Eliot Shrefer, whom you may know as the author of the fantastic (and scary!) School for Dangerous Girls, read from his upcoming work, The Deadly Sister. To be honest, I didn’t settle in very well for his reading, because he gave these signs to David Levithan (author, editor, and event organizer extraordinaire). What I mean is … look for yourself:

Right. So as Eliot read from his first draft, David kept butting in with these signs. There was one with an X on it, meaning that David — in his editor hat — was cutting whatever Eliot was saying. There was one with a talky bubble, which David held up whenever he wanted to interject a thought of his own. And there was one, the one David holds here, that said “insert,” which usually meant David wanted to add a word that made the sentence more grammatical.

It was hilarious. Also? Scary. Because David was switching signs every few seconds, cutting and interjecting and inserting until Eliot’s work was whimpering on the floor. Here is what Eliot looked like as he read while David edited:

Eliot, by the way, is a fan of outines. “You’re actually driving a really large bus when you’re writing a novel,” he said, comparing an outline to a Pinto. (You have probably not seen a Pinto, but just think of it as a non-functional Smart Car from the 1970s.)

Next up was the lovely Gayle Forman, who read from her most recent novel, If I Stay. Gayle had some choice things to say about YA writing and editing. For example: “I kind of keep quiet to my friends in the adult publishing world about the amazing quality of the editors that I work with.” (This made me want to stand up and cheer, in a sort of nyah-nyah nyah-nyah way, for YA lit and authors and editors and fans.)

Gayle is not only a great writer, but she has awesome hair and the coolest black boots I’ve ever seen. Alas, the boots are not pictured, but I assure you that they had the best chunky silver hardware I’ve ever seen.

She talked about having something called a “nurse log,” which is a defunct, never-to-be-published book out of which many of her ideas grow. Oh, and she told us that she knows a novel is done when she can read it aloud without gagging. If only my gag reflex were so intelligent!

More TK — There were a ton of authors, and I will write about every one of them, but it may take a little while. Keep checking back!

Much love,
brina