Five dynamic authors presented at one amazing book bash.

Well, there’s no doubt about it – Books Inc. Opera Plaza knows how to throw a party! To open their 3rd Annual Fall Book Bash, they started with raffles and prizes. Since the book bash has grown out of NYMBC (Not Your Mothers’ Book Club), all teens present were encouraged to put their name into the raffle. With prizes like books and posters, our winners were grinning from ear to ear when they returned to their seats with their loot in hand.

The real treasure of the evening was listening to each of the authors speak from new releases, upcoming releases, and how they deal with writing as an art form. Barry Lyga, Sara Zarr, Andrew Smith, L.K. Madigan, and Allen Zadoff were seated at the front, with a mic that broadcast their words through the store as they read.

Lyga started the shindig off with a reading from his latest, “Goth Girl Rising.”  The book itself is the first from Lyga that is from a teen girl's perspective, but the character was pre-developed from “The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl.”

When a member of the audience asked what made him an expert to write about girls, he reminded all of us that a) he created her in a previous novel and b) technically speaking, that makes him the expert. He goes a step further by talking about his research and paying attention to the people around him. He’s had female friends who have confided in him. He’s had female friends who ask questions about Kyra, a.k.a. Goth Girl. Her issues and her reality were always present, but it was a matter of Lyga bringing her to the written page.

Next up was Sara Zarr, who was inspired to write “Once Was Lost” when the story of Elizabeth Smart hit the airwaves in 2002. It was the “amalgamation of a hot summer, a bad year, and bad events,” she says. This book is the creation of a writer who wants to make sense of the things in our world that make no sense.

For Sara, writing comes from a seed of an idea, and if she can fill 30 pages, she figures she has enough to keep it going.  “The real question,” she says, “is can you be married to this story?  Can you keep it going?”  (With a hot summer, a kidnapped local girl, parents who were trying to find their footing, and a girl who likes a boy who is a bit suspect, “Once Was Lost” kept me going!)

Third on our panel of speakers was Andrew Smith with “In the Path of Falling Objects.”  Two brothers leave home looking for their father, and find themselves hitching a ride with a crazy man, literally the road trip from hell.

Hellacious as their trip may be, the inspiration of which Smith spoke for this book was amazing!  He was strongly influenced by the deaths of his high school students who had signed up for the armed forces after 9/11, and after finding letters that his brother wrote when he was in Vietnam, he was moved by the cyclical nature of our lives.

If we have these events, like war, Smith reminds us of the moments in between that make up our real lives and our real selves. These are the moments where we share experiences that tie us to one another, the everyday moments that go wrong, and the ones we have to work at to make them right.

The sobering experience of hearing about war and the brothers who deal with it was a good segway to debut author L. K. Madigan with "Flash Burnout." Madigan also introduces a male character, Blake, who has a testy relationship (at best) with his older brother, but who comes through in the end when Blake needs his help. While the brothers’ relationship is a background aspect of the story, it is integral as we see Blake’s world crumble.

Madigan also talks of her story starting with a voice, an idea that won’t leave you alone. “Blake’s voice was strong,” was her response when an audience member asked why she wrote from the perspective of a teenage boy. Of course, her next book, to be released in 2010, is a total 180. It is mermaids and surfing and girls, oh my!

To close the evening off, Allen Zadoff did not disappoint. He read from his debut novel, “Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have,” where audience members were heard groaning, laughing, and seen visibly cringing while listening to Zadoff describe his character’s horrifying gym class experience.

Our main character is an overweight sophomore who wears size 48 pants, when he runs, he bounces, and when he gets into a moment of soccer, he loses his shorts (literally), gets tangled in the soccer net, and the girl he likes is a witness to the whole debacle. (cringe…!)  Based on his own experiences as an overweight high school student, Zadoff brings charm and wit to an otherwise painful experience.

Yes, there is no doubt about it. The audience was captivated by five dynamic authors, five amazing books, one night, and one amazing book bash!