My dream-come-true meeting with Veronica Roth
~ by Jen (California, USA)
| Veronica Roth’s
novel Divergent will always be special to me. It
was the inspiration for my first dystopian novel,
Above the Sky. And so when I heard that Veronica Roth would be
at the 2014 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, I hoped
that I would have a chance to meet her. I brought along my copy of Divergent
hoping to have the opportunity to ask her to sign it. All of the stars seemed to align to make our meeting possible. A week before the event, I secured tickets to attend her Conversation (Q and A session) moments before they sold out. |
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| On the morning of the event, when I showed up an hour early for the Q and A session, the queue was already packed, but still I was early enough to be assured entry. |
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| Only the first 500 people in the queue were given passes to allow them to have a book signed; I got one of the coveted passes. |
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| The Q and A session (in beautiful Bovard Auditorium at USC) was fascinating. |
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| Veronica shared interesting tidbits like: in an early draft of Divergent, Tris was a guy; Veronica (like Four) is afraid of heights; the name of her character Tobias came from the Animorphs series; and Veronica almost burst into tears of hometown pride when she saw the opening of the movie version of Divergent. |
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| Veronica seemed very down-to-earth, the kind of person who would be fun to hang out with. |
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| Once the Q and A session was over, the audience burst out of the auditorium and everyone with a ticket for the book signing dashed to the book signing area. I ended up in the last bit of the line, but I was willing to wait for my moment to meet Veronica Roth. And so I waited. For two hours. |
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| When I finally
stepped up to the signing table for my
dream-come-true moment, I felt (shockingly) calm. I told Veronica that her writing had
inspired my writing. She was very sweet.
There’s always a danger when you meet someone whose work you admire that they will disappoint you. Veronica seemed like a genuinely cool person, even after signing books for hours. EPILOGUE: To date (as of in 2023), I have written seven dystopian novels including THE UNKNOWN, ABOVE THE SKY, and THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE! Back in 2014, when I told Veronica that her writing had inspired my own, I had no idea how far that journey would take me. My love for her novel, DIVERGENT, inspired me to write in a genre I might never have considered, and that changed my life! |
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I met Veronica Roth (author of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant) on April 13th, 2014, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jen is also known as J.W. Lynne, a best selling author of eleven novels. Click on any of the titles below to see the book on Amazon! THE UNKNOWN: Eight kids learn the shocking reason why they were kidnapped. ABOVE THE SKY: A girl lives in a world where touching her soulmate is forbidden. THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE: A teen is locked in a bunker to take a simulated trip to the moon. KID DOCS: An experimental program turns kids into doctors. WILD ANIMAL SCHOOL: A girl falls in love with a boy at an exotic animal ranch. WHAT HE DIDN'T TELL ME: A traumatized girl meets a boy with a horrible secret. IF I TELL: A teen wonders if her father is a serial killer. Besides reading books and dreaming up stories to write, Jen's favorite activities are singing along to musical theater soundtracks and hiking in California's beautiful parks. **Jen's books are available on Kindle Unlimited.** |
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You might also enjoy: Jen's experience walking the black carpet at the Divergent movie premiere Jen's review of the movie Divergent Jen's visit to the set of Divergent |
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