YALL Fest

YALL Fest was AWESOME!! If you guys get the chance to go next year, I highly recommend it. The keynote speakers were Cassie Clare and Holly Black. They gave an awesome talk about literary friendships. They are both hilarious.

We also met Cassie when we went to get our books signed. I've told this story on the blog before, but not many people saw that post, so I'll tell it again really quickly. If you already saw this, feel free to skip past this next part. haha.

 In a nutshell, Cassie had a contest last year to win an ARC of Clockwork Prince. You had to do something creative having to do with Clockwork Angel. Draw a picture, write a poem, make a book trailer. ANