The Camp Site

I recently finished Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker. Holy cow this book took me on a ride! I was angry, freaked out and sad by the end. It is definitely in my top ten reads this year.

Truth be told, Bat Eater wasn’t even on my radar when I first attended the event. Or maybe I had heard about it but brushed it off as something I wasn’t super interested. I’m glad to find out that I was wrong.

But this post isn’t really about Bat Eater… it’s about Kylie Lee Baker. I recently attended an author event for T. Kingfisher’s newest book in the Sworn Solider series What Stalks the Deep. Baker was the moderator leading the discussion and she was ah-mazing.

I knew I wanted to read Baker’s book after I heard her talking to Ursula Vernon. She asked such smart and unusual questions. At one point, the discussion got onto the topic of H.P. Lovecraft and Vernon saying, “H.P. Lovecraft was a dick. He’s the type of guy who would have found Italian food spicy. Like fettuccini alfredo would have been too much for him.” I almost fell over in my seat laughing.

The point is that this discussion was so casual. Baker made it feel like we were all just sitting down to have a conversation rather than listening to random rapid-fire questions. It has been one of my favorite author events I have attended.