Hello Nashville! Yesterday I grabbed James, the oldest minion, and took him to Nashville to the Southern Festival of Books. More specifically I took him to see Rick Riordan at the Southern Festival of Books. Rick Riordan is the author of the Percy Jackson series, amongst other things.
The organization of the line was a bit of a…um…well, it was a bit unorganized. None of the ushers knew where the line was, half of them were letting people in early and half of them weren’t. It was a bit of a mess.
A crazy hot mess because the summer just will not be denied in the lower South and even though it’s October it’s still ninety flipping degrees.
We were lucky enough to meet up with a friend and her son when we got there and made the decision to go in early and sit through the session before Riordan – thus insuring us with a good seat.
The session was for Chuck Pa…oh my goodness, this mans name is crazy hard to spell…Chuck Palahniuk, Yep, the author of Fight Club.
It was a bit of a caveat emptor. Ya know, ‘Buyer Beware.’ The ushers told us ‘you can sit through this session but it is going to have very adult language and very adult themes.’ Er….
So, my friend Kristi opens her purse. Y’all, this purse was Mary Poppins carpet bag. It had everything you could possibly need. I’m pretty sure if I had said I was tired she would have pulled out a pillow, a sleep mask, and a glass of warm milk for me (because, actually that’s kind of how she is.)
Ya know, sometimes I hang out with other Moms and I look at my kids and think ‘dude, you kind of pulled the short end of the stick with me.’
Doesn’t it rock to have organized friends, though? So she pulls out ear plugs for the boys and we sit down. Have ear plugs and iPhones will travel.
We must have had ten people come up to us, one of whom was Mr Palaniuk’s publicist, and tell us THIS IS NOT A SESSION FOR KIDS. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got it.
It was definitely entertaining. Monica Drake and Chelsea Cain were also part of the panel. Drake read a pretty moving piece on, oh, I guess you’d say the city. It was full of energy but made me sad. Chelsea Cain read a ghost story she had written. Palaniuk read a piece on suicide, sort of.
They also played some games and just generally gave the attendees a good time.
It was fine. The kids stayed completely focused on their game systems. James played Minion Rush and Fruit Ninja the whole time and I’m pretty sure he never heard a word that was said. I know he never looked up from his game.
James and his buddy before the event.
So, on to Riordan! Originally James was pretty bummed when he found out it wasn’t going to be a book signing, just an appearance. However, Riordan gave such an amazing presentation that all was forgiven.
He was absolutely hilarious.
Apparently, he spent fifteen years teaching middle school so he knows how to make the kids laugh. He would have been a fantastic teacher.
Self deprecating but not whiny. Informative but never boring.
Check out this chart. The average author makes a royalty of only 10% on each book? Crazy talk! Also, 40% of Americans don’t read even one book a year. Wow.
James is not easily impressed. I mean, he’s not a jerk but it just takes more to make him laugh than most kids.
That’s why is warmed my heart (insert awwwwww...) to see him interacting and laughing and genuinely loving it so much.
Perhaps what prompted the best response from the audience was the book covers in other languages.
Did you know the author has zero control over what the book covers look like in other countries?
Did you know that Riordan hasn’t seen any of the movies! Once he realized he wouldn’t have creative control he stepped away from the process and said he didn’t want to mess with the ideas in his head of the characters. Crazy, huh.
I love going to author events and this one ranks up there with one of the best I’ve ever been to.
If ya get the chance, yeah, you should go!