Adventures at YALLFest 2019

November has become one of my favorite months because it means it's time to go to YALLFest again! This was the fifth trip for Ally, Melissa, and me to Charleston for the two day young adult book festival, and it was just as much fun as the first year we attended.

After the requisite stop for coffee before hitting the road, we were on our way by around 3:45AM. It's about a 6 hour drive from Central Florida to Charleston, and for us, a big part of the adventure is the road trip itself. Will we have enough room in the car for our book hauls? What item did Lee forget to pack this year? Who will get hangry first? (It's usually me, Lee, but this year it wasn't me haha!)

Friday is YALLCrawl, which features some author signings and events. Jenny Han was signing as part of YALLCrawl again, so I got my copies of P.S. I Still Love You and Always and Forever, Lara Jean signed:

While I was at the signing, Ally and Melissa headed off to check out the official YALLFest merch. We learned the hard lesson in our first year at the festival that we must buy our T-shirts and any other YALLFest goodies on Friday or they will be sold out by Saturday.

Since some of us had been awake since 2:30 in the morning, we opted for an early dinner again and then took our exhausted selves to the hotel to get a good night's sleep in preparation for a very, very busy Saturday.

We usually grab bagels for breakfast, but this time we tried a charming café called La Pâtisserie that we'd passed while browsing King Street on Friday. I had a ham and cheese croissant, and it was amazing! The delicious coffee also hit the spot on a chilly morning.

After breakfast, we headed towards the Charleston Museum, where the line to pick up tickets for the Fierce Reads ARC giveaways already wrapped around the corner. We happily each received our tickets to return later for the ARCs and then got down to the business of running from line to line.

I've collected Shadowhunter posters from the Riveted/Simon Teen booth for the last 3 years, so I was thrilled to add another, this time of Matthew Fairchild from the upcoming Chain of Gold:

Here's one of the better pics of us, lol, taken at the Pique booth during their ARC giveaway of Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer:

L to R: Lee, Melissa, Ally

Nic Stone was signing ARCs of her upcoming Shuri at the I Read YA/Scholastic booth, and she noticed the Marvel sweatshirt I was wearing and said it was perfect!

Around 4PM, we realized that we were starving and practically sprinted to Five Guys to grab dinner. Back at the hotel, we collapsed for a bit and then organized our goodies to make departing in the morning a bit easier.

Once again, the weekend flew by in a blur of books. I can't wait to start reading these!

Blood Countess by Lana Popvić
Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers
The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly by Meredith Tate
The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne
The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett
Most Likely by Sarah Watson
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
We Are the Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian
Between Burning Worlds by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell
The Small Crimes of Tiffany Templeton by Richard Fifield
Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell & Katie Cotugno
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
Shuri: A Black Panther Novel by Nic Stone
You're Next by Kylie Schachte

Adventures at YALLFest 2018

Yep, YALLFest was in November and this recap is posting in December, but that's been the story of my life this year—way behind on everything.

This was our fourth trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and every year just gets better. I'm going to get a little nostalgic here. It's crazy to think how much our lives have changed since Ally, Melissa, and I attended our first festival back in 2015. We adult, or at least attempt to adult, a lot more now, but no matter how hectic our schedules get, it's understood that we're going to YALLFest in November. Together. End nostalgia trip.

Our journey began once again in the rather early hours of the morning. By 3:30AM, we had our first cups of coffee of the day in hand and were ready to hit the road. Even the drive from Florida to South Carolina feels shorter every year, and a couple of hours later, we arrived at the Charleston Visitor's Center.

While the big day of author signings and panels takes place on Saturday, Friday's YALLCrawl also features some signings and events. I was excited to see that Jenny Han would be there on Friday so I could hopefully get my copy of To All the Boys I've Loved Before signed. I was lucky I got in line early because the signing was limited to about 100 people. Jenny Han was so sweet, and I got my book signed—yay!

While I waited in line, Ally and Melissa headed off to Megan Shepherd's signing. Afterwards we met back up and checked out Underlined's pop-up shop. I finally scored one of their Book Nerd shirts that I'd seen around the Interwebz. We then decided on both an early dinner and an early bedtime so we could rest up for Saturday's super packed schedule.

Having to work with too many Excel spreadsheets at any given time at work, I very, very geekily came up with the notion of creating—you guessed it—a spreadsheet of Saturday's events so we could prioritize. My cousins mocked my nerdiness, but that didn't stop them from referring to the spreadsheet throughout the day. I spotted other festival attendees carrying spreadsheets around as well, which I smugly mentioned to Ally and Melissa.

