YALL FEST 2011, Charleston, SC

So this past weekend, I was able to go to the First Annual YALL Festival in Charleston, SC.  I joined with Rebecca from Bending the Spine and Richard from Bound and Determined for a day full of authors, books, and answers to questions about zombies, witches, vampires, and so much more.  

Walking between The Blue Bicycle Book Store and the American Theatre, we had the opportunity to see a great group of authors.  

JR. YALLFEST


(In Order of Seating)

Pseudonymous Bosch (The Name of this Book is Secret)

Lisa Brown and Adele Griffin (Picture the Dead)

Kaleb Nation (Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse)

This whole session was mostly about the books in the middle grade section of a book store.  
  

FANGS AMONG FRIENDS


(In Order of Seating)

Andrea Cremer (Nightshade)

Heather Brewer (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)

Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods)

Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures)

Here we discovered that the best way to make people like the "villain" is to make him super sexy.  This was a great session, and all the authors were super entertaining. The interaction between them was amazing.   

DEMONS, WITCHES & CASTERS OH MY!

(In Order of Seating)
Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon)

Caitlin Kittredge (The Iron Thorn)

Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch)

Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures)

  

This session was interesting, as I had only heard of 2 of the four authors books.  Getting an idea of what other authors were writing was very interesting. 

 PUTTING THE YALL IN YALLFEST

(In Order of Seating)

Katie Crouch (The Magnolia League)

Saundra Mitchell (The Vespertine)

Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer)

Beth Revis (Across the Universe)

 This whole panel (minus Ms. Saundra Mitchell) were Southerns.  Ms. Mitchell is a Yankee (which I don't hold against her), who writes Southern based novels.  Great session, with some great interaction between the authors!

DON’T DIS-TOPIAN 

(In Order of Seating)

Moderator: Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon) 

Diana Peterfreund (Rampant)

Eliot Schrefer (School for Dangerous Girls)

Kim Derting (The Pledge)

Beth Revis (Across the Universe)

 Talk about a great session:  Discovered of these authors, two would be a Distopian leader's henchman, one would be the Distopian leader, and one would be the human fodder for the Distopian society.  Can you guess who is who?

ZOMBIE ATTACK PANEL 

(In Order of Seating)

Diana Peterfreund (Secret Society Girl)

Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Feet)

Alex Garcia (formerly of Activision Video Games)

Moderator: Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures)

Here we had an opportunity to learn 1) you will survive longer in a zombie attack if you have friends/family who are slower than you, 2) We might survive a small attack of 30 zombies using chairs as weapons, and 3) we can always use the threat of zombie attacks as a way to make disaster plans (just ask the US government).  Great session!


Overall, I had a great time.  I learned a lot about these authors, learned about some great books that I plan on reading, and I am hoping to go next year!   Thanks to all that sponsored, planned, attended and talked at YALL Fest!

Happy Reading!


Cana