Five Authors I Want to Meet (and Five I Already Have)

Note: Okay, so this week's prompt is actually for upcoming releases we're excited about. I have no idea why I thought it was authors we want to meet - the only excuse I can offer is that I put this post together the evening before I took the SAT. I guess I was a little distracted, huh?

I have met many fabulous authors in my life, and there are many more I am dying to meet. This week's Top Ten prompt asks for ten authors I want to meet, but I've met a lot of the authors I really wanted to, so I'm dividing this into five authors I have already met and five I want to meet sometime in the future. Here we go:

First, here are five authors I am dying to meet:

1. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books
This one is obvious. Who doesn't want to meet JK Rowling?! Maybe if I do decide to go to college in the UK, my chances of meeting her will increase. Hey, I should go add that to my college decision notebook!

2. Angie Sage, author of the Septimus Heap books
She also lives in the UK, so I guess this one goes under "reasons to move to Great Britain" along with potentially meeting JK Rowling. I have talked to her on Twitter a few times, but I would love to meet her and get her to sign my books.

3. Jennifer A. Nielsen, author of the Ascendance trilogy (my review)
I have been trying to get Jennifer Nielsen to visit Maryland for years, and I even contacted her publicist once about it - but I've never been able to meet her. I do have an autographed ARC of Mark of the Thief, and I've talked to her on Twitter a handful of times, but it's not the same as meeting her in person.

4. Wendy Mass, author of the Willow Falls books (and many more!)
I'm not exactly sure where Wendy Mass lives, but I'm pretty sure it's in America. I'd love to meet her and get her to autograph at least some of the half a dozen books I own by her.

5. Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus books
Any event with Rick Riordan attending sells out in like five minutes flat, so the odds of my ever meeting him face-to-face are extremely small. If I could meet him, though, I would love to have him autograph my copy of The Lightning Thief, which began my journey with Riordan's books almost 5 years ago.

Next, these are some of my favorite authors who I have already met:

1. Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of more books than I can list here (including Double Identity)
Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I am a massive fan of Margaret Peterson Haddix's. My parents also know this. That's why my mother went two hours out of her way to drive me to a middle school where Haddix was doing an author visit. With the school's permission, not only did I get to see Haddix and hear her presentation, but I also got to spend 5 to 10 minutes with her before the presentation, chatting with her about her books as she signed her way through the four I'd brought in. It was awesome!

2. Gordon Korman, author of many wonderful books including No More Dead Dogs
He was actually the first author I ever met. It was at a book fair, and I was one of a long line of people signing up to get books autographed after his presentation. I spent the entire 30 seconds it took him to sign my books grinning like a maniac and bobbing up and down like an excitable puppy.

3. Shannon Hale, author of the Princess Academy trilogy
I met her during her book tour for Palace of Stone, the second Princess Academy book. She was on a panel with Jessica Day George (see #4), and it was very surreal to me to meet the author of the book I've loved since before I understood that there were people who wrote the books I read. I got my childhood copy of Princess Academy autographed, so now it's even more special to me than it was before.

4. Jessica Day George, author of the Dragon trilogy (plus a lot of other great books!)
As I said above, I met her at the same time I met Shannon Hale. There on a panel together at a book Festival, and I was really lucky they're sitting next to each other because I only had to sit through one line to get books by both of them signed. As soon as I saw Jessica Day George during the panel, I knew that she was someone I would love to talk to. Now that I follow her on Twitter, I'm sure of it!

5. Matthew J. Kirby, author of The Clockwork Three (and more)
my family was late to Kirby's session, but we caught him just as he was walking off to get in his car. He was very kind to me even though I was making him go off schedule, and he signed the brochure for the festival (which was all I had with me at the time). He sat and chatted for a moment before going on his way, and I was really struck with how nice he was as a person, on top of being a fantastic author.

Have you met at any of the authors on either of these lists, or any other authors? If you could pick any author in the world, who would you want to meet?

My Top Ten Favorite Authors

When I saw this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, I couldn't help but smile! Who doesn't like reeling off their favorite authors? This was probably the easiest post I've ever written, and one of the funnest. I hope you pick up a few new books/authors to check out as you read through here. I tried to include a few favorites from each author so you can check them out if you're interested.

1. Margaret Peterson Haddix

Click to check out
my review

If I had to make a list of one, and choose a single favorite author, I wouldn't even blink before choosing her. She has written over 30 books, and I have read every single one of them. I adored some, I loved others, and merely liked others, but I have never actually disliked a book by Margaret Peterson Haddix. And after so many books, I find it extremely unlikely that this trend will ever change.

2. E.D. Baker

She does some great fairytale retellings. Her Frog Princess series is one of the few series that can get away with having eight books all about the same characters, and not get boring. I also love her book Wings, which isn't so much a retelling as it is a modern continuation/reinterpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Click to check out
my review

3. Gordon Korman

He is hilarious. Hilarious. I fell in love with his books years ago, and got my next oldest brother hooked as soon as he reached middle school. I am determined to foist his books on my youngest two siblings once they get old enough too, because his books are awesome entertainment. Even the names are charmingly silly: two that come to mind are The Chicken Doesn't Skate and No More Dead Dogs (incidentally, two of my favorites!).

