YA Lit Chat's "Made from Awesome Mega Chat" event recap

Georgia McBride, founder of the YA Lit Chat ning hosted two huge "Made from Awesome Mega Chat" twitter events this week, featuring several amazing authors including Scott Westerfeld, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Michelle Zink, Bree Despain, Sarah Rees Brennan, Melissa Marr, James Dashner, Andrea Cremer, Carrie Ryan, Cindy Pon, Margaret Stohl, Kami Garcia, Adam Selzer, and Myra McEntire.  I missed Wednesday's chat but had a lot of fun following last night's event & asking a few questions.  I also throughly enjoyed the After Party chat with the Mundie Moms, where authors Saundra Mitchell, Kiersten White, and Julie Kagawa also stopped by to visit.  The After Party was much smaller & easier to keep up with, so that was especially fun.  You can read the transcript of the Mega twitter chat HERE and can replay the transcript of the Mundie Moms' After Party chat HERE.  (Warning: The After Party chat drifted into a discussion about fictional boyfriends, cupcakes, stippers, giant worms, and cackling dragons.  Haha!  Have I mentioned that I love YA authors?!)

Since the full transcript of the Made from Awesome Mega Chat is 185 pages long, I won't share the whole thing here.  But I will at least share a few of the questions that I asked and received answers to during the Mega YA Lit chat.  First a quick description of the authors involved:

Holly Black = Author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, the Modern Faerie series (Tithe,  Valiant, Ironside), The Poison Eaters, and the upcoming Curse Workers trilogy (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart).  Co-editor of the Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology.

Holly mentioned "@justinelavaworm"= Justine Larbalestier = Author of Liar and How to Ditch Your Fairy .  Co-editor of the Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology.

Cassandra Clare = Author of the Mortal Instruments series (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels) and the upcoming Infernal Devices series (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Princess, Clockwork Prince).

Scott Westerfeld = Author of the Midnighters books (The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, Blue Noon), the Peeps series (Peeps, The Last Days) So Yesterday, the Uglies series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras), the Leviathan series (Leviathan, Behemoth).

Adam Selzer = Author of I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It, The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History, Andrew North Blows Up the World, Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps: True Tales of an Accidental Ghost Hunter, I Put a Spell on You: From the Files of Chrissie Woodward, Spelling Bee Detective, and Pirates of the Retail Wasteland.

Andrea Cremer = Author of the upcoming Nightshade series (Nightshade, Wolfsbane, and Bloodrose).

Sarah Rees Brennan = Author of The Demon's Lexicon trilogy (The Demon's Lexicon, The Demon's Covenant).

Kami Garcia = Co-author of the Beautiful Creatures series (Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness).

Bree Despain = Author of The Dark Divine series (The Dark Divine, The Lost Saint).

Onto the Q & A's:

** The Eager Readers: @cassieclare @hollyblack @scottwesterfeld Can you tell us more about your stories in the Zombies vs. Unicorns book? #YALitchat

Holly Black: @TheEagerReaders I am just the unicorn side editor - no story from me. but lots of belligerent arguing with @justinelavaworm #YALitchat

Holly Black: @TheEagerReaders But I can tell you that Scott and Cassie wrote zombie stories that freaked me right out. #YALitchat

Cassandra Clare: My story in ZVU is a zombie love story. It involves grave-digging. :) #yalitchat @TheEagerReaders

Scott Westerfeld: #yalitchat @TheEagerReaders My ZvU story is about teens growing up post-zombie apocalypse, and realizing their parents are all traumatized.

** The Eager Readers: Have any of your scenes or characters ever been inspired by or enhanced by a song, score, or piece of music? If so, what song?


Bree Despain: @TheEagerReaders Music is a huge inspiration to me. "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service was 1 of the inspirations for TDD #yalitchat

Sarah Rees Brennan: Country music is my muse. Others have judged me for it...#yalitchat

** The Eager Readers: Modern pop-ish country or old school Patsy Cline? @sarahreesbrenna

Sarah Rees Brennan: I love all country music. Hal Ketchum to Taylor Swift. (I know you're judging me RIGHT NOW, twitter.) #yalitchat

Kami Garcia: @sarahreesbrenna Black Sabbath is my muse. And the Cure.#yalitchat

Kami Garcia: @MundieMoms I'm also a huge fan of The Smiths, AC/DC, the Cult .... #YALitChat

** The Eager Readers: If you could borrow a character from a classic novel, who would you enjoy including in your current WIP? #YALitchat

Andrea Cremer: @TheEagerReaders Dorian Gray - he'd fit well amongst the villains in my novels #yalitchat

Adam Selzer: @TheEagerReaders you CAN borrow characters from classic novels :) Put 'em in modern clothes and no one spots it. Trust me.#yalitchat

Adam Selzer: @TheEagerReaders Once you modernize them just enough, the tracks are covered. #yalitchat #charactersfromthepublicdomain

Adam Selzer: @TheEagerReaders I had a minor character from David Copperfield be a gym teacher in a book once. No one that I know of noticed. #yalitchat

A few of the other topics discussed included:

Holly's Curse Worker books - White Cat (May 2010), Red Glove (May 2011), and Black Heart (May 2012). She is working on the edits for Red Glove right now. Cassel's name was borrowed from a friend of Cassandra Clare's whose name Holly liked. Jace will be mentioned briefly in White Cat. Holly also said that she has sketched out some of a middle-grade book that she'd like to write, and it is creepy.

Cassandra mentioned that she chose to write a steampunk novel because she likes the aesthetic. She and Holly have a story in the upcoming vampire anthology, Teeth. They would be interested in co-writing a book someday if they ever find the time. Also, there is a character named Maureen in City of Fallen Angels, who is very loosely based on her friend and fellow author, Maureen Johnson.

Of writing in the steampunk genre, Scott Westerfeld said: "Steampunk: we can rewind the future, take tech in new directions, and wear better clothes." He also passed along this link to a fabulous, steampunk-ish  BMW roadster.

Because the Made from Awesome Mega Chat event was such a success, Georgia McBride mentioned that they will be scheduling another huge YA Lit Chat event in the fall. In the meantime, you can stop by twitter for their regular weekly chats on Wednesday nights by searching for the #yalitchat hashtag.