This weekend I’ll be moderating an author panel. I am very excited about it.
The event is multi-faceted, as many author panel events are. Primarily, it’s a book drive by my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. The troop is collecting books to donate to local school libraries. My job as a sometimes librarian in the local public school system offers me the opportunity to spend time in lots of different school libraries. I talk with librarians and library assistants about the students and their libraries in general, and each library is different with varying needs. In one of the libraries, I heard that kids were stealing books–especially the graphic novels. My heart broke for those kids. However, the school can’t afford to replace them. So for now, they’re out of those books.
When I told this story to K.L. Kranes, an author on the panel, fellow Girl Scout leader, and (last but definitely not least) my friend, she suggested the Girl Scout troop organize a book drive and we could donate the books to the library in question. We plan to donate to that one school library, but if we have an overwhelming amount of books (which is my dream), we might be able to donate to multiple schools in need.
The next part of the event is the author panel. I’ll be moderating, and there will be two authors, K.L. Kranes who wrote The Travelers (a YA novel which merges fantasy and romance and takes the reader on an exciting magical adventure) and Angela D. Glascock who wrote Locksmith at the End of the World: A Dead Silence Novella (Chester, Lucy, and Emma find themselves alone navigating a changed world where silence is not golden, but deadly). Do these books sound awesome or what? I have read both books, and as the moderator, I hope to keep the panel running smoothly, while also keeping both authors and audience engaged and entertained.
We are pretty excited about this event. K.L. and I have been working, along with our Girl Scout daughters, to prepare for this event for several months now. Scrawl Books generously offered to host our book drive and author panel. This independent bookstore is fairly new to the area. Scrawl has been very generous to us and we are delighted to hold our event there. (I shopped last weekend at Scrawl on Independent Bookstore Day! Yay indie bookstores!)
Since I’ve never moderated an author panel, I did a little search online, which turned up a pretty cool post by Marissa Meyer, author of the YA Lunar Chronicles Series (which my daughter devoured as soon as she got her greedy hands on each one). I appreciated her advice on how to prep as an author for this event, as someday I aspire to be on author panels myself! Marissa Meyer was prepping for San Diego Comic Con and we are prepping for a book drive and author panel hosted by Scrawl Books and organized by our Girl Scout troop. So maybe it’s not in the same stratosphere, but we’re excited just the same.
Have you ever participated in an author panel? Have you ever moderated one? How about have you attended one? If so, the event’s not until Saturday, and I’d love to hear your tips, ideas, and suggestions.
bylisatully 