Teen Book Con Recap (and Giveaway!)

OMG SATURDAY WAS AMAZING. SO this will be very long and very detailed. (Pics at the end)

and

I

have

a

giveaway

for you

at

the

end

You walk into the place and this is pretty much the first thing you see. A humongous line and...walls. I'm so descriptive. You basically wandered around for an hour, buying books, exploring, etc. At 10, all of us Teen Book Con-ers went to the auditorium where we saw the authors go on stage. AND A.G. HOWARDS PASSED RIGHT BY MY SEAT but I was way too shy to say hello. I then took stalker photos.

Chris Crutcher then took the stage and gave the Keynote speech. And it. Was. Hilarious. Here are my two favorite parts:
"My dad told me to save my allowance for bail money" (something like that)
The book that got him reading was To Kill a Mockingbird and he felt as though the main character was talking to him only (then he saw over 6 million copies sold and obviously it was cheating on him. But of course he didn't care.)

AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE FIRST PANEL. The first panel I went to was Take Me Away which had A.G. Howard, Shannon Messenger, Lenore Appelhans, Tera Lynn Childs, Stacey Kade, and Sophie Jordan! They were a HILARIOUS group! They talked plotting, titles, covers, and gave writing tips. My favorite came from Lenore! "If all else fails, blow things up." They also admitted that authors were evil. THANK YOU. I asked "If you have a love triangle, and you HAD to choose, who would you pick?" but by then time ran out. But NEXT ANITA, YOU SHALL PICK MOTH. Oh, also. Two main questions an author should ask him/herself. What if? and What's the worst that can happen right now to my character?

Lunch. I was lonely, awkward, and probably looked like a creeper. Oh, don't mind me, I'll just go into all the rooms and come out the same time as you.

Yeah.

So anyways. Next panel? Addicted to Love! With Jennifer E. Smith, Tamara Ireland Stone, Justina Chen, Stacey Jay, and Mary Lindsey, they definitely named the panel accordingly! What did we find out? That MAry Lindsey was locked in a locker (by her own doing) in a game of hide and seek. They talked about characters and the relationships between their characters and gave more writing tips! Read as much as you can, observe people (in a non-stalker-kind-of-stalkery way!), and be inspired by everything, good and bad.

And then? Making the Best of it with Chris Crutcher, Jen Calonita, Kay Honeyman, Amy McNamara, Lauren Morrill, and Francisco X. Stork. The first question was actually pretty funny. For Stork, "Was it hard writing from a girl's POV?" Cue awkward silence for about 1 seconds! He then said that writing from an autism boy's head was easier. Girls are so complicated, aren't we? WE TALKED INSPIRATIONS! And then the "What if" question popped up! Amy Mcnamara says that she writes contemporary to "teach herself." and Kay Honeyman says that "Books are a good place to confront dangerous, but real things that can potentially happen" (or something like that). Chris Crutcher said "Write what you can imagine, and how far you can take yourself out there" and "A story is a great place to find a witness" or someone who shares your thoughts and experiences, etc.

And then. My favorite panel. Of. All. Times. They (Dan Krokos, Bethany Frenette, Claudia Gray, Leigh Bardugo, Jessica Brody, and Lisa McMann) were BEYOND hilarious. Seriously. I was laughing pretty much the ENTIRE time. Dan Krokos was definitely the MOST HILARIOUS. And I loved Jessica Brody's joke in the intro! "The first book is Unremembered, the second is Unforgotten, and the third is Untitled because it's Unwritten." LOVED. SO MUCH. I was laughing so much, I forgot to take notes. Whoops! But we've determined that Bethany is in love with ducks. Very in love.

ENDING SPEECH. I FORGOT EVERYTHING. Sharon Draper basically just read to us, really.

And then. The signings. LOVED seeing all the wonderful authors! And I may have nudged them and told them who I was! Amy Mcnamara, Lenore Appelhans, Shannon Messenger, and Anita remembered me! SO YAY! (After I, you know, gave them a nudge)

I also took pictures. And stole (not really) some swag.
This is everything I got


















And this, is everything you can get















(The rolled up thing is a poster of Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes! On the back is the cover for th sequel, Rebel Spring. All are signed except the stickers [I think]

Giveaway
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Staler Photo #1

Stalker Photo #2

Stalker Photo #3

Keynote speech

There was also this. DRESS UP THE FAMOUS CHARACTERS

4/6 of the authors on Take Me Away (Panel #1 for me)

All authors except Anita.

Addicted to Love panel!

Making the Best of it panel

Power of Memory panel! HILARITY ALL AROUND

A signing line. There were many. MANY. And
Anita had pretty much the longest line
(throughout the entire signing!)

A book buying stack.

ANOTHER BOOK BUYING STACK

Me and Claudia Gray

Me and Lauren Morrill

Me and Stacey Kade

Me and Bethany Frenette

Me and Leigh Bardugo (ACK!)

Me and Lisa McMann

Me and Lauren Morrill

Me and Claudia Gray

Me and Tera Lynn Childs

Me and Lenore Appelhans!

OMG YOU GUYS. IT'S ME
AND ANITA/A.G. HOWARD

Me and Michelle Rowan

Me and Amy McNamara

Me and Shannon Messen-
ger! EEEEP!

Me and Tamara Ireland Stone

Me and Jennifer E. Smith

Me and Mary Lindsey (!!)

Me an Dan Krokos

Me and Sophie Jordan