4. Andrew Clements

Most of his books are for elementary and middle school kids, and that's where I was when I fell in love with them. Somehow I never really fell out of love with his books, and I still turn to them when I need a break from my normal fare. He also has a phenomenal YA book called Things Not Seen, which is just amazing.

5. Wendy Mass

Click to check out
my review

She has a few books for older and younger people that I'm not a huge fan of (the older books are too racy for me, and the younger ones too slow), but the rest of her books are amazing. She always comes up with compelling, unique story ideas that keep you on your toes. Some of my favorites of her books include the Willow Falls books, the Twice Upon a Time series, and The Candymakers.

6. Angie Sage

Two words: Septimus Heap. It's one of my all-time favorite fantasy series, and is just all-around amazing. She's writing the spin-off series now, called TodHunter Moon, and it's one of the few spin-offs I've read that actually maintain a significant amount of the charm of the original series.

Click to check out
my review

7. Jennifer A. Nielsen

I fell in love with Jaron from The False Prince back in 2013, and haven't looked back since. I devoured the rest of the Acendance trilogy and moved on to her Underworld Chronicles. It's for younger kids, but I enjoyed it and my middle-school-aged brother liked it even more than I did. Just recently I read and loved Mark of the Thief, the start of her new series, and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next. She has a World War II book coming out that's centered around the Berlin wall, which I can't wait to read. It's called A Night Divided.

8. Rick Riordan

Yes, he still goes on this list. I'm not a huge fan of the Heroes of Olympus books, so I may come across as kind of negative toward his books on this blog (in fact, I even did a post listing his most-used cliches!). However, I really do love the Percy Jackson series and that will never change. Those books are hilarious, heartwarming, and altogether charming, and will never lose their space on my bookshelf. And for that, Riordan gets a spot on my "favorite authors" list.

9. Jessica Day George

Click to check out
my review

This is another author whose books I absolutely love. I'm the kind of person who hunts down as many books as I can when I like an author, so after finishing her amazing Dragon trilogy I moved straight into her Princess books and the Castle Glower series. I have never met a Jessica Day George I didn't like, and I don't believe I ever will!

10. James Riley

Riley is a master at fracturing fairytales. His Half Upon a Time books are hilarious, and so heartwarming. On the surface his writing style feels kind of juvenile (read: lots of exclamation marks), but this style of writing becomes part of the overall feel/humor of the books. I love how he takes all of the fairtyales and sets them in an alternate universe to our own.

Those are a few of my all-time favorite authors! What are yours?

Top Rick Riordan Cliches (I Need Your Help!)

Hello, readers! Today I'll be doing something a bit different: Lakshmi commented on my review of Blood of Olympus suggesting I put together a list of the top Rick Riordan cliches, and I decided to do it. As you can see in my review, I loved the original Percy Jackson series but have been pretty disappointed in the Heroes of Olympus books. Don't jump all over me for hating, I just want to poke some gentle fun at the cliches Uncle Rick likes to lean on.

And without further ado, let's get started! Here are a few I thought of:

1. Love stories. With angst. Cause someone's always wondering if their girlfriend/boyfriend really likes them as much as they say.

2. Land ship. Fight monsters. Leave. Repeat.

3. This can't possibly get any worse. Oh wait, it just did!

4. Every character has to have some kind of internal fear/something they're hiding from the team. If not related to cliche #2, these fears usually turn out to be really important to the plot

5. There's a prophesy that seems horrible, but in the end we discover a different way to intrepret the prophecy, and now no one has to die.

6. The gods. They're SO USELESS, except for when they're vital to the plot.

What are your top Rick Riordan cliches? Leave them below, and I'll add them to my list! I'll post the full version on December 2, unless we need more time.

Edit 12/5/14:
This is now closed. I will post the final list of cliches next week. Feel free to continue posting cliches on here, as I will keep monitoring it for comments. If you post before my list is up and running, and I have time, I will add your cliche(s) to the end of the list.

Edit 1/6/15:
I just realized I should add the link to the final list. Here it is!

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, 2014

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen-all of them-and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood-the blood of Olympus-in order to wake.
The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps.
The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

I'm going to do a sort of review for the entire Heroes of Olympus series, so you can see my thought process and why I felt the way that I did at the series' end. It's a bit long, but then again so are all the reviews of Riordan's books on Goodreads, so there we go. Be warned, there are some spoilers from all of the books in here, mainly just plot twists that are crucial to later books in the series, and some romance themes. I don't spoil the ending of Blood of Olympus, at least not the "real" ending - I do talk a bit about the romantic aspect.

