YALLFEST 2012

DUDES!! I'll be leaving for Yallfest in 5 days!! 

For those who don't know, Yallfest is an annual young adult festival held in Charleston, South Carolina. It's my first time going and I'm soo freaking excited! I'm going with my friend Jessica and her mom, who I've known my whole life. We're driving down Friday and coming back Monday. The  festival itself is on Saturday, November 10th. There's going to be 49 authors there, with panels and signings galore!
I have in mind the authors I HAVE to see and then the ones I'd like to see if there's time. I just have no idea what to expect, as I've never been there.

Here's the list of authors going (I've highlighted the authors who I've read books by):

Kwame Alexander 

Jennifer Lynn Barnes 

Holly Black

Pseudonymous Bosch

Sarah Rees Brennan

Kiera Cass 

Cinda Chima

Cassandra Clare 

Andrea Cremer 

Gitty Daneshvari 

Melissa de la Cruz 

Kimberly Derting 

Simone Elkeles 

Elizabeth Eulberg 

Gayle Forman 
Kami Garcia

Adam Gidwitz

David Macinnis Gill

Adele Griffin
Jenny Han

Deborah Harkness

Grady Hendrix

Michelle Hodkin

Ellen Hopkins

Tonya Hurley

Michele Jaffe

Kami Kinard

Caitlin Kittredge

David Levithan

Wendy Mass

Alex Morel

Alyson Noel

Stephanie Perkins
Diana Peterfreund

Kathy Reichs

Brendan Reichs

Beth Revis

Jess Rothenberg
Carrie Ryan

Eliot Schrefer

Natalie Standiford

Trenton Lee Stewart

Margaret Stohl

John Thompson

Cate Tiernan

Siobhan Vivian

Robin Wasserman

Marjory Wentworth

John Corey Whaley

Kathryn Williams

 

The authors on my MUST-SEE/sign list are:

 

1. David Levithan (Every Day, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares)

2. Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices)

3. Carry Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

4. Jenny Han (The Summer I Turned Pretty)

5. Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss; Lola and the Boy Next Door)

6. Simone Elkeles (Perfect Chemistry)

7. Ellen Hopkins (Perfect, Crank, Impulse, etc.)

 

Those are my tops. I don't know how the timing of everything is going to work. There will be panels throughout the day and the authors only sign at certain times. There's also a keynote presentation with Cassandra Clare and Holly Black that morning and then at the end of the day there is the YA Smackdown. I'll be going to both of those.   So. I'm soo excited and a little bit terrified. I don't think I've ever been to Charleston. I've been to Myrtle Beach plenty of times as a kid. SO I'm also excited to go someplace new and do a little sightseeing. Not sure what else is on the agenda at this point yet.

 

If there's anyone who has gone to Yallfest in the past I would LOVE to get some pointers from you! As far as what to expect, thoughts on bringing books from home to have signed, etc. I already own books on all the above authors that I want signings from..I was thinking of just bringing a bookbag?

 

I'll DEF be doing a post-Yallfest post! I'm going to try and do some pre-scheduled posts for this weekend when I'm not around. I, unfortunately, am one of few people who actually does NOT have a smart phone.  So I am going to be unable to get on the Internet while I'm away. Twitter is a completely foreign concept to me.

 

Yay! 4 day workweek!! :)