Fueled by bagels and coffee (we are still very much New Yorkers at heart!), the three of us were standing in front of the Charleston Museum, site of several publisher booths and author signings, by 7:30AM. And various lines were already forming. Ally and I dutifully joined the queue to secure wristbands for the Shadowhunter Army giveaway event later in the afternoon, where we received these goodies:

The festivities fully launched at 9AM, and from there, the remainder of the day consisted of a nonstop flurry of hustling from line to line. Besides the Shadowhunter event, my other musts were the Alexandra Bracken signing and the poster giveaway promoting the upcoming The Rise of Kyoshi, set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Here is the poster, featuring the absolutely GORGEOUS cover art:

Ally and I have gotten books signed by Alexandra Bracken at every YALLFest we've attended, and so we had to keep up our annual tradition, lol. I love that my copy of The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy now says, "Use the Force, Lee!" It's just perfect for this Star Wars fangirl!

By the time everything came to a close around 5PM, we were both exhausted and exhilarated, and most definitely ravenous. A Five Guys cheeseburger never tasted so savory. After inhaling our meal, we retired to the hotel sated and happy with all of our new bookish memories.

And so another YALLFest was . . . on the books. :D I'm looking forward to reading these goodies that I picked up:

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers
Once a King by Erin Summerill
Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward
The Graces by Laure Eve
Song of the Abyss by Makiia Lucier
Spark by Sarah Beth Durst
Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough
Quarantine: A Love Story by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc
Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott
Lovely War by Julie Berry
Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde
Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury

Adventures at YALLFest 2017

One of my favorite things about November, besides stuffing my face on Thanksgiving with . . . stuffing is YALLFest, Charleston's young adult book festival! It's become an annual family event for Ally, Melissa, and I, and so a week and a half ago, we packed up the car and hit the road for South Carolina.

Another part of our yearly pilgrimage is leaving in the wee hours of the morning to avoid traffic as much as possible. This year, we pushed "wee hours" to a new level by departing at 1AM. Melissa and I allotted ourselves a half hour coffee stop before traveling north to pick up Ally about an hour and a half away.

We had a minor mishap on the way to Charleston involving driving past a Cracker Barrel because we thought there would be another one before we had to exit I-95. We eventually found out that there was not another one, and some hanger ensued. We did find some breakfast once we arrived in Charleston, though, LOL.

We spent most of the day browsing the local stores and doing some shopping. And more eating. Each year there are some signings and events on Friday, but everything we were interested in was happening on Saturday, which is a jam-packed, all-day affair. After picking up a copy of the festival program, we retired to the hotel early. I am not ashamed to admit that I was in bed by 8PM.

Some rather cool temperatures greeted us on Saturday morning, but it was a very welcome change from the relentless Florida heat and humidity we're used to. It was also perfect weather for all of the running around we were about to do. Equipped with the schedule that we'd made the night before—on a sticky note—we got on our first line of the day. The waiting never felt lengthy, though, and we actually got a rush out of trying to make every event that was on our list. It was challenging because there were so many things happening simultaneously, but again, we loved figuring out the logistics.

I was super, super, super excited to discover that NOVL was giving away ARCs of Claudia Gray's Defy the Worlds. The first book, Defy the Stars, was one of my favorite reads this year, and I was walking on air when I held the sequel in my hands. I was also ecstatic to see that Underlined had ARCs of Rachel Hartman's Tess of the Road. We also got to meet Emily X.R. Pan, who was signing ARCs of The Astonishing Color of After at the NOVL booth, and Jennifer A. Nielsen, who was signing ARCs of The Traitor's Game at the I Read YA booth. Both authors were super sweet, and we were thrilled to get our ARCs signed!

Later in the afternoon, Ally and I headed to Alexandra Bracken's signing. There were already about 70 people in line, and we got there half an hour early. The line ended up being quite long, and Alexandra Bracken very, very kindly stayed past the allotted time to continue signing for everyone. I got my copy of Wayfarer signed:

The signing was our last event of the day, and so we headed off in search of some much needed dinner. I devoured a ridiculous amount of pizza and regretted absolutely nothing. Between all of the scrumptious food we consumed and all of the bookish awesomeness we experienced, it was a fantastic trip and a much needed mini-break from adulting. There was even a happily ever after, when we stopped for breakfast on Sunday morning at the Cracker Barrel that we'd bypassed on our way to Charleston. XD

LOVE this tote bag from NOVL!

Some more bookish goodies:

Lord of Shadows poster given out at the Riveted booth:

SO excited to read these!

Ink by Alice Broadway
Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray
Love and Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves
Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Adventures at YALLFest 2016

Oh, hello there! It's been very quiet around here for almost 2 weeks, but I think I'm back? I'm still feeling a bit meh and it's been hard to find the motivation (and time) to read and blog, but here goes with jumping back into blogging.

