Author appearance draws large crowd to Third Place Books

By Diane Hettrick

A large and enthusiastic crowd of primarily females aged 12 - 25 gathered at the Third Place stage Wednesday evening to hear remarks from author Marissa Meyer, who was on the last stop of her book tour with her new release Renegades (Feiwel and Friends).

Writing in the genre of young adult speculative fiction, Renegades has already hit the New York Times bestseller list. Her first stand alone novel, Heartless, was a #1 New York Times bestseller, as were her graphic novel Wires and Nerve: Vol. 1, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book.

The event started with a costume contest of fans dressed as superheros. The crowd helped to vote by cheering each contestant. Meyer awarded the prizes.

She answered fan questions (What motivates you to keep writing? "Deadlines") getting appreciative laughs from the audience. She talked about how she loves to write and where she gets inspirations for her characters.

Sometimes, she said, it's random facts, like hearing about a job that was really interesting.

Renegade started with musing about a girl superhero who was attending a school for heroes, while maintaining a normal persona. What if she met a normal boy and started to fall in love, but he was really attending a school for supervillains?

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies who emerged from the ruins of society to establish peace and order. Nova has a reason to hate them, and is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice— and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to so-called villains who have the power to end them both. 

The presentation started at 7pm and lasted about 20 minutes. The signing line stretched from the bookstore to the front door, in alphabetical sections. Fans were still in line when the store closed for regular business.