story, are you like, "And then something exploded!"?
everyone laughs
Veronica: Haha, yes! "And he's really a clone". moves onto next audience question How do parental figures fit into coming of age stories or [young] revolutionists?
Danielle: For me, Amy's mom is mostly absent and her father is also not really in the picture, so it's very much focused on Amy and how she changes who she; Amy is very much alone and that's how she is when she sets out on that yellow brick road, she's never had friends and family. For her, she's in a very opposite situation from Dorothy who had parental figures who were important to her.
Marie: Yeah, I think it tend to be a trademark of this [genre] that parents tend to be a little bit absent, but I still think that they are so important to the foundation of who your character is. In the Legend series, the parents are present--sort of--but then...I don't want to give anything away...the parents are also absent in a way, but they play a huge part in how the main characters grow up. For June, her main parental figure is her older brother. And I think the fact that both teenagers start off with really strong, good families, it really defines them as [who they are] and shaped their personalities and [influenced] all of their decisions in the story. So even though they live in a super super dark world, they are good people at hearts; they tend to make the right decisions and do the right thing, and that's all because of their parental figures, what they've been taught. In the story, I guess [Day and June] are sort of stepping up to the figures that they once knew.
Alaya: In The Summer Prince, and also in my forthcoming book, there is a relationship between the parents and the main characters that is really important. It's actually probably like the second most important relationship in each story. And I have a friend who writes books for adults and she wrote her first YA novel and the thing she told me that I found really interesting is that in adult books, the character's relationship with his/her parents is really important, but it happened like 10-15 years ago--like all that sort of trauma and things that happened when they were teenagers...she kept on having to write these flashbacks to get that [info] into [present] time in her story. But in YA, this is happening in real time, and it was such a relief to her [the writer] to deal with such issues at the same time as with all the other stuff happening in the story. I never thought of it like that, and I was impressed with how she realized that with YA books. And that's probably the reason why I haven't have super absent parents because to me the really amazing thing about YA is being able to dig into [parental] relationships that kind of [affect] the rest of [the character's] life.
Danielle: I love my parents, by the way. Really! audience laughs
Veronica: reading off the next question from audience If you weren't an author, what would you be? other three authors look at each other with puzzled/I-have-no-idea expressions
Danielle: You mean there are other jobs?
Marie: Haha, yes like we have any other skills and can do anything else.
Danielle: Okay, well ever since I was little I knew that I wanted to write...I remember writing on pieces of wall paper and making bound books like you do in first grade. And that was basically it for me...When I first writing soaps she used to write soap operas I just graduated form college. It was my first job and I loved it and [it used to be a big thing] and then it shrink so I started to think about what other things I could do, and I've always wanted to write a book, and so it seemed like a good opportunity to try something that I love in [in a different field.] And it's worked out!
Marie: I was stapling together books when I was young too. It was something that I loved doing and I remember my first "book" I ever wrote when I was five was like "Firemen and their Facts." Two little pigs...
Danielle: Aww...
Maire: I would've read your books
Danielle: Me too.
Marie: We could've been friends! But if writing just wasn't an option for some reason, and I could do anything and had infinite skills and could actually fly a jet, I would've love to be a fighter pilot. But I have poor eyesight, that's what my mom told me.
Alaya: I also wanted to be a writer from around the point when I realized what a novel was...before my book even got published, I started writing reviews for myself pretending to be the NY Times. everyone laughs "Ground breaking work!" Um, I don't know, other wise I love music, I love to sing in the bathroom...
Veronica: Alright guys, I think that's all the time we have. Thanks so much for coming!

End Transcription 

If you've enjoyed this blog post be sure to check out Marvelous Marie Lu at Sofia's blog! Trust me, it's good stuff :-)

Until next time, happy readings!