My Dream Bookish Panel

As a card-carrying fangirl, I love when I get the chance to go to conventions to meet my favourite actors and actresses. I love watching panels from conventions where they answer questions given to them by fans and tell anecdotes from the set and so on. The majority of the time I end up nearly falling off of my chair because they are just too witty. I know who my ideal panel of actors and actresses would be but what about my dream panel of authors and fictional characters. In this blog post, I share with you four fictional characters and four authors that I would have on my imaginary panel.

F I C T I O N A L   C H A R A C T E R S

I honestly could cheat and say that I would have Captain Kathryn Janeway on the panel as a fictional character. Why not? She's a literary fictional character thanks to the Star Trek: Voyager pocket book series. There are dozens of books for Voyager. Ergo, Captain Janeway is a fictional character and could take up a seat on the panel. But I'll be fair here.

A N N A B E T H    C H A S E
(PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS || HEROES OF OLYMPUS)

The daughter of Athena. If you know me, or truthfully if you've looked at the header image of this blog, Annabeth will not come as any kind of surprise. Athena is my favourite of the Greek deities and as a result, her daughter, Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series is by default (and a lot of merit), is my favourite character. Take a seat, Annabeth. 

D O N A T E L L A    D R A G M A
(CARAVAL)
Despite not featuring heavily in Caraval, Donatella still made an impact on me. At the beginning of the book she's very much a wilful girl who does whatever she wants without any regard for the consequences. Then she's taken captive at Caraval. The participants have to solve the clues to find her. Then she appears again at the end and drops the biggest bombshell that I did not see coming. She really surprised me as a character. She reminded me of Morgana from BBC's Merlin. She appears to be this weak, willful, spoilt girl but at the end, she completely blew me away with her intelligence and her determination. I loved it. Plus, since I've fancast her as Katie McGrath, why wouldn't want her on my dream panel?

S A R A I

(STRANGE THE DREAMER)
The Muse of Nightmares. YES! I absolutely loved Sarai when I was reading Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. To be honest, it truly was a coin toss between Sarai and Minya. Yes, Minya. The pint-sized little evil one. She was a contender because I love my villains. Nevertheless, I went with Sarai because her story, her abilities and her history with regard to the other characters.

This is probably where I would include a male fictional character. To be completely honest, I haven't encountered a fictional male character that I like beyond Percy Jackson. I dislike Harry Potter with a passion. Most males in the books that I read are chauvinist brutes, wusses, overly weak or just plain meh. After digging through the recesses of my brain, I've come up with....

N I K O L A I    L A N T S O V
(SIEGE AND STORM)
After falling madly in love with The Darkling in Shadow & Bone, the first book in the Grisha trilogy, I was not expecting myself to fall even deeper in love with Nikolai Lantsov in Siege & Storm. This guy, let me tell know, is sarcasm, wit, charisma and charm personified. I absolutely loved his witty nature. He always had an answer for everything and he could disable even the most cold-hearted person with just a look. I loved him so the honourary bloke on the panel card goes to Nikolai. 

A U T H O R S

Like with having Captain Kathryn Janeway as a fictional character, I could also have Kate Mulgrew as an author. But for the sake of keeping the obsessive-fangirl out of this post, I'll pick the following four...

R I C K    R I O R D A N

A man that writes about Greek, Roman and Norse mythologies? HOW CAN HE NOT BE FIRST IN LINE?

D A N I E L L E    S T E E L

Danielle Steel, really? You've never mentioned her. Yes, Danielle Steel. Since birth I have been surrounded by Danielle Steel books. My mother has every single book that Danielle Steel has ever written. She has an entire bookcase dedicated to all of her books, and a number of which she has multiple copies. They aren't even different covers. They're the exact same book. She has three copies of 'Malice'. My first foray into recreational reading was by picking up Danielle Steel books. I must preface this by saying that I was about 15 years old and I am not Danielle Steel's target demographic. Nevertheless, I have read a number of her books and have thoroughly enjoyed her books. Every time a number release from her comes into work, I instantly pick it up to surprise my Mum. Lately, she's been releasing books every few months and I would love to know how she comes up with stories so quickly and how she cranks them out so quickly. I just bought Mum a book in July and another is due in September. What? 

