TTBF 2017

Earlier this month, I attended the Texas Teen Book Fest. This was my fourth year in a row going, and this was honestly one of the best years. Last year, I went a little crazy and brought over 20 books with me, and I had a long list of authors that I wanted to meet. This year, I decided to keep it simple and I brought 4 books (When Dimple Met Rishi, Warcross, They Both Die At the End, and Geekerella) with me, and I wanted to meet those 4 authors (Sandhya Menon, Marie Lu, Adam Silvera, and Ashley Poston). I luckily got the opportunity to meet all the authors I wanted to see and chat with them a little.

Here's some of the highlights from the festival...

• I picked up signed copies of The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell and There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins. 
• I got to meet the creator of Nerdy Post, a subscription box which features a ton of artwork. They were giving away a ton of cool art and I managed to get this beautiful Throne of Glass print. 
• Definitely my favorite part of the day was meeting Adam Silvera. In They Both Die at the End one of the main characters, Mateo, mentions that he wishes he could visit Austin and see the bats from Congress Bridge. I thought it would be fun to get Mateo a postcard (which has more significance in the book) of the bats and Adam was so sweet when I gave it to him. He also wrote me an awesome message in my book. It was definitely the best experience I've had meeting an author. 
• Marie Lu and I talked about corgis! It was great! 

And that was my TTBF experience. I'm already looking forward to next year! - Jessica

Texas Teen Book Fest 2016

At the beginning of the month I attended the Texas Teen Book Festival, which is an annual event that usually has around 25 authors participating in panels and signings. This was my 3rd consecutive time attending this event, but I remember going to the very first TTBF in 2009. This year I had so many authors that I wanted to meet and get my books signed. I unfortunately didn't get to meet two of the authors I was looking forward to seeing because I had to leave the fest early to go to work, but overall I did get a lot of books signed.

I ended up bringing about 15 books to the festival and I bought five books while I was there. Above is all the books I got signed (plus the second and third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bones Trilogy). Here are some of the highlights of meeting some authors:

• David Arnold drew a bus in my copy of Mosquitoland! 
• Mary E. Pearson and I talked a little bit about how much I love her The Remnant Chronicles series and how I had previously met her last year. 
• I wore my Marauders shirt from The Colorful Geek and Sabaa Tahir and I bonded because she owns the shirt as well. 
• I was really looking forward to meet Shaun David Hutchinson and I told him that his book We Are the Ants is one of my all time favorite books, and he shared with me some details about his upcoming publications. 
• I also met Laini Taylor and Book People had signed copies of Strange the Dreamer available for sale and I can't wait until March to get my copy. Since Strange the Dreamer's release date got pushed back, Taylor was handing out samplers of the first 100 pages of the book. 

I unfortunately wasn't able to meet Leigh Bardugo or Morgan Rhodes because I had to leave early and go to work. I luckily already have a signed book by both authors and I was able to get within close proximity to both of them, but I really hope that both authors will come back to the central Texas area soon. Leigh Bardugo was definitely the most popular author at the event and even though I didn't get to meet her, I was in awe when I saw that she stayed for hours making sure everyone got their books signed. And someone had an extra copy of the cards that Bardugo was handing out during her signing and they kindly gave me their Inej card!

There were also various booths set up during the festival for various publishing companies and other book related merchandise. One of them was OwlCrate, a monthly YA book subscription box, and at there booth I got a lot of fun trinkets. I also finally subscribed to OwlCrate after lusting over their Instagram account and watching various unboxing videos, so I'll be sharing photos of my first box soon.

So that was my experience at the 2016 TTBF, it has been really cool to see how big the festival has gotten over the years and how big the YA community in Austin has grown. - Jessica

Signings: Meeting Three Authors in Two Days

I love fall book releases, because between this month and next month there's so many good books coming out and that also means so many authors are visiting my local book store for signings. Two weeks ago I got to meet three of my favorite authors, I first went got to meet Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs, and then the next day I met Sarah J. Maas. It was so great to meet some authors who's books I absolutely love, and I wanted to share a couple of pictures from the events.

Ignore the awful picture quality, but I had such a good time meeting and listening to Mafi and Riggs speak. They're both so passionate about their books and each other books. Their relationship is seriously goals. They were so nice during the signing and we had an awesome conversation about book covers and hardbacks.

And here's some pictures from the Sarah J. Maas signing! And my picture quality is great because I actually remembered to bring my camera to this event. It was so great listening to her talk about the ToG and ACOTAR series, and she told some great stories about her time writing. As you can see from the pictures above, I managed to be the 17th person to buy a ticket to the signing (I seriously bought my ticket within 20 minutes of them going on sale). I jumped at the opportunity to meet my second favorite author (after J.K. Rowling of course). During the signing I got to tell her how much I love her characters, and afterwards I wrote a message in her original copy of Throne of Glass. 

So that's a quick recap of the two signings I have this month. In October, I'll be attending the Texas Teen Book Fest and three other signings, which I'll be sharing here on the blog. - Jessica