Book Club Party Time

So tonight was my friend's book club discussion about LITTLE SUN. Remember how absolutely excited I was? That's why this post gets four excitement stars. (Plus, they're just fun.) Anyway, tonight was so amazingly fun. And probably, in part, for very dorky and possibly egocentric reasons, but I don't really care. I'm still riding the high.

Tonight was the first time this book club had an author attend their discussion, and they were very interested in the writing process. And, frankly, it was fun to talk about. How often are people super interested in something you've done and ask questions and let you talk about it for an hour and half? Maybe that happens to you all the time, I don't know. But tonight it was awesome.

They wanted to know how long it took me to write, how I came up with the idea, if I had to map out a floor plan of the main character's house (yes, yes I did), among other things. My friend who was hosting also mentioned that they like to make some kind of food and try to tie it in with the book of the month somehow, and she had us guess what she made. People were tossing out ideas and it was fun to hear how familiar they were with the book, and I also realized how much I wrote about food. But she didn't choose any of those dishes. She made a dessert called "Death By Chocolate" because death is a major theme in the story, obviously. I totally, geekily loved that.

It was also so fun to really discuss the book, what things meant, different themes, what people understood from it, and how they imagined the characters. I learned A LOT, and I have ideas for some changes to make it better. And like I said, it was so fun to talk about it with people who were so familiar with the story. They knew the characters almost as well as I did, and that warmed my heart.

They were also curious about the publishing process and where things stand. After I told them, it made me want to get more queries out there and to keep trying. I've taken a long break, but I was motivated to get back at it.

The whole experience was thrilling, and it made me excited to be an author and proud of what I had done. Best of all, they seemed to genuinely enjoy the book. An evening very well spent.