Top Ten Highlights of YALLFest

Last weekend, we once again attended YALLFest in Charleston, SC. My 18-year-old daughter and I drove up from Florida and Sandie drove down from Maryland, and we met up in Charleston within minutes of one another.  After the initial excitement of our sisterly reunion, we did what any person should do in Charleston — eat! Friday night, Sandie was lucky enough to go to the VIP Party and meet some of the authors participating in YALLFest, and Saturday we joined hundreds and hundreds of fellow YA (and Middle Grade!) fans to enjoy an awesome day with some of our favorite authors.  Here are 10 reasons we absoultely loved YALLFest 2013, even if we didn’t up having pie this year!:

1.  Meeting Rainbow Rowell!  Seeing Rainbow was one of our big motivators for going to YALLFest. As admirers of Rainbow’s work since the moment we read ARCs of “Eleanor & Park,” we were excited to meet her and tell her how much her books have meant to us this past year. Sandie got to meet her at a party (where she swears she had to drink an extra glass of wine just to approach her — only to discover she’s the loveliest, most gracious woman ever), and my daughter Victoria and I stood in line for TWO HOURS just to have our books signed by her — and it was worth every minute. She was so kind and sweet and had a huge smile on her face despite the fact her hand must’ve been ready to fall off after meeting fans and signing so, so many books. We hope we can run into her again in the future — hopefully after she releases “Landline”! –Diana

2.  Hearing Libba Bray sing – The culminating event at YALLFest was the YA Smackdown. A big surprise this year was a headlining performance by YA supergroup Tiger Beat featuring frontwoman Libba Bray. Tiger Beat performed an hour-long set for the audience. In case you’re wondering, Tiger Beat is Libba on vocals, Barnabas (Barney) Miller on drums, bassist Natalie Standiford and guitarist Daniel Ehrenhaft. They sang a bunch of covers (“Sweet Jane” — a lovely tribute to the late great Lou Reed) and their original “YA Song.” However, for reasons anyone who knows our family will understand, the best part was when they sang The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”  Well, really, the best part was when Barnabas Miller sang a surprisingly awesome rendition of “Purple Rain,” but we grew up with one of the biggest Who fans in the world.  –Sandie

3.  Having the book “Divergent” signed by Veronica Roth – Before the two hours of waiting for Rainbow, I waited in a much shorter (for me) but much longer total (500 of us!)  line to get “Divergent” signed by Veronica Roth, the keynote speaker of the Fest. We had to get up extra early to get one of the coveted autograph tickets, but “Divergent” is so good, I couldn’t be in Veronica Roth’s presence and not get her autograph! –Diana

4.  Discovering new authors – As we mentioned on Monday, one our favorite reasons to attend YALLFest (and all book festivals) is meeting new (or new to us) authors. We were impressed with authors like Alex London, Aaron Hartzler, Jocelyn Davies, Lev Grossman and Natalie Standiford we’d heard about or seen on Twitter but didn’t know much about firsthand. Diana already bought and finished Aaron Hartzler’s memoir “Rapture Practice,” and I loved listening to (most of) London’s “Proxy” on the drive back to D.C. In fact, the first thing I noticed on Monday morning at the Scholastic Book Fair (which I run at my kids’ elementary school) is that Alex London’s middle-grade books “Dog Tags” are HUGE in elementary school book fairs!.  -Sandie

5.  Adorable newlywed authors Ransom Riggs & Tahereh Mafi – Sandie has read Tahereh Mafi’s “Shatter Me” series (she says its got the kind of love triangle that will make you fight with your friends), and I’ve read Ransom Riggs’ “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” so we were thrilled they were going to have a “Coffee Talk” panel interviewing each other. They shared their thoughts about writing, YA books, movies based on YA books, Tahereh’s love of Twitter, and Tahereh’s even bigger love of tall, breathtaking shoes. It was so fun seeing them together. They were just like all newlyweds everywhere: holding hands and wanting to sit next to each other. They were so CUTE!! –Diana

6.  The Entire “All the Feels” Panel – Rachel Cohn, Gayle Forman, Ellen Hopkins, David Levithan, Stephanie Perkins, and Rainbow Rowell opened up the first post-keynote panel with the hilarious (and ridiculously handsome) Aaron Hartzler as the moderator. As contemp lovers, it was one of our “must see” panels of the day. They talked about everything about why their books deal with the tragedy and triumph of everyday life, how prolific David Levithan is, the ridiculousness of challenging books, and how Rainbow HAD to give Eleanor someone as beautiful and amazing as Park, because the rest of her life was so tough. ALL THE FEELS! –Sandie

7.  Keynote with Veronica Roth & Rae Carson – Veronica Roth and Rae Carson interviewed each other for the opening keynote like Cassandra Clare and Holly Black did last year. Rae was especially funny when she asked Veronica the question that was burning on all of our minds, how could she ….  in “Allegiant.” But of course they wouldn’t spoil the book for everyone! Then they delved into a fascinating conversation about what makes a strong female protagonist and why the term “strong” is so misleading.  –Sandie

8.  Unexpected Author Meetings – It was a lot fun seeing some of the authors walking around, since I don’t live in New York where “celeb” sightings are a common occurrence. Margaret Stohl walked around and high-fived people waiting in line and graciously took pictures (we got a picture of my daughter with her).  We ran into Aaron Hartzler and Bill Konigsberg at Starbucks and after hesitating, I got up the courage to ask for a picture. He was so kind and generously posed with me for a picture, even though I’m sure he just wanted to drink his latte.  –Diana

9.  The Hollywood YA List – This panel is basically the reason I got into YA. As an entertainment writer, I realized (with my editor’s prodding) that so many YA books were being adapted into movies it made sense for me to read them before the adaptations hit theaters. Veronica Roth, Gayle Forman, David Levithan, and Rachel Cohn answered Margaret Stohl’s frank questions about the process of seeing their beloved words turned into a film they have little control over making. Melissa de La Cruz also shared her experiences with having her “Witches of East End” series turned into a Lifetime show. We all got to see video greetings from the casts of “If I Stay,” “Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List,” “Witches” (although I don’t know what they were saying because Daniel Di Tomasso is so beautiful the audience gasped and giggled in unison)   –Sandie

10.  Spending time together and enjoying Charleston – Charleston is an awesome city!  It has something for everyone.  It has amazing restaurants, fantastic stores for shopping, and wonderful historic architecture. What made it all so great was the three of us being together. My daughter loves it so much that she vowed that she will live there some day!  That’s fine with me, because then we’ll have somewhere to stay for free when we go to YALLFest. – Diana

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