Okay, so I have literally been waiting for this book in form form or another for almost seven years. That is, if you start counting from when I first read The Lightning Thief (the first book in the original series). I have read every book in the first series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) more times than I can count, and I'm not just saying that to exaggerate. I literally re-read the series, especially the first book, periodically and I can't remember how many times I've read each book. What I do know is that I loved the series, along with every other middle schooler on the planet.

And then. Then the Heroes of Olympus series was announced, and I was so excited. I thought it would be amazing! I started the first book with no idea what to expect in the storyline department, but expecting to relish seeing all the old characters again.

The whole book was about three kids I'd never seen before. And I came to love them, and I gushed over the book with all of my friends, but inside I was still holding out judgement. The second book, Son of Neptune. That would be when everything really started, that would be when Percy stepped onto the page once more. And you know what? I did love Son of Neptune, because seeing Percy struggle to remember his life was so fascinating, and I sighed along with every other junior high girl on the planet when I saw how the only thing Percy could remember was Annabeth.

Of all the books in the series, I was least concerned about the quality of Mark of Athena going into it. Annabeth and Percy were finally together, and the crew united!
At this point, though, I was getting a bit of all the encounters with random gods (seriously, Rick needs someone to go through and chop about ten monster encounters from each of the Heroes of Olympus books). I was still invested, though, mainly because I still loved Percabeth and couldn't stand not knowing what happened after a certain literal cliffhanger that finished off an otherwise pleasing book.

Then came Blood of Olympus, and I officially came to the realization I honestly didn't care about all seven of the crew members. Not as people, anyway. They're not really people to me, they're just tools for Riordan. Tools for him to a) have as many races, ethnicities, and even sexual orientations as he can possibly cram in there, and b) create enough love angst stories to fill about four separate middle school series. I guess his success with Percabeth made him think the world was full of teenage suckers who would wholeheartedly ship every random coupling he threw in just for the sake of having couples. And I guess he was right. But I for one was getting pretty tired of Rick's old tricks.

Then came House of Hades, and I was ready to throw in the towel. While I enjoyed seeing Percy and Annabeth trusting and relying on each other as they navigated the difficult situations they encountered, I had no real interest in what the rest of the crew was up to. Riordan's writing was still engaging, but I'd seen it all before. There was literally nothing new outside of Tartarus, and I really didn't care enough about Piper to find her road to magic-usage that exciting. Wait, was it Piper or Hazel? I can never keep those two straight. Did you read that? I can never keep those two straight. And one is the Native American daughter of a movie star and the goddess of love, while the other is an African American dead girl whose father is Hades. If I can't keep those two straight, then Riordan is doing something wrong. The Leo and Calypso angle was sweet, though, and I was looking forward to seeing that come to fruition.

And now. Now Blood of Olympus has finally arrived, and I still bought it the day it came out. Why, you ask? You got the impression that I was starting to get sick of the series. Why would I buy the latest book? Well, mainly because I was sick and tired ("ill and exhausted," not "exasperated"), and my father went to Target. Also, the other book that came out that day (Jessica Day George's Thursdays with the Crown, another book I'll get around to reviewing one of these days) wasn't at Target.

So, I read Blood of Olympus. And far from loving it like every other fangirl on the planet, I disliked it. A lot. Because you see, everything I loved about the series had all but disappeared, and it felt like Rick was just using his tired old tricks to make everybody happy. The new Nico storyline is very much not to my taste, so while I empathized with him as a poor, lonely kid who thinks he has no friends, I still found the bits about his sexal orientation less than appealing. As for the members of the Argo II, you'd think I'd still have Percabeth to fall back on, right? Nope. They're barely together at all, and even when they are the scenes between them felt fake and cheesy, instead of sweet. And don't get me started on Leo and Calypso! The first time he called her "Sunshine" I felt sick. The whole interaction between the two of them feels like Rick completely recast their relationship - it goes from this unspoken loyalty/love thing that was really sweet, and I liked a lot, to this obnoxious, comfortable "We've been dating for years" sort of feel. To be perfectly honest, the book reads like a fanfiction you could find on the internet. Sure, it's longer than most of the fanfics online, but the romance is as out-of-character and clumsy as the average fanfic.

I know I'm one of the minority in my opinion of this series, especially for my age demographic, and I truly feel bad about that. I came into the series ready to love it. And if anyone who knows me in real life reads this, they'll be shocked because I always seemed just as in love with the series as they were. But who knows, maybe I'm not the only one secretly disappointed with the series. Whether you agree with me or not, comment below and let me hear your thoughts! And please, don't think I hate all things Percy Jackson now: Percabeth will always have a place in my heart, and nothing the later books have to say can change that. And who knows, maybe the new series (officially titled Magnus Chase) will be better!

Haha, I was joking. I'm trying the first book just to see how it is, but just because Chase is Annabeth's cousin, does not mean I will read five more five hundred page books. If I want to see how Percy and Annabeth are doing, I'll just Google it, thank you very much.