YALC Recap!

This weekend saw the inaugural YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) take place as part of the larger LFCC (London Film and Comic Con). This was the first time that anything like this had taken place in the UK, so I and so many other people were unsurprisingly very excited! There have already been lots of recaps, but I thought I'd do my own anyway, with a few pictures.

The weekend itself was absolutely manic and so crazy, as the con was part of the larger LFCC. This meant that there were huge queues to get in, and inside, lots and lots of people, a noisy and very, very hot hall. Luckily the Book Zone was at the back of the hall, and things were a little quieter there! It was also very exhausting, with lots of queueing, standing about etc, and I was out late both nights seeing other friends - I managed to make it through the weekend, and collapsed in exhaustion when I got home Monday!

There was so much going on each day though, it was hard to know what to do - there were panels, workshops, and signings - lots of which clashed, and so lots of choices had to be made! The panels and signings I went to though were really great. The whole event was really awesome and there were so many awesome people there, all full of enthusiasm for YA, which was INCREDIBLE. I hope this do this again, it was the best.

While I was there, I was also able to meet lots of wonderful people, including my awesome CP Laura (and we got to hang out lots! Yay!), Cole, Emma, Catherine, as well as a fellow MuggleNet writer, Toni! I also got to hang out with one of my school friends, Katie, which was great. It was also wonderful to say hello to the lovely Liz Kessler who I met at the Fowey Festival!

This was the Book Zone, with an awesome wall of books, as well as a table of free goodies!

 

 

 Lots of publishers, as well as Waterstones, had stands and they were selling books (something I took advantage of, of course! Although I did get home and think, I thought I got more than this... maybe I should have...). Hot Key Books were there (and I love them, they were so friendly and great). They were giving out We Were Liars samplers (which I've already read) as well as awesome hand stamps with quotes from the books, as well as posters and tote bags!

As well as managing to get a couple of free books (!) I also picked up plenty of bookmarks, posters, badges, and posters!

"be a little kinder than you have to"

Onto the events themselves - on Saturday, I attended two panels: "It's the end of the world as we know it: the ongoing appeal of dystopia" with Malorie Blackman (!!!!!), Patrick Ness, Sarah Crossan, and James Smythe. This was really great, and everyone on the panel made really interesting points about dystopia and were so funny and great. I also attended "Superfans Unite!" with Rainbow Rowell (!!!), Lucy Saxon, Andy Robb, and Tim O'Rouke. This was another great panel, with lots of Harry Potter chat (yay!). 

Sunday, I attended "How get published" with Phil Earle, Sally Green, and Ben Horslen. I also went to "Crossover: not just for kids" with Matt Haig, Anthony McGowan, Nick Lake, Meg Rosoff, and David Maybury. It was a really thought provoking panel - and at times rather controversial (in a good way!). Lastly, I went to "Sisters doing it for themselves" with Tany Byrne, Isobel Harrop, Julie Mayhew, Holly Smale, and Sarra Manning. Another really good, and brilliant panel that made me think a lot!

There were other panels and workshops that I was interested in both days, but I ended up doing lots of queueing for signings and stuff, and it didn't work out. It's always hard to know at these things what to focus on.

I managed to get lots of books signed - as well as buy lots. Here's some pictures (all the authors were LOVELY so it would be boring if I wrote that as a caption for each one!):

MALORIE BLACKMAN!!

Natasha Ngan!

excited to read this!

picked this up from Hot Key as well!

Can't wait to read this one too!

I was SO excited to get this!

Rainbow!

Holly Smale!

picked up this short story!

excited to snaffle a free copy of this!

 Phew! That's a lot of pictures! All the authors I met were SO SO SO lovely and keen to have a chat, and were all so friendly, I loved them all. I've got lots of reading to do!

Let's hope this happens again - it was awesome.

Looking back at 2013

Wow. What a year. I realised the other day I hadn't posted in nearly a month, and although I meant to write a Christmas post, it seems to have passed me by and so instead I'll write a looking back post. When I first started to look back on the year, I thought, in many ways, well that sucked. But then, after reading the lovely Laura's post, and really thinking about this year, I began to think, well actually, a hell of a lot happened and SO much of it was good. I've had a wonderful year really.

In the more immediate past though, Christmas was certainly different this year. We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to find we had no power, and remained this way until Boxing Day evening. Luckily we have the wonderful AGA and we had a small generator so we weren't completely in the dark, but it certainly created tensions. I've never been more grateful for power.

But now heading back to the beginning of this year, there have been many wonderful things:

In Februrary, I met John and Hank Green, and my lovely wonderful CP Laura in London (FINALLY!!).

In March, I met JK Rowling (!) and joined SCBWI, which has been an awesome experience. There was another wonderful trip to Fowey too.

May, I saw Mcfly, ventured down to Fowey by myself for a camping trip and visit to the Fowey Festival, and tried Windsurfing. I also met Emilya Hall and other lovely authors at the festival. I also started Treading Water.

June, I saw Neil Gaiman talk about his new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

July, Murray won Wimbledon, and I found out that one of my short stories, Tide, was going to be published in an ebook by Mardibooks and IdeasTap. It was also a wonderfully hot, perfect summer. Did a windsurfing course.

September, I spent a week in Fowey, which was perfect. I also went to Mcfly's 10th Anniversary Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.

October, I joined the MuggleNet team as a News Intern.

December, I was promoted to a full staff member and News Writer (!), which has been one of the best and most awesome experiences I've ever had. I love it and am so grateful to be there! I also had a lovely day trip to Fowey.

I have also been very lucky to read lots of wonderful drafts by my amazing writer friends, and I've managed to write plenty of drafts and words myself.

I'm sure I've missed something out, but it's been an amazing year!

I never really like New Year - it always makes me nostalgic and strange, but this year I think I have plenty of good things to look back on! Bring on 2014.

June and finished first drafts

How is it June already? The last few weeks have disappeared, and dare I say it, summer is here.

I mentioned a while ago I was working on a new project, and if you follow me on twitter you will have seen me tweet an awful lot about it. But I finally finished typing up the first draft from my very messy handwriting, which was a great relief. The lovely Laura,my wonderful CP, has been reading it as I type it up and has been an amazing encouragment and has been super supportive and just generally awesome! So thanks Laura! And now it's all typed up, I'm going to start reading it through again, make some editing notes, notes of scenes and details and all of that to add, as the first draft is at points rather skeleton. Phew! Lots to do! But I'm still rather in love with this story and its characters, which I reckon is a good sign and I'm looking forward to doing lots more work on it.

And I'm looking forward to the summer, with hopefully lots of swimming, tennis, reading and writing. And Queens starts next week - followed by Eastbourne, then Wimbledon! The best two weeks of the year. So excited!

Anyway, I'm off to go read and make some notes in the sunshine. Got to make the most of it!