Tween Tuesday

Tween Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens. Join the fun and leave the link to your Tween Tuesday post below.

Today I have a special guest post from Margo from The Fourth Musketeer. (Go visit her blog-she has great historical fiction reviews and she rocks!!) Margo was lucky enough to attend a show called Artemis Rocks featuring Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer interviewing his character Artemis and I was thrilled when she said she'd write up a post about the event!

With the release of the newest adventure of teen criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl, The Atlantis Complex (Disney Hyperion,2010), Irish author Eoin Colfer has taken Artemis himself--in his first public appearances--on the road in a promotional tour. I was lucky enough to catch their show, Artemis Rocks, in Pasadena, California, along with several hundred other Artemis fans.

While Artemis Fowl has never reached the stratospheric popularity of the Twilight or Harry Potter franchises, the comic fantasy/adventure series has been very popular with the tween crowd, selling 20 million volumes around the world since it debuted in 2001. Boys and girls alike have been drawn to the story of Artemis, a tremendously likable anti-hero, child genius and criminal mastermind who strives to outwit the fairy folk. In fact, Artemis is on a roll at the moment, having just been chosen by British children as their favorite Puffin of all time ahead of classic titles such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The Artemis Rocks show featured music inspired by the Artemis books (you can listen on Colfer's site) performed live by musician Josh Fix. Colfer himself interviewed Artemis, a young man who looked very much like the Artemis in the graphic novel version of the books (although he didn't have much of the Irish accent I expected--could he have actually come from Hollywood??) Here's some of the banter between them:

Eoin: What do you hope to be remembered for?
Artemis: I've done a lot of things in my life, some good, some bad, but I hope that some day I'll be remembered as the first step in peaceful coexistence between humans and fairies. A close second would be to be remembered for my witty insults.

Eoin: If you could live a normal teenage life, what would you want to do? Would you wear a hoodie?
Artemis: I tried one once and I didn't like it. Normal is a relative term, but one thing I've always wanted to do is...go to a school dance.

Artemis also revealed that in the future, he might be going "straight," adding that "The Fowls need to make a mark in a legitimate business." Colfer quipped that it would make for a boring book, however.

After the interview, the pair took questions from the audience, and then autographed books. As is often the case, the Q&A were the highlight of the event. One young fan suggested a plot line for a future book, and Colfer answered, "I like to take ideas from people, put them into books, and then pay them nothing."

Another young reader wanted to know their opinion about fan fiction. Colfer stated:
"I really like it; it's a great tribute. Fan fiction has always been around, I wrote it myself, but there was nowhere to put it. Now there's the internet and you can post it and get comments from your friends. I don't see any negative effect--I think it's fantastic and it's a great stepping stone for young readers. Sometimes I take a little look but it's a bit embarrassing, like Googling yourself."

Artemis added that he'd like to send a message to fan fiction writers out there:
"PLEASE stop writing about me and Holly Short. She's a different species, she's almost 70 years old--it's just not meant to be." Colfer added that interspecies romance only works with vampires and werewolves.

Asked about time travel, Artemis remarked that if you have the option to time travel, don't! Colfer added that he'll never go back in time again, since it was very difficult for the author to keep track of everything.

Colfer confirmed what he had announced at the end of July in the U.K. newspaper the Guardian--the next book in the series, as yet untitled, will be the last of Artemis' adventures, tying together loose elements of the series. Colfer did hint, however, that future books might use the characters of Artemis' twin brothers, who appear in the later volumes.

For those who'd like to watch Colfer's entire show, an archived webcast of an earlier performance is available online.

The tour is scheduled to go through August, so when I find information on dates, I'll post it here on GreenBeanTeenQueen!