My first full day at San Diego Comic-con this year was action packed, as to be expected. We woke up early in the hopes of lining up for the Westworld experience only to find out that the line had been already cut off. Too crazy!

I also went to the DC Icons: Blockbuster YA Authors Meet Iconic DC Superheroes panel with Marie Lu, Leigh Bardugo and Matt de la Peña. The three writers had a great hour talking about their upcoming DC books, with Bardugo’s Wonder Woman: Warbringer novel coming out first on August 29.

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The Space Pirate Queen sits down with Marie Lu and Aun-Juli Riddle to discuss books, tea and how much sugar we had that night. Marie touches a bit on her current book projects (INCLUDING BATMAN!) and Juli talks about how she got started creating her geek themed tea over at Riddle’s Tea Shoppe!

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YALLFest started in 2011 in the East Coast, a festival that gathered authors and hosted panels, events and signings for Young Adult fans to enjoy. This year, YALLWest (the West Coast version) was born in Santa Monica, California. This casual festival was packed with awesome guests including our friend, Marie Lu (Legend, Young Elites), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Veronica Roth (Divergent) and many, many more!

Some hate us, think us outlaws to hang at the gallows.

Some fear us, think us demons to burn at the stake.

Some worship us, think us children of the gods.

But all know us.

MEET DANTE (AKA SPIDER)

Once a blacksmith’s apprentice, Dante is wary of Adelina’s presence on the team. Both hulking and menacing, Spider would like nothing more than to rid himself of the new recruit. Like the others, he is marked as a Young Elite by the dark irregular markings on his neck that go all the way down to his chest. He’s known as the Spider for his abilities to see in darkness.

Read a new excerpt from The Young Elites!

Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy ends with Ruin and Rising and I got to go to the book launch party at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles to celebrate with the author and her fans. This is also my first time at The Last Bookstore and it is a glorious store. Non-commercial bookstores with personality is super rare these days and I love that this place exist. It was a lot of fun to be there with the YA crowd and fellow Grisha fans.

Marie Lu returns to the podcast after wrapping up her first book trilogy: Legend, Prodigy and Champion. Listen as we discuss her writing methods, characters and upcoming projects. Also, Team Thomas never falters!

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Champion by Marie Lu was released early November 5, 2013 and the author ended her book tour at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach. The back of the bookstore was crowded with fans by the time I arrived, many of them were young girls with their moms (well, there were boys too!). The event started with Marie talking about her writing methods and afterwards, she took (non-spoiler-y) questions from her readers. As usual, her fans were very curious and enthusiastic with lots of interesting questions for the author!