Back in January, my friend and I bought signed copies of the
YA fairy tale DOON by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon at The Booksellers bookstore
in downtown Cincinnati. I loved the book so much that I tweeted and wrote a
blog post about it. I told my reader friends and family about it.
Skip forward to April, a few weeks back, and Lorie
Langdon asked me to join a team promoting the sequel to DOON. Of course I said yes. She hinted that in
return for promoting the book, she’d send the team some DOON swag. To be
honest, I didn’t care about the swag—I love to talk about books and I love to help
other writers—so I would have said yes even if she hadn’t offered something in
return. Last week, I officially joined the top secret DOON street team.
A key thing to know about DOON is that it’s based on a
musical called Brigadoon. I’d heard
of it, but never seen it. Not long after Lorie Langdon asked me to help promote
DOON’s sequel, Carey Corp sent me a message on Twitter saying the Anderson High
School here in Cincinnati would be doing Brigadoon
for their spring musical. Would I be interested in going? YES, of course! Would
I want to chat with her at Panera after? YES, of course!
I recruited my YA reader friend (because every fangirl
needs a fangirl friend) and after we checked our schedules, we bought tickets
to yesterday’s matinee performance. I sent Carey Corp a message saying I’d be
there and got an enthusiastic response back. At this point, I was a little
nervous—okay, a lot nervous—knowing that I had basically a date with a published author. Good thing my friend had agreed to go
with me.
Skip forward to yesterday. My friend and I arrived at
Anderson High to find a bagpiper playing outside the school. (Did I mention
that DOON takes place in Scotland? Because it does.) That, if nothing else, was
a good sign—the last time I’d seen and heard a bagpiper (loads of bagpipers)
was in the spring in Paris back in college and that had been a great day.
Still, I was nervous. Making writer connections over the internet is one thing.
Meeting another writer—a PUBLISHED writer—in person is something completely different.
When we entered Anderson High’s lobby, it was crowded
with parents, grandparents, and friends of Brigadoon
students. There were people selling flowers, candy, handing out programs, and
just standing around chatting. I’m short, so it was hard to see over all that,
but I stood on tiptoe and spotted a huge poster for DOON. I knew we’d find
Carey Corp there.
My friend and I made our way through the crowd, checking
things out, and were about halfway to the DOON poster when I heard Carey Corp shout
my name like she was the fangirl, not me. She’d recognized me from across the
lobby and it was a huge relief, a greeting from a friend. My friend and I
hurried over to her table, where we made introductions and chatted for a few
minutes before the performance.
A key thing to know about Brigadoon is that, were it a book someone was trying to publish
now, it would never make it. There’s not a whole lot of plot and what plot
there is comes off weak at best. Still, I could see the basics of DOON there...and
I love DOON so much more. For one thing, DOON has hot princes and two best
friends. It also deals with the time paradox between Scotland and Doon in a way
that’s so much more believable. Plus, it’s chock-full of plot and plot twists that
pull you in and make you want to keep reading from the first page to the last. As
I watched Brigadoon, I kept comparing
it to DOON like I was back in school and knew I’d have to write a paper about
it later.
When the musical was over and we went to Panera to chat,
my friend and I asked Carey about some of the differences between the musical and
her book. We asked her about how she and Lorie write together, about how they
found their agent, about her favorite musicals. We talked about other YA books
and YA writers, about agents and conferences, about Broadway Across America’s The Phantom of the Opera at the Aronoff
here in Cincinnati next week. Our conversation lasted for over an hour and a
half, at which point Carey’s cute daughter got bored and impatient. I wished I’d
had a book to offer her, but the only one I’d brought along was DOON. (Because
yes, I’m that nerdy. In my defense, I left it in the car.) When we parted ways,
Carey called out it was great to meet us and that we’d talk soon.
Our conversation also made me more excited to help with
the DOON street team. Seeing Brigadoon
made me love DOON more and talking with Carey made me hopeful about making more
writing connections in the near future. Though I didn’t write more than a
handful of WIP words yesterday, the day was worth it, awesome. Of course, today
it’s back to flavors (my day job) and writing that WIP and, if I have time,
reading some more of that YA my friend and I love.
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