Austin Teen Book Festival Write-Up

Monday: Zombies vs. Vampires with Cynthia Leitich Smith, Daniel Waters, Carrie Jones, and Heather Brewer
Wednesday: Fantasy with Libba Bray, Justine Larbalestier, Lisa McMann, and Rick Yancey
Friday: Local Authors with Jennifer Ziegler, Varian Johnson, Shana Burg, and April Lurie

What I Missed:

The Keynote Address by Libba Bray

I've been up late all week, so I was desperately tired last night and forgot to actually turn my alarm on when I changed when it would wake me up. So I woke up at 10:23, knowing it would take at least 15 minutes to get to the venue and I still needed to eat, dress, and otherwise make myself resemble a member of humanity.

Originally, I planned on videotaping the panels I attended, but I thought the panels were beginning at 11, as per the schedule on the site. That would be one panel I couldn't tape, due to showing up late. Then I knew I wanted to go to the whole of Zombies vs. Vampires, but I had contacted Cynthia Leitich Smith beforehand and she didn't want to be broadcast since she was recovering from a cold. That would be only one panel I could tape, which seemed pretty silly. Of course, they'd adjusted the schedule to the panels beginning at 11:15. ^_^;; I still took pictures!

Real YA Voices panel with Matt de la Pena*, Margo Rabb and Deb Caletti

There were four panels, but only time to attend three. I definitely wanted to attend Zombies vs. Vampires and Fantasy due to my own bent towards unrealistic fiction, but it was a toss-up between Local Authors and Real YA Voices. In the end, I chose Local Authors due to the good stuff I've heard about Varian Johnson's MY LIFE AS A RHOMBUS and because I bought April Lurie's BROTHERS, BOYFRIENDS, AND OTHER CRIMINAL MINDS. (I wanted to buy something so that I wouldn't be rude, and Lurie's was both the cheapest and had a fabulous title.)

*imagine a tilde over the n

A Prize

They had a raffle, in which they called out a ton of numbers since many people had already left, and I had two tickets, but still didn't win. I only saw the prize table when about seven books were left, but most of them were copies of CAPTIVATED by Carrie Jones. That tells you how much goodness was on the table.