Hi guys! Last night there was a chat with Alyson Noel, hosted by RayKayBooks. You could submit questions on Twitter using the hastag: #AlysonLiveChat. You could watch the live chat on YouTube (it was a Google Chat) at 8pm EST. So here, in the Netherlands, it was 2 am. Freaking 2 am in the morning/middle of the night. But it was totally worth it, I had a lot of fun! Alyson was super sweet and RayKayBooks was an amazing host 🙂 You can check out the chat down below, but first, I’ll just summarize some questions and answers from the chat:
“What would you advice aspiring authors?”
“I do have advice, it’s what every other author gives you. Just read. Reading is the best thing a writer could do to improve your writing. Read analytically: what worked for you? What didn’t work for you? How would you do that better? How would you do that differently? Reading is really your best tool. But the thing that really trips people the most is the perfection monster. It’s that need to be perfect. But there’s no such a thing as a perfect/good draft. Writing a crappy one ain’t bad, you can go back to improve it. Norah Roberts says: you can’t fix a blank page. Sometimes I’m writing and I know it’s bad. But I’m not gonna give it anyone to read. Those days are about allowing me to sit down and write. There’s always something usable in a draft. So just turn off the judgy voice and find your way through the story. So good luck and hang in there!”
“What book would you take with you to an uninhabited island and why?”
“One of my unread books! Hahaha. But this is more a question about my favorite book. So… Uhm… I think I would take Game of Thrones because I’m sure there are some good survival tips in there. I haven’t read it yet. And I think I’m gonna be on this island for a while and it’s gonna take a while to get through this book.”
“What is you favorite character from the Soul Seekers series?”
“You know, it’s funny. I’m usually fond of Xotichl because she’s so… she looks fragile, she’s blind, she’s the kind of girl that a lot of people would discount immediately and sort of feel pity for. But she’s incredibly strong. She’s the strongest one of all of them in a lot of ways. She’s really level headed and she’s got tons of confidence. She has a smoking hot boyfriend who thinks she the best thing in the world. So there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to feel sorry for this girl. She’s carved out this really great life for herself and she’s really going far. But what’s interesting about it is that I started of writing Lita as sort of the mean girl and sort of the jealous girl. But spending time with her over the course of those four books I really grew to like her. Because I watched her kinda grow up and face down herself and her own shadows and her own demons that made her do some nasty things to other people and confront it and own it and deal with it and improve it. So I really grew to like her over the growth that she’s experienced in the course of those books.”
There were many more questions (check out the vid) but also some games. In the first game Alyson get to choose one of the two options that RayKayBooks gave her. So here’s one question: “Would you rather have Harry Potter or Hermione Granger as your child?” “Harry Potter for sure.” But the fun thing is, in the second game round, she get to choose “Marry, kiss of push of a kliff” and the question was: “Harry Potter, Ron Weasly and Draco Malfoy” and Alyson would marry “Harry Potter” so I guess she’s really fond of him!
The last surprise was an international (YEEEY I CAN JOIN) give away! Check out the vid for more info!
It was a blast, thank you Alyson and thank you Rachel! It was so worth it staying up so long!