Ally, Melissa, and I had so much fun attending YALLFest for the first time last year that we absolutely wanted to go back. The logistics involved in pulling off this year's trip were much trickier with everyone's insanely busy schedules, but, fueled by our love of books (and lots and lots and lots of coffee), we were determined to return to Charleston.

Once again, a small group of authors had signings on Friday, the day before the actual event. We made really good time driving up to Charleston and arrived early enough to walk around for a while and do some shopping before the Alexandra Bracken signing in the afternoon. Both her Friday and Saturday signings were limited to a certain number of people, so Ally and I figured that Friday was our best shot. We also went to her signing last year, and she was incredibly sweet both times. She actually asked me if we'd met before, and I told her yes, at last year's event. It was very flattering to be recognized, and I swear I'm not a stalker or anything, lol. I got my copy of Passenger signed:

After grabbing an early-ish dinner, we checked into our hotel and worked out our strategy for Saturday. The signings, panels, and events at the publisher booths all go on simultaneously, so prioritizing is a must. This year, we spent more time checking out the publisher booths; several of them had hourly giveaways and/or contests. We did attend the opening keynote featuring Sabaa Tahir and Victoria Aveyard, and while we were waiting outside the Charleston Music Hall for the doors to open, we spotted Veronica Roth, Margaret Stohl, Leigh Bardugo, Susan Dennard, Justine Larbalestier, and Scott Westerfeld. Maggie Stiefvater also passed by on the way to her signing, which unfortunately was at the same time as the keynote. We weren't terribly disappointed we didn't get to go, though, because we got to meet her back in June during one of her tour stops promoting The Raven King.

While the three of us spent most of the day checking out the publisher events, I went to the Victoria Schwab signing in the afternoon. I thought it best to get in line pretty early, and I did not regret my decision. Not only was there already quite a bit of a line when I got there, but there was a hiccup when it got closer to the signing time. She was supposed to sign in the bookstore, but the room wasn't ready for her at the start time, so she stood outside the bookstore for a while and started signing books to keep to the schedule. How AWESOME was that of her?! By the time it my was my turn, we had moved inside the bookstore, where they were playing the Hamilton soundtrack. :D Victoria was so, so, so lovely, and I love what she wrote in my copies of Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic:

The last event of the day that we checked out was Riveted's YA trivia contest, which featured free yummy cupcakes (yay!) and the chance to have your name picked from the "Chalice of Flames" to compete on teams with authors Jenny Han, Brendan Kiely, Jason Reynolds, Scott Westerfeld, and Suzanne Young. Alas, none of us were chosen, but it was still a lot of fun to be in the audience and watch. We also received ARCs of Cristin Terrill's Here Lies Daniel Tate.

After the trivia contest, the three of us were more than ready to call it a day, so we headed back to the hotel to munch on leftover pizza and snacks from the stash we'd brought for the trip and to check out our goodies. Here are a few pics of my haul:

The Truth of Right Now by Kara Lee Corthron
Denton Little's Still Not Dead by Lance Rubin
The Valiant by Lesley Livingston
Just Another Girl by Elizabeth Eulberg
The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
All Fall Down by Ally Carter
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Not pictured: the cookie that was also handed out to everyone who received an ARC of The Valiant. When you received your book, they asked you to pick your weapon: swords, bow and arrow, or trident. You then received a cookie decorated with your weapon of choice on it. The cookie looked so tasty, I ate mine before I had a chance to take a photo of it, LOLOL. Mmmmm . . . cookies.

Everyone who was at the Scholastic booth for the Just Another Girl ARC giveaway got to meet David Levithan! I was also super, super excited about the ARC of Frogkisser! They also gave out lip balm, which you can see in the photo below and which I thought was some very clever marketing!

The New York City postcard is actually a cool promo piece for Brandon Sanderson's Firefight. I got the NYC mug while we were out and about on Friday browsing the local stores. So basically I went to Charleston, South Carolina to buy an NYC mug, lol.

Riveted gave out excerpts of the upcoming Shadowhunters novel, Lord of Shadows, along with these awesome posters:

After a whirlwind two days, it was time to pack up the car again and head home. We went to this awesome bagel place for breakfast one more time, where I got to eat my second garlic bagel of the weekend. Mmmmm . . . garlic bagels. I've rarely found them here in Florida, and as an NYC native, bagels are practically their own food group to me. XD

For the second year in a row, YALLFest was an amazing experience, and I absolutely recommend checking it out to anyone who's thinking about going, We definitely hope to make a third trip there in 2017!

