Whoohoo!! YALLFest!! It was so good to be back!!

For anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t gone, YALLFest is a young adult book festival that takes place in November in Charleston, SC. Dozens of authors come and do book signings and panels about writing. It is quite simply the best. I had missed it last year, so I was extra excited to be back there again.

I also got to hang out with my good friend Jess (who some of you may remember from my Bibliophiles Anonymous days) and her cousin Tabi. They are both awesome people and a lot of fun. It was also nice to be able to bring my daughter, who is now 13 years old if you can believe it.

This year was cool because it was the first year that Cassandra Clare was an attendee! I have loved her since The Mortal Instruments and it was really awesome to get to meet her and get her latest book signed.

My favorite part of YALLFest is the panels. I love hearing authors talk about their craft and see how even though they are successful and have tons of fans, they still struggle to write and get the right words on the page. Makes me feel like I might actually be able to do it one day. Maybe. Hopefully.

Hands down, Margaret Stohl and Leigh Bardugo are my favorites to try and catch at a panel. They are both hilarious and just so much fun.

Charleston was cold and windy, but we had a blast. Can’t wait to go back next year. The best thing about it was that it inspired me to try and get back into writing again. It’s a little late to jump into NaNoWriMo this year, but I do have two manuscripts that I should work on, one of which is a completed first draft. The other was my NaNoWriMo project from several years ago that I actually won NaNo, made it to my 50,000 words, and haven’t looked at it since. So lots of material to play with. I’ll let you guys know how it goes, if I can get motivated again now that I’m home.

If you ever get a chance, do check out YALLFest. Almost everything at the festival is free – the panels, the signings. A handful of events are ticketed, but the tickets are relatively cheap, especially given what you get out of it. Anyone who loves books would have a blast.