Alex Bracken Signing Recap

I've been a huge fan of Alex since she was a member of PublishingCrawl back in the day. I remember when her first book, Brightly Woven came out and how much I loved it--and still do to this day! one of my biggest regrets was getting it for my kindle and not a hard copy now that it's out of print.

Harvard Bookstore always has a pretty good set up when it comes to book events. I love how much space they have in their store to accommodate a good amount of people.

Alex was a very good speaker. She was so friendly and bubbly and sweet.

She told us that  Passenger was inspired by her time in college in Virginia. There's is a colonial place (like Plymouth plantation) where people won't break character. 

She wanted to capture the feeling of being a time traveler, and be able to compare the old with the new, like Outlander for example. 

She picked New York for Etta to be from because, while she doesn't love New York city, she loves new yorkers and the way they can just go about their business and deal with weird things and people and happenings around them easily. Lol

When asked why she chose certain times and locations, she said she wanted to push herself to be not euro-centric and do more world history. 

Wayfarer was her problem book. It taught her a lot about herself as a writer. 

She made Etta play the violin because she always admired musicians since they work so hard and are very single minded in their practice and determined. 

Ettas single minded determination is like Alex in that she was very single mindedly obsessed with getting published while in college.

She read biographies by young concert musicians as research for Etta. 

When asked about her writing schedule, she explained how her original writing schedule when she used to work in editorial and then Marketing. (Something they tell you is that editorial isn't a career its a lifestyle you bring home with you. )

She'd come home every Friday. Buy Chipotle and mountain dew (she's back on coffee now and tryign to kick the habit of mountain dew, but I totally get that addiction. I was a mountain dew fiend in college too! So much so that people got me cases of it for Christmas!) and work from like 7pm till 4 am then wake up at 10am and work again  till 4am on Saturday and Sunday and then go back to work on Monday with a dew hangover.

That's how she worked on writing and school work while she went to college. She did it all in long solitary blocks of time.

Now that shes a full time writer she can have a more healthy time frame.

Wakes up around 8 walks the dog. Check emails. Turn on her app to turn internet off

She usually works on three books at a time!

Marketing for one

Editing for another

Drafting another

A biiiit of a workaholic. So she's glad she has her dog that makes her get up and do stuff.

She keeps a notebook by her bed to write some lines in and get into a groove for her next writing  time.

When asked about her cover, she broke it down in what she imagined the meanings to be.

The City crumbling on the bottom= the unbalance of what could happen if you mess up the time line.

The Tree= the characters--they all have tree names.

The Glass case= the rules of time traveling that's been broken.

She said she felt lucky that she works with Disney since they are very good at working with the authors with the covers.

Some other things she mentioned:

She wrote a lot of fanfiction in high school.

Just need the confidence to take the plunge into original fiction.

Finished her first book for nonowrimo her first year of college. It was a cliche dump of tropes from fantasies that she loved. She queried it to every single agent in existence and got rejected by all.

Sold her second book she wrote though!

Publishing Path Advice:

Read everything. Even genres you don't think you would like. Cause you learn different things from each of them.

Write everyday. Doesn't matter what. Journal entries. Notes. Dreams. Anything.

Believe in yourself in the face of life. Push through it. 

Studied History and English in college.

After spiraling into depression between junior and senior year because she really didn't want to be a lawyer or teacher. She went to the career center. They said why not check out publishing jobs.

She doesn't like NY but thought she could transfer. But then the 2008 year crashed and there were only pub jobs in NY and Boston. Her mom in Lowell said she wouldn't survive a Boston winter. So she went to NY.

Publishing is definitely about who you know. Even still.

She had a dragon lady boss and would passive aggressively leave notes at her.

Passenger and Wayfarer were always planned to be a duology.

Phew! Alex had so much fun insider information, the hour flew by too quickly!! She was so nice during the signing line. So talkative and hugged for pictures! ♥ She really is so sweet. I hope she comes back again!

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Title: Wayfarer
By: Alexandra Bracken
Publication:  January 3rd 2017 by Disney-Hyperion
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Summary: All Etta Spencer wanted was to make her violin debut when she was thrust into a treacherous world where the struggle for power could alter history. After losing the one thing that would have allowed her to protect the Timeline, and the one person worth fighting for, Etta awakens alone in an unknown place and time, exposed to the threat of the two groups who would rather see her dead than succeed. When help arrives, it comes from the last person Etta ever expected—Julian Ironwood, the Grand Master’s heir who has long been presumed dead, and whose dangerous alliance with a man from Etta’s past could put them both at risk.

Meanwhile, Nicholas and Sophia are racing through time in order to locate Etta and the missing astrolabe with Ironwood travelers hot on their trail. They cross paths with a mercenary-for-hire, a cheeky girl named Li Min who quickly develops a flirtation with Sophia. But as the three of them attempt to evade their pursuers, Nicholas soon realizes that one of his companions may have ulterior motives.

As Etta and Nicholas fight to make their way back to one another, from Imperial Russia to the Vatican catacombs, time is rapidly shifting and changing into something unrecognizable… and might just run out on both of them.

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