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Hey y'all! Why am I talking like this, when I'm obviously from Maine and have no accent at all? Because I just attended South Carolina's best YA (Young Adult) book fest! The marvelousness is called YALLfest, and it was incredible.
One of the most interesting parts of the trip, was the fact that I traveled 19 hours to get there. I decided that flights are overrated (Also overpriced... I just could not validate spending $800 on a weekend flight), and also that I had never driven that far in one day, and that everyone should do that at least once. So I dragged my twin sister and my oldest sister along, we rented a car that was much too small for two six-foot-tall people and me (I'm nearly 5'8"), and headed to the land of much nicer weather and plentiful y'alls. We left after my Management Information Systems class at 6:00pm Thursday night, and arrived in Charleston at 2:00pm the next day. I then changed extremely quickly, stuffed my book backpack, and made my way to the YALLCrawl, where select authors did some signings before the big day of panels and signings on Saturday. I met Victoria Aveyard, author of The Red Queen,E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and Kiera Cass, most notably the author of The Selection Series. I am a HUGE fan of E. Lockhart (if you haven't read We Were Liars, you're REALLY missing out!!), and Victoria Aveyard was an absolute sweetheart. I'm not uploading my photo with Kiera, because I look slightly insane in it. I'm blaming that on the 19-hour drive. Kiera was basically the nicest person on earth, and she gave me The Selection-themed M&Ms for my 19-hour drive. AKA, she's now awesome in my book. |
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The sisters and I then traveled toSesame Burger in Mt. Pleasant, and had some absolutely delicious nachos and sliders. OH, and chocolate milkshakes. How could I forget those!?
The next day was the big day of panels and signings, where I met Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (If you want a GREAT zombie book, read that one),Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies, Marie Lu, artist and author of Legend, andAaron Hartzler, author of What We Saw. Cool story about Aaron:
Aaron had met my blogging parter at PlotBrownies.com, friend and fellow novelist Matt Keenan at TTBF (Teen Texas Book Fest), so it was really great to be able to meet him, too! Aaron is super friendly and really talented.
Besides the author signings, I also attended a bunch of great panels. My favorite was Gale Foreman's Creativity & Jealousy & Fear & Success with Marie Lu, Libba Bray, Margaret Stohl, Daniel Handler, and Scott Westerfeld. Just the lineup itself sounds amazing, right? It was sort of like an inside peek at what goes on in the industry in Hollywood, and what successful authors have for insecurities and what the path to fame looks like.
The night ended with a YA Smackdown where the authors competed in games like Hollywood Squares and Taboo. A select few also read juvenilia, AKA writings from their younger days, which was entirely entertaining. Alexander London, author of Proxy, also sang a death metal song from his made-up death metal frog band from his youth. I don't think I need to tell you how funny that was.
The next day was the big day of panels and signings, where I met Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (If you want a GREAT zombie book, read that one),Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies, Marie Lu, artist and author of Legend, andAaron Hartzler, author of What We Saw. Cool story about Aaron:
Aaron had met my blogging parter at PlotBrownies.com, friend and fellow novelist Matt Keenan at TTBF (Teen Texas Book Fest), so it was really great to be able to meet him, too! Aaron is super friendly and really talented.
Besides the author signings, I also attended a bunch of great panels. My favorite was Gale Foreman's Creativity & Jealousy & Fear & Success with Marie Lu, Libba Bray, Margaret Stohl, Daniel Handler, and Scott Westerfeld. Just the lineup itself sounds amazing, right? It was sort of like an inside peek at what goes on in the industry in Hollywood, and what successful authors have for insecurities and what the path to fame looks like.
The night ended with a YA Smackdown where the authors competed in games like Hollywood Squares and Taboo. A select few also read juvenilia, AKA writings from their younger days, which was entirely entertaining. Alexander London, author of Proxy, also sang a death metal song from his made-up death metal frog band from his youth. I don't think I need to tell you how funny that was.
And last but absolutely not least, I met a bunch of amazing people in line! That was acutally one of my favorite parts. I love to meet new people, and especially when they're book lovers like myself. And holy was Charleston beautiful!
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After the conference, my sisters and I drove home and talked a ton about our incredible time in the historic city. I can't wait until YALLfest next year, and am considering going to their sister conference in California, YALLwest.
As far as current reads...I have most recently read Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, The Martian by Andy Weir, and The Girl From Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson. I'm currently reading Proxy by Alexander London.
Did you go to YALLfest this year? Tell me how it was! And catch up with me on social media...
Instagram: @Elysia_Regina
Twitter:@Elysia_Regina
Website: elysiaregina.com
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