I’m early as I always am. My training as an NPR reporter insists that I maintain this discipline. I want my hand seen. I want to see the speaker and her body language. Tone matters. Inflections matter. Everything that occurs at a presser carries a message. Even as a radio reporter, all five senses count.
My sketchpad sits on my lap and I begin a new page. Random doodling. Nothing serious. In comes Fran Wilde. I smile. I may be the 2019 Baltimore Faerie Faire Author of the Year, but she won the whole Nebula. More importantly, I’ve loved her books. Her stories so far have been delicate, precise, and character driven. You can read the craftsmanship, the intelligence, and a see bit of heart in each one. In short, they soar. That’s why I’m here not as a reporter, not even as an author, but as a friend of her books. I’ve enjoyed them so much not only did I read and review them, but included them in my best of the year write-ups in 2017.
Fran chats with a librarian. The room is empty except for us and someone from Politics and Prose. I give her space because I know how important prep time can be. Besides, my fingers are happily absorbed in motion, composition, shade and texture. The author pauses and studies my sketch, she smiles, then asks my name.
She knows who I am. She says it’s a pleasure to finally meet me!
She compliments my drawing. 
This means something because if you ever go to Wilde’s Instagram account you will discover that she is quite a talented doodler. Her scanned journal pages are rife with beautiful illustrations. So, we talk art. I discover that she once was forced to make the choice between paths… art school or literary. I’m glad she choose as she did, but even gladder that she never lost that part of herself. Later, during her presentation, she notes how she sometimes uses sketches to sharpen her concentration and memory. Interestingly, I said the same thing to my friend Phil a few minutes earlier to explain why I had brought a sketchpad to a reading. So, given permission by Fran herself, I sketched through her reading. If you ever what a Fran Wilde reading looks like… here’s my interpretation (including my representation of one her witch balls.)
The reading.
Fran shares a moment from her latest book, a middle grade fantasy called Riverland. It’s a portal adventure that may bare echoes of her own childhood favorites like the Phantom Tollbooth and the Chronicles of Narnia. I’ll fill you in later on the book after I read it. In the meantime, Wilde’s reading augers it will be a fun book even if she did cruelly ended her recitation on a cliffhanger.
Afterwards, Wilde pulls out typing paper and pencils. She informs us that we are going to draw a map and leads a quick lesson on story-mapping which is a kind of visual outlining. The idea is basically to plot out the narrative arc using icons indicating the major events from the beginning to the resolution. I don’t know if this means that Fran is a plotter who eschews pantsing, but it was a neat exercise.
Then, perhaps the best part of the evening.
Sharing.
One of the great things I learned about Fran Wilde that day, unless she’s faking it, is how genuinely supportive she is. She encouraged every child to share their map. With great warmth in her voice, she told them to finish their stories and how much she looked forward to hearing/reading them when they were done. The evening thus became at least a little bit about her audience and not her which is what author events should be like. We readers do come to celebrate an author we cherish, but we are also there for us. Fran gets that.
She gives.
I have to admit I did chicken out a bit. Part of me wanted to pitch my novel, A Halo of Mushrooms for her Cooking the Books’ podcast. After all, Halo takes place largely in a bakery and magical cooking is a key ingredient to what makes the story work. I wasn’t sure the moment was appropriate though and having been ambushed I let the moment pass. Besides, I enjoyed the event and didn’t want her to think I came for mercenary reasons.
Should you read Riverland? Should your children read Riverland?
I’ll offer my opinion soon. In the meantime if you haven’t read Updraft, Cloudbound, and Horizon… get to it. I think you’ll like them.
