#i had more and then i got tired of transcribing my notes lmao

[lasbrumas]

WTW PLANET PROMPTS – MERCURY: LOCATION

valle de soledad ; a narrow valley hemmed in on all sides by tall, craggy mountains, composed mostly of shale. the valley is also split by a river that disappears into the mountains to the south. there are a few isolated farming villages, but the dangerous terrain leading into the valley deters most visitors. heavy rains can also lead to severe flooding and the valley has seen several towns come and go over the years due to flash floods.

[gloriouslokius]

So, @itza322 and I went to Chris’ book event in Houston. What a gem. I’ve been to a few of his signings, but never got to see him do anything like this. I twas so worth the six hour drive. Lol He was sweet and funny and thankfully, there weren’t any awkward Klaine questions. Here’s what we can remember from last night!! See Maritza’s pictures here!

Under a read more because this got long. I transcribed his answers from my audio, so they are are exact quotes. Enjoy!

First thing he said is he feels like home because her grew up in Clovis, which he always says is the Texas of California. Nerd.

The school was on Merrill Street and while driving from the airport, he kept hearing the GPS say “You are now ten minutes away from Meryl Streep.” and his reaction was “What is she doing at the event!” It was adorable.

He “learned the hard way that the readers know more about the series than I do.”, so he gives people the chance to quiz him on the books.

He did a reading from TLOS6 World’s Collide. It was a great little excerpt. I could listen to him read all day long.

He had to step backstage for a minute for something and he said “It was Hillary” on the phone. He said that. In Texas. I looked at Martiza and said “Did he just say that in Texas?” and I saw Alla mouthing “Texas?” too. Lmao

He did trivia, where he asked questions about the books and all the kids were adorable who answered and they got TLOS hats for answering. 

He then took questions from the audience to test his knowledge on the series. The firs question was “When is the movie coming out?” “It wasn’t exactly the kind of question I was hoping for.” He said the questions stumped him, so she got a hat. Lol But his real answer was the more the readership grows and the books sells the studio will want to get it going.

Next question was “What does Conner say to Annie?” Chris said he doesn’t remember an Annie so he doesn’t know the answer and gave the kid a hat.

He had everyone in costume come up on stage, there were a few great costumes! One girl was dressed like the Galaxy queen and it was fantastic. She got runner up. There was a woman dressed dressed as Mother Goose and her daughter was her flask. (@itza322 posted pics here) It was perfect and Chris was completely in love with it. They won, naturally.

The first girl who went up on stage, when asked what her costume was said “NOthing, I just wanted to come up on stage.” Totally stumped Chris for a minute. There was another little boy that was dressed like “An innocent bystander from NY” Lol

Moving on to audience q&a. While waiting for the first question, he said “That would be really cool if the flask was full” Lol

The first person (she was 21 fyi, not a kid) asked if she could get a picture afterwards and Chris looked at Alla who just said no immediately. She then asked what his process was for writing. “I have less of a process and  more of a cry for help. I write at night because less people tend to bother me at night, that’s nice so I can focus. Um..I like to write in my spare bedroom that’s full of tacky nerd merchandise. That helps me be creative and I love listening to film scores while I write. That helps me inspire story more than anything.”

What inspired you to write about fairy tale characters? “When I was a kid, I loved fairy tales. My mom used to read fairy tales to me every night before I went to bed and I always had a million questions about all the characters and their motives. My mom finally got so tired of answering my questions she said “Christopher why don’t you just write your own fairytales?” And here we are!”

How did you get inspired to write your stories? “When I was about your age, I loved reading and I loved reading things like Harry Potter and books by [inaudible] I remember the last Harry Potter book emotionally scared me so much that I thought the only way I could fill the void was by emotionally scarring other people. So that’s why I like writing so much.”

What was your book inspiration? “Ooh good question. Really I think the Wizard of Oz was the biggest inspiration. If you look at the Land of Stories structure, it’s structured very simlar to Oz where they’re on a quest or they’re going through the parts of the world while the evil queen/wicked witch is the brooding in the foreground. So yeah, I’d say Wizard of Oz most.”

How is your favorite character and why? “Well I think my public answer is Conner. Well Conner and Alex. But I really Conner’s story in the series because he starts of as the kid who takes naps in class and by the end of the book he’s the kid you saves the world. So I think that’s a good story. But I do love Mother Goose because she’s such a bad influence. So yeah, I think those two are some of my favorites.”

What advice do you have for anyone who is looking to be a writer in the future? “I’d the best advice to give to aspiring writers is to not be intimidated by other writers. Because other writers get very, very competitive about writing. And some of the writers I got advice from are always very discouraging and say “just don’t do it.” And so I take it with a grain of salt. I think writer’s block is and I feel like as soon as you feel it coming on just get up and walk away from your computer or your pad or whatever. And I think the more you sit and fester the worse it’s gonna be. So as soon as you you feel it coming, just walk away and come back when you have an idea later.”

How do you get past your writer’s block? Besides walking away? “I listen to a lot of music. I think having other things in your life to focus on to kind of divert your attention is really good for that. But honestly I think that’s the only advice I can give is to not focus on the fact you have nothing to focus on. You know to throw some other things in there and to outside your house and walk around. Let the inspiration find you if you can’t find it.”

What made you think of making Conner the heir of telling stories and Alex the heir to magic? “Ooh good question. Um because their twins and that was wasn’t and idea I had until writing the second or third book. Um but I think because their twins they are single handedly responsible for continuing our story telling in our world and continuing magic in the other world. So it’s kind of a yin and yang situation.”

Do you still hate your grandmother for crumpling up your stories when they were bad? “Well it was very traumatic at the time. For people who don’t know, when I was a kid I tried writing stories when I was 7 or 8. It was very difficult because writing a novel was hard when you’re that young. I used to write down chapters, I’d take it to my grandma’s house and she’d grammar check it and spell check it and if she liked it, she’d keep it in a pile and if she didn’t like it, she’d crumple it up in front of me and throw it away. And I grew some character from that! But really she gave it to me honestly and I think that really helped me the most more than anything in the long run. So no, there’s no hard feelings. But she still gives me notes on the books. It’s a little annoying.”

What was your hardest book to write? “Probably the first one. Because up until the first book the longest thing I had ever written was an essay at school. And while I was writing the first book, I was also on a world tour with Glee so I had this crazy routine. I’d come in before the show, I’d go underneath the stage into the dressing rooms, I’d write a chapter, I’d go sing Don’t Stop Believing, come back I’d edit the chapter, I’d run out and sing I Wanna Hold Your Hand, come back, right some more, slap on a leotard and go do Single Ladies, come back. I did that for months and months and months and that’s the reason I am the way I am today.”

He then did the raffle for the meet and greets. He had a cute little girl come up and help him draw the tickets. He also had an additional winner because he drew a frog on a specific page of one book. Thought that was cute!

He then did a reading from Mother Goose Diaries. Again, it was an adorable snippet and I could listen to him read all day.

Overall, it was a great experience and I hope y’all enjoy this write up!