Thursday 16 July 2015

YALC - The Young Adult Literature Convention 2015

It's almost here, after months of waiting! The second Young Adult Literature Convention (or YALC as I will be referring to it from now on) is happening this weekend and I cannot wait. Due to the insanely stressful and busy period last July where I was scrambling to plan my wedding from another country, I wasn't able to make it to the first one, so I am making up for lost time with excitement and hugs. Seriously, free hugs, come find me.

If you haven't yet seen it the schedule for the weekend is here, go check it out!

So the schedule looks pretty awesome, and there's something for everyone to be found, but I thought I'd highlight some of the events that I'm most looking forward to.

Friday 17th
I'm all about the workshops on Friday. The panels look interesting but they don't grab me in the same way as the creating worlds and characters workshops do. Plus there's the Harry Potter event in the evening, which you know is going to be awesome!
I'm also really curious about the agent area and will probably be splitting my time between workshops and agents. Plus general mooching around talking to other bookish people and hopefully filming some bits for Bookish Brits!


Saturday 18th
The panels are more exciting today - the new generation of young writers looks like it's going to be fab. Followed by Cassie Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan which is always awesome. It's infinitely more fun to see authors talking with friends than a guest host who doesn't know them as well, the stories come out and every time I've seen these two live it's ended up being hilarious.
Then there's the feminism in YA panel which looks like it's going to be incredible, and of course the Hunger Games quiz!
Then over in Workshops I am insanely excited about Anna McKerrow's workshop about tarot cards in YA. We're seeing them more and more - Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle and Moira Fowley-Doyle's The Accident Season are two that spring immediately to mind, and I'm really excited for this workshop to go a little more in depth about the cards and their emerging role in YA fiction.


Sunday 19th
James Dawson bringing Sexy Back? 'Nuff said, I am so there. Followed by a whole host of brilliant looking panels: Between Fantasy and Reality, Troubled Teens and Dark Subjects, LGBT in YA and a panel about being inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett. They all look fantastic and Sunday is going to be a very busy day!
Then over in the workshops some of my very favourite bloggers will be talking about book blogging, so I'll be sneaking across in between panels to go and say hi.


Phew! Quite a busy three days! I'll be there taking pictures, filming sections for Bookish Brits and generally getting excited about books for all three days. Come and say! Come and talk about books! Or blogging! Or cats! Or combinations of all of them! I can't wait to meet up with familiar faces and get to know some new book bloggers. It's going to be an awesome few days.

Are you going to YALC this year? Just for a day or for the entire weekend? Are you looking forward to any specific workshops or panels? And if you're going on your own and are feeling nervous, drop me a message. It can be incredibly nerve wracking going to something like this on your own, but there are going to be so many wonderfully friendly authors, bloggers and book lovers there, and I am more than happy to meet up and say hi!

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