Adventures at YALLFest 2015

This past weekend, Ally, Melissa, and I headed to Charleston, South Carolina for YALLFest. It was our first time attending, as well as our first time visiting Charleston. The amazing lineup of authors included Richelle Mead, Alexandra Bracken, Gail Carriger, Gayle Forman, Scott Westerfeld, Brandon Sanderson, Libba Bray, Marie Lu, Veronica Roth, Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer, and many more. Since BEA was not in the cards this year and Charleston was reasonably manageable travel-wise, we decided to go for it.

Our plans hit a pretty big snag the night before we were supposed to leave. Melissa was ecstatic to be seeing Rick Yancey, whom she worships, and he was THE author she had to meet at the festival. Unfortunately, he had to cancel due to illness, and I saw the announcement on Twitter on Thursday night. I broke the news to Melissa, and she was heartbroken. But, she still wanted to go, and so we did.

On Friday afternoon, a small group of authors was scheduled to sign at various venues. Ally wanted to see Scott Westerfeld and I wanted to see Gail Carriger, so after scoping out where we each needed to be, we went our separate ways (we were actually only a block away from each other) and got on line.

Gail Carriger's signing started a little early, and the line moved quickly. I got this feeling of unreality when I found myself next in line, like this couldn't possibly be happening. She was super sweet, and I was giddy to have a signed copy of Soulless:

Melissa went with Ally to wait in Scott Westerfeld's line, so I joined them over there in the tent next to Blue Bicycle Books. Ally got Leviathan signed, and after getting some much needed coffee, which would be our fuel throughout the weekend, we called it a day and headed to the hotel.

Ally & Scott Westerfeld

Saturday was the main day of the festival, and we knew that a game plan was absolutely necessary with all of the panels and signings that would be taking place at the same time. We thought that we'd arrived downtown early, but there was already a line outside of the Charleston Music Hall at 8 AM for Richelle Mead and R.L. Stine's opening keynote, which didn't start until 10. We were useless without coffee, so we went to Starbucks first and then got in line for the keynote.

You needed a wristband for Richelle Mead's signing following the keynote, and a limited number were being distributed to those waiting in line. We were among the lucky recipients, which totally surprised me because a good number of people were in line ahead of us. I hadn't even taken my copy of Vampire Academy out of the car, so guess who had to go back to the parking garage to retrieve it?

After the doors opened and we went inside, we were each given a sampler of Richelle Mead's upcoming The Glittering Court. We made a strategic decision to sit toward the back of the music hall so that we could make a hasty exit for the signing afterwards. Margaret Stohl said a few words before the keynote moderator, Kami Garcia, introduced R.L. Stine and Richelle Mead. We got to see a clip from the Goosebumps movie, and R.L. Stine was just hilarious throughout the keynote. I never read Goosebumps or Fear Street, but I so want to now.

We scooted out of the keynote the second it was over, and as we were exiting, there were some ARCs available. I just about freaked out when I saw Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, which is already garnering a ton of buzz. So I was very, very, very happy at this point, and the day had only begun.

Melissa and I got in line for the Richelle Mead signing while Ally went to explore some of the booths. We were the last two people in the first group that was allowed into the train museum where the signing was taking place, and it wasn't long before it was our turn to go up. Again, I had that incredulous feeling, like I couldn't believe this was actually happening. Richelle Mead was so, so sweet, and I'm still in a little bit of disbelief that we were able to go to her signing.

Me Meeting Richelle Mead!

After meeting up with Ally outside, we went to two panels back-to-back. The first focused on world-building in historical fiction and was moderated by Libba Bray. Then we went straight to the next panel, which also discussed world-building and was moderated by Alexandra Bracken. Gail Carriger spoke at both panels, and Richelle Mead was at the second one. Both panels were excellent, and I just loved listening to some of my favorite authors talk about writing. There were so many great panels going on, but alas, with all of the signings happening simultaneously, we could only make these two.

Next we headed back to the train museum so that Melissa could get on line for Gayle Forman. Ally and I thought we were super early for Alexandra Bracken’s signing, but there was already a huge line, so we just got on it. Melissa kindly got my copy of If I Stay signed for me while Ally and I stood on our line; we ended up waiting for about two hours, but it was totally worth it when we finally got to meet Alexandra Bracken!

Ally & Alexandra Bracken

We hadn’t had time to eat lunch and were completely famished by this time, so we had a nice pizza dinner, grabbed more coffee, and retired to the hotel for the night. It was an exhausting day, but also extremely exhilarating.

We spent our last day in Charleston browsing some of the cool shops downtown and walking around a bit. The weather was very fall-like throughout the weekend, which we enjoyed since it’s still been in the mid to high 80’s in Florida. We also checked out the Charleston Museum and toured one of the historic houses before heading home. We all agreed that we could have used another day to just explore the city and will file that bit of knowledge away for next year, because we absolutely loved the entire YALLFest experience and would go again in a heartbeat.

Melissa's Haul