Event Recap: Lecture By YA Author A.S. King

Author A.S. King

Hi guys! I'm here with you today for a somewhat unusual post. I received an incredible opportunity through my school recently that I just had to share and I figured a lot of you would appreciate. So here we go!

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of going to a talk hosted by author A.S. King at my school. It was such an awesome time listening to her talk about her writing process, her editing process, and even her publishing process. She answered a lot of great questions from the audience and really gave some interesting facts and tidbits about her previously published books (and even her upcoming one!), and I was honestly just so happy and excited to have the chance to get to see her.

One of my favorite moments of the night was when A.S. King was talking about her editing process and getting into specific detail about each of the steps she uses. My personal favorite was the "HOLY SHIT CHAINSAW REVISION" round of edits, which I can totally relate to. She even put it on her presentation slides!

The rest of the conversation was about all sorts of things. She discussed her writing process, which is the total opposite of mine but still incredible based on all of the amazing work she puts out -- it turns out that she's a pantser rather than a planner! She also gave some little pieces of information about her book that she just recently handed in to her editor, which means I'll be routinely checking the bookish news feeds for word of this story soon. She's also so freaking funny, and some of her jokes and little asides had me laughing so hard I could barely breathe.

It was just such an incredible night to be surrounded by so many writers, which is something that I don't get very often. It was refreshing to hear an author make writing related jokes and speak with literary jargon that everyone in the room understood without needing additional explanations. As I always say, book peeps are the best peeps! And being surrounded by them while listening to such an incredibly amazing and professional writer give a presentation gave me such a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Like I said, I'm super glad that I got a chance to go to this event. A.S. King is a spectacular author and speaker, and she really made me that much more excited to go sit in bed and write until sunrise that night. (I tried to do that, but my exhaustion got the better of me. But the attempt was definitely there!) Now I'm also going to be super fortunate to have her be leading my YA Fiction Writing class in school later this week, so I'm looking forward to another opportunity to pick her brain about her writing process.

And if you haven't read any of A.S. King's books, I definitely recommend you give them a shot! The two I've read (and loved!) so far are Still Life With Tornado and Ask The Passengers, but I'm super eager to pick up some more. Add her books to your TBR recently! You can check out her books and her Goodreads author profile here.

Who are some authors that you'd love to experience an opportunity like this with? Comment down below and let me know!