Waaayy back in the summer of 2010, I approached Kieran Scott through email and asked if she would be interested in visiting my library for an author program. She agreed, and after meeting her at the 2010 Collingswood Book Festival, we were able to schedule a date for January 2011.
Unfortunately, Kieran got pretty sick (and was also pregnant, although that's not unfortunate, of course!) and had to reschedule her visit. She got in touch with me over the summer and we picked an October Saturday for her to visit.
It just happened to be the nicest Saturday that we've seen in months, so even though I advertised the hell out of this program (through our library's Facebook page, tons of posters around the branch and the system, blast-emailing my teens to remind them, sending press releases), on the afternoon of the program I only had two teens show up. UGH. At least one of the teens had started reading (and was really enjoying) She's So Dead to Us, and the other teens is just so enthusiastic about everything--basically, if I could only have two teens show up, I'm glad it was these two!
Kieran was very gracious about the whole thing--she spoke at length about her writing process (she outlines everything) and how she develops her characters, and why she writes some titles as Kate Brian (and Emma Harrison before that!). We talked about the differences in the covers of She's So Dead to Us and He's So Not Worth It, and about how, exactly, Privilege spun off from Private (and The Book of Spells was mentioned, too!). She didn't reveal too much about what was going to happen in This is So Not Happening but did talk a little about what she's working on next--although we're not at liberty to reveal that yet!
Kieran was also nice enough to sign the books I'd purchased, and Teen 1's book, and then graciously gave Teen 2 a copy of She's So Dead to Us, which I thought was really sweet of her. Then she posed for pictures and we all enjoyed some brownies!
All in all, it was a great afternoon, and while of course I'm disappointed that the turnout was so poor, I think we still had a wonderful time. I really think the weather worked against us. Kieran is a fantastic author and we were so fortunate to have been able to spend some time with her. Those who didn't come certainly missed out.
Enjoy your reading!
Christi
OMG....I SO WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THIS! Haha, I would have traveled to NJ to see her! What did she say about why she writes under different names? I'm so curious. Ahhh, and about how Privilege spun off from the Private series? Kate Brian/Kieran Scott is one of my fav. authors!
ReplyDeleteAwww, I wish you'd known about it, would have loved to have met you! She did talk about the pseudonym thing, it had to do with the Princess & the Pauper book and then just took on a life of its own after that. I don't know if I'm supposed to repeat what she said here on the blog--but if we even meet in person I'll be happy to tell you the story!
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