I am so happy to say that just a couple weekends ago I had a blast at my first every YALLFEST in Charleston, SC! For those of you who don’t know, YALLFEST is an annual Young Adult book festival hosted in Charleston that is almost entirely FREE and open to the public. This year YALLFEST invited a wide range of 60 YA and Middle Grade authors. These authors particpiated and panels and hosted lots of signings, which added to the overall atmosphere of the trip.
Now I’m going to break up my trip between the two days:
Day 1
My mom and I got up early on Friday morning for a six am flight. We had a connection in Charrolte, NC, but we arrived in Charleston around 1:00 PM. After checking into our hotel, my mom and I split up books and headed into Charleston for the YALLCRAWL. YALLCRAWL was the first event of this year’s YALLFEST, although it was semi-unofficial. Numerous authors were set up in nearby venues for signings. I dropped my mom of in the line for Lauren Oliver before proceeding down and after briefly getting lost, finding my way into the line for Gayle Forman.
In that line, which wasn’t terribly long, I met Samantha from Reading Perks. For any of you who are unfamiliar with her Tumblr blog, she is really sweet and posts lots of original content. So anyways, Samantha and I chatted with a couple other bookish people then the line started to move. I walked into the little donut shop where Gayle was signing was able to get my books signed by her. She noticed my NaNoWriMo shirt and asked what my word count was. She was impressed and I was flattered and it was a fun time. (Yeah I’m blushing from embarrassment).
My mom and then met up again and walked over to the train station to get We Were Liars by E. Lockhart signed. E. Lockhart was very kind as well.
After that my mom and I walked a little ways down to the Library for the Red Carpet Preview featuring: Jennifer Armentrout, Susan Ee, Ellen Hopkins, David Levithan, Danielle Paige and Laini Taylor. I got Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor signed (which is my November Epic Rec from Nikki at The Paper Sea, more on that later). Lani was sososososo nice, and she mentioned that my blog was familiar to her!?! GAHHHH
The author Q/A was super interesting. There was one topic that I do feel the need to talk about so I’ll leave a space here to later link to a follow up post about it.
Day 1 Pictures:
Overall, YALL FEST 2014 DAY 1 was a success. Now for day two.
Day 2:
Okay, day two. My mom and woke up and ate a relatively crappy breakfast at the hotel but it was no big deal. We proceeded into the city, and since that we knew that our first event( the opening keynote) didn’t start until 10am, we walked over to the Rainbow Rowell line to chill and hang out. When my mom and I got there, only about 6-7 people were standing in line. We decided to just hang out and do nothing much until it got closer to the time for the Opening Keynote. However, only a few minutes after we arrived, 20 more people came, and slowly but surely more and more people arrived. A YALLFEST volunteer informed us that as soon as they got 200 wristbands they would hand them out, and that those would be the 200 people who got books signed. My mom made the decison to stay in line and give her Keynote ticket to Samantha, so that she and I could go together.
The Opening Keynote was absolutely historical. If you didn’t know, James Dasher and Sara Zarr are dear, old friends. Their comedic chemistry was priceless, and was so fun to watch!
By the time that the Opening Keynote was over my mom had gotten the Rainbow Rowell wristband and was in line for Leigh Bardugo. I went off to see a panel title “So You Want to Be a Writer” (and yes, I do). It was so interesting because it was Editors and Agents who presented the panel. They talked about query letters and drafting and pretty much the whole process once you decide that you want to get your novel published and it starts to happen. It was awesome.
My mom picked us up lunch and we traded books and food. She went to get Popular: Modern Tales of Vintage Wisdom by Maya Van Wagden signed while I decided to meander over to Rainbow Rowell’s line and eat my lunch there. However, when I arrived, the volunteers brought all of the wristband holders inside to see Rainbow’s reserved panel because a bunch of people hadn’t shown up! Rainbow’s panel was sort of a continuation from the panel that I had seen earlier, and talking about the editing and publishing processes for her books. Spesfically Landline and Eleanor and Park. I absolutely adored that panel, and was able to get my books signed! I also got the most adorable little buttons.
Once I was done I walked over to my mom who was in line for Stephanie Perkins. She stood there and went to get in line for Sarah J. Maas. Stephanie’s line was very long but totally worth the weight. I got Anna and the French Kiss signed and got to take a selfie with her.
Then traded places with my mom in the Sarah J. Maas line while she went to get my Sara Zarr and Sarah Mylnowski books signed. Sarah J. Maas’ line was really long but I got to talk to another blogger, a newbie, and giver her some blogging tips.
It was time for the Closing Keynote. My mom and I were practically in tears because Sarah Dessen and Ally Condie were so funny. My favorite thing that Sarah said was about her high school graduation. Something along the lines of: everyone was running up to her and saying that they’d miss her and she was like “I hate all of you”. Thank you Sarah, for summing up high school for me so eloquently.
After the Closing Keynote was the YA Smackdown and performance by Tiger Beat. The Smackdown was quite funny, with lots of little games, many of which involved the audience. We got to hear a lot of writing from when the authors were younger. (Scott Westerfield’s high school piece comes to mind). After that Tiger Beat, with lead singer Liba Bray performed. They were perfect. My favorite part was when David Levithan came out dressed up with line cards to help Libba remember the words.
The best part of it all, was that at the end there was an announcement not only for YALLFEST’S 2015 Dates: November 13-14, 2015, but also for a completely separate sister festival, YALLWEST coming to you live from Santa Monica, CA on April 11-12 2015. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go to either or both of those shows but hopefully I can. All and all, YALLFEST was an amazing experience. I’ll write down some tips and post them some time around next year, but be warned. The festival keeps getting bigger and bigger each year, and while that likely means more authors, it also means more people, and longer lines! 😀
Day 2 Pictures:
Full List of Authors Met/Books Signed by:
-Leigh Bardugo
-Lauren Oliver
-Gayle Forman
-Rainbow Rowell
-Maya Van Wagenen (Have you seen her new hair? It’s fabulous!)
-Laini Taylor
-Stephanie Perkins
-E. Lockhart
-Sara Zarr
-Sara J. Maas
-Sarah Mylnowski
The rest of the weekend in Charleston my mom and I shopped around but mostly read books and caught up on NaNoWriMo. It was such a fun weekend and I’m so glad that I got to be there.
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