Rebecca's First Guest Post!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

(Our autographed copy of last Artemis Fowl book!)

This past Thursday, my sister Rebecca had a chance to meet one of our favorite author's ever at a signing.  Rebecca is my older sister and an excellent writer. We are both fans of the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. Here is Rebecca's wonderful guest post on the event!

For a little over a decade, readers have followed the adventures of an unlikely partnership between the LEP officer, Holly Short and the child prodigy and criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl. 

To celebrate the final installment of the series, Eoin Colfer attended an event and book signing at Politics and Prose in Washington DC.

I was excited to be a part of this event since I've followed the series since I was ten. I liked the series since the main character is actually a villain who develops into a better person. I also liked how while this was a fantasy novel series, it wasn't bound to a fantasy novel template in which the main character was a humble person who becomes a hero. 

Eoin Colfer mentioned during the event that he always planned to write about an anti-hero-- a person who changed throughout the series. He was intrigued by characters like Huckleberry Finn, and even Darth Vader; characters with flaws, that went on real journeys--for better or for worse.

As Colfer explained, Artemis was shot quite a few times, had his mind wiped, was placed in life-threatening situations, traveled through a time paradox, and developed a psychological disease in the first seven books of the series in order to help him develop into a better person. The final book will test Artemis (and all the characters) even further.

I also enjoyed the humor in the series, particularly with characters like Foaly and Mulch Diggums. 

"The Princess Bride," (the book- not the movie, although he enjoyed both), inspired Eoin Colfer to write Artemis Fowl. He liked how "The Princess Bride" was  a fantasy novel, that both told a story, but also wasn't afraid to insert humor. 

My favorite part of the event was when Eoin Colfer provided insight to who influenced the characters in the series-- basically everyone in his life except his wife. She wouldn't give him permission.

Before writing, Eoin Colfer taught for about fifteen years.  Eoin Colfer joked with the audience that girls tend to go to school, and want to learn. They remember all the details of their day- both the social and academic parts. Boys, on the other hand, go to school with the goal of becoming stupider than they were before walking into the classroom.  

One such boy always shouted in Colfer's class. He would shout answers that had nothing to do with the subject. One day, a tiny girl named Rachel went up to the boy and screaming at him. She kicked the boy in the knees. The boy didn't shout in class for at least a week. 

That girl in the classroom was the inspiration for Holly Short.   

Eoin Colfer stated that he didn't intentionally put himself in the story, but when his wife read the book, she saw him as Foaly. 

"A centaur who sits behind his computer, and writes things that he thinks are funny," Colfer said at the event impersonating his wife's reaction. " That's you."

This was a great event and provided great insight into how Colfer created such a complex series.

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca