Author Signing with Shannon Hale

Tonight I was lucky enough to attend an author signing at my local indie (awesome) bookstore, The Flying Pig. We rarely get out-of-state authors in Vermont, so this was a real treat. There were a lot of younger readers there, which is always fun. Their questions are always refreshing, and they get right to the point.

She mostly talked about why she chose to re-tell some famous fairy tales (her reason: because they were terrible, and had huge gaps in the story). It was actually pretty enlightening. I never really thought about some of the plot holes in the Grimm Brothers tales. For example, why didn't the witch build a door so that she could visit Rapunzel. Instead, she chose to climb her hair. She also briefly mentioned that Rapunzel ends up with twins...so we're left to wonder what exactly the prince's intentions were when he went to visit Rapunzel. Did that tower even have a bathroom?

Then she whipped out a huge role of laminated paper. What is it, you ask? It's a roll of her rejection letters! She kept them all, which I thought was really brave. I don't think I'd be able to reread letters that said my book wasn't right for them.

She seemed really nice, and I can't wait to pick up more of her books. I'll also be giving away a signed copy of one of her books, so check back later in the week for that!