YALL Fest 2014

Hey, guys!  Two weekends ago, I went to a Young Adult book festival in Charleston, SC.  YALL Fest.  It was incredible! If you live anywhere near Charleston, I suggest that you try to go next year (November 13-14).

I loved every single person there, and I'm not just talking about the authors!  All the people who came were super friendly and seemed to love reading as much as me, which is impressive.  All of the authors I had a chance to meet were very nice.  I wasn't disappointed by any of them, like I was afraid I would.  They must say "Don't meet your idols" for a reason, right?  Not if your idols are authors apparently.

Opening Keynote:

The beginning of the festival was marked by an opening conversation between James Dashner (author of Maze Runner, 13th Reality, A Door into the Woods, and the Mortality Doctrine series) and Sara Zarr (author of a bunch of books including Sweethearts, which I haven't read yet).  They were friends and hilarious together.  They were constantly bantering back and forth with each other.  It was fantastic!

The Signings:
There were three venues for author signings.  All of the authors had a designated time that they would sign during.  It was very well set up, as long as you don't mind standing in line.  There was a LOT of standing in line.  But, if you timed it right, you could go see all the authors you wanted to.  However, a few of the more popular authors (James Dashner, Veronica Roth, Rainbow Rowell) you needed to stand in line for a wristband that would allow you to see them later in the day.

Lauren Oliver:

Lauren Oliver wrote the Delirium series as well as a few stand alone books such as Before I Fall and Panic.  She was super nice and seemed very down-to-earth.  I'm so glad that I got to meet her and have her sign my copy of the Delirium series.

James Dashner:

I was most excited about seeing James Dashner at YALL Fest.  I've read everything that he's written (except his latest book-The Rule of Thoughts because I haven't had much time for reading lately) and loved them all.  I brought all of the books I had in print (A Door into the Woods and the 13th reality series) for him to sign.  At the Opening Keynote, he made a comment about the former series and immediately said, "Don't worry if you haven't read it, no one has."  So when I asked him to sign this series he, for want of a better word, flipped out.  He was amazed that I had read his first series.  He ended up talking to me about it for about ten times longer than he did to anybody else.  At one point, he held up my copy of one of the books and showed the people behind me in line that "this was the book that nobody has read that I mentioned this morning."  As you can probably imagine, this was amazing for me, a diehard fan of everything he writes, to be singled out.  As I was about to leave, he even told me to wait and, because I was such an old fan, STOOD UP to take a picture with me.  He did this with no one else, and I am so happy that he took time to talk with me.  It was definitely the highlight of my day.
If you think I'm exaggerating, when I was leaving the building, I overheard some people who were behind me in line talking and they were grumbling that they had to some back next year after reading his older books.

Ally Condie:

Ally Condie is the author of the Matched trilogy as well as Atlantia.  She was simply really, really nice.  I gained so much respect for her at this festival.  She seemed really sincere and just like a really cool human being.

DJ MacHale:

DJ MacHale wrote the Pendragon, Morpheus Road, and SYLO series.  I love all of these series, despite how completely different they are.  DJ MacHale was the person I was the second most excited to meet (the first being James Dashner).  However, I didn't get to speak to him as much as I would have liked.  The signing happened too quick!  He seemed very nice though.  Basically what I expected.

Other Author Meet-Ups:

Pseudonymous Bosch, the author of the Secret series, was also there.  He's so secretive, even with the croissant on his hat.  (For those of you who don't know, he's a type of Lemony Snicket like author. His bio in the back of the books acts like he is in hiding, etc.)  He was a bit odd, but I expected that. Before YALL Fest, I tried to find his picture online so that I would know if I saw him and failed, spectacularly.  So I saw this guy walking around with a pastry on his hat and thought, "That must be Pseudonymous Bosch".

Closing Keynote:

The ending ceremony was a Q&A between Sarah Dessen and Ally Condie.  It was interesting, but Sarah talked most of the time, and I had no prior knowledge of who she was, making her speeches less interesting.  

Smack-down:

The "smack-down" was the true ending of YALL Fest.  Authors got up onto the stage to read their early writing from any age between high school and preschool.  It was great! They also played games and it was just fun in general.  

Then, the excitement really started as they talked about all the picture book authors who had gotten into YA *cough, Suzanne Collins, cough*.  So, of course, they showed us the covers and read excerpts.  Here's the highlights of the covers:

Yeah... It was so much fun.  They went further than I expected from a YA Festival.

Then, a band made entirely out of authors, Tiger Beat, came out and performed.  They were amazing.  My personal favorite was their original song, The YA Song, or as I like to call it: Holden Caulfield is not an asshole.

It's fantastic, please watch it if you have any time.  (In case you are wondering, the guy in the Viking Hat is David Levithan.)

The Smack-down was amazing and so was the entire experience of this festival.  I loved every second of it.  If you can, please come next year.  You'll love it!

Happy Reading!