Bookish Things

YALC 2016 Tips and Pics!

So YALC 2016 was truly amazing, I had an absolute blast and met some wonderful people of the YA community.
For those of you that don’t know what YALC is – it’s the Young Adult Literary Conference which is put on by the BookTrust and is held at the London Film and Comic Con. There were awesome panels with YA authors, signings, games and of course: BOOKS.

First I want to share some tips for those of you thinking of going in the future:

Bring bags with wheels, because no matter what you say you will buy ALL OF THE BOOKS (or get given them for FREEEE)
Bring food and water. The cafe is SUPER expensive and the days are long, you need to stay hydrated!
BE BRAVE! Authors LOVE their fans. See an author wandering about? Pluck up the courage to say hi! (If they look super busy though maybe hold off for a bit)
Bring a few books with you that you want signed – I ended up buying duplicates of books I had so I could get the authors to sign them!
Take the freebies! Don’t be shy, they’re there to get taken!
On Sunday there are giveaways ALL THE TIME and everything is either drastically reduced or given away for free so keep an eye out!
HAVE AN AMAZING TIME!

Secondly I want to show you this picture:

This was around 11am on the Sunday, the release day of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and I just had to take a snap of these girls reading it already in the reading area! How awesome is that?

Not only did I meet many book bloggers and booktubers, I also I met some wonderful authors, Michael Grant, V E Schwab, Malorie Blackman, Alex Scarrow, and many MANY more. It was so overwhelming to get to meet so many of my idols and like minded people.

My favourite panel was the Fear Factor Panel with Dawn Kurtagich, Alex Scarrow, Derek Landy and Darren Shan. Here are some of my favorite bits from Twitter:

Best part of #YALC #fearfactor panel is @dawnkurtagich casually fanning herself like 19th century dame whilst horrifying audience.

— Simon P. Clark (@sipclark) July 30, 2016

First person is great for an unreliable narrator & psychological horror! @dawnkurtagich #FearFactor @yalc_uk #YALC pic.twitter.com/R8rcKCgKec

— Jennifer Faughnan (@JennieLy) July 30, 2016

@dawnkurtagich says House of Leaves is so mentally scarring it made her want to be a writer so she could give that feeling to others! #YALC

— YALC (@yalc_uk) July 30, 2016

‘Horror movies: The less you see – more you can mess with their heads’ @AlexScarrow #FearFactor @yalc_uk #YALC pic.twitter.com/3jENmCUBro

— Jennifer Faughnan (@JennieLy) July 30, 2016

Something under the bed is scarier to girls, boys find something tapping on the window terrifying! #FearFactor @yalc_uk #YALC #horror

— Jennifer Faughnan (@JennieLy) July 30, 2016

I spent the Sunday going around and taking pictures, so I thought I’d share them with you! Click them to see a full size image or go to the flickr Album!