L E I G H    B A R D U G O

One of my favourite author discoveries since Ransom Riggs. I love Leigh Bardugo's writing. I've loved it since I read Shadow & Bone, the first book in the Grisha trilogy. I have currently read the first two books in this series and have loved every single sentence of them. I love the way that she seamlessly uses Russian phrases and terms in her sentences without losing so much as a beat. 

E L I Z A B E T H    W E I N

I have only read one book by Elizabeth Wein and that was Code Name Verity. I adored that book. I was extremely confused by it for the longest time but then like a light-bulb, everything started to make sense and in that moment, my mind was blown. I'm looking forward to picking up Rose Under Fire and she has also penned a Star Wars novel which I am beyond intrigued and excited for. She writes strong female characters that dare to push the boundaries of what people expect from them. In Code Name Verity, her two lead characters, 'Verity' and Maddie were between them, a pilot, a translator, a bomber, an interrogator, a resistance fighter, a collaborator, a traitor and a soldier at one point or another. I loved them so much. 

Q U E S T I O N S

What would I ask my favourite characters and favourite authors. Naturally I should ask about their whole writing process and what made them come up with their characters yaddy yaddy yadda. But where would the fun be in that?

My question to Annabeth would be with regard to her author. This is assuming that the characters know that they're fictional constructs and are facing their creator for the first time.... What about yourself would you like your author, Rick Riordan to change about you? Your answer cannot be that you wished for less peril or, 'a broken ankle? Seriously?'

My next question would be to Leigh Bardugo and Rick Riordan. How do they feel their characters would be in the two met? What would happen if Camp Half-Blood met the Grisha? I know that sparks would fly for sure and by sparks, I mean magic and a lot of it. And possible some fighting. I don't know.

Another question I would have for Leigh Bardugo is how she seamlessly segways those Russian phrases into her prose without so much as making the reader stumbling over it. As  a reader, I'm conscious of the flow of writing. If a phrase or a word just doesn't sit right in a sentence, I'm stumbling over it and I'm reading the sentence again. I hate having the read sentences again.

I'm not sure what I would ask Danielle Steel beyond the typical question of where she gets her inspiration from. This past year alone she's churning out books like nobody's business and I don't know how she does it. They aren't even short books. How does she do it?

To Elizabeth Wein I would ask what the ultimate character for her would be. Would it be a combination of Verity, a hint of Annabeth Chase with the determination of Donatella Dragma? Or something else. Also, if she could, what alter-ego would she give to Annabeth Chase. Oh my goodness, a team-up between Rick Riordan and Elizabeth Wein would be on a level of epic proportions.

Nikolai, how are you so awesome?

T H E   M O D E R A T O R

A N N A    K E N D R I C K

She's an author so she counts. She is freaking hilarious. I am such a sucker for the Pitch Perfect movies. I love Beca so much and I loved her book, Scrappy Little Nobody. I laughed out loud on practically every page. Anna Kendrick is ridiculous witty that it isn't fair. She would be the perfect moderator for this. I don't know if any of these characters and authors will appreciate her wit but I sure as hell will. Though I would pay good money to see Anna Kendrick go up against Nikolai Lantsov.

W H E R E ?

Ideally, I would love the conference room of the USS Voyager. Seriously, I could use Voyager as an answer for anything. It's a gift. I can still use it, right? This is my blog post and I say it counts so it'll take place in the conference room of the USS Voyager. If I'm going to have fictional characters, I might as well use a fictional setting. LOGIC.


There you have it, my dream book-ish panel, fictional characters and authors. There may be characters you didn't expect and some authors that you didn't anticipate me picking. Let me know what dream panel you would have, what you would ask them and who would moderate the mayhem. In the meantime, you can use EventBrite to check out what book related events are happening around you. I love checking out their stuff. Facebook even lets me know what people I'm friends with are interested in attending and letting me know what else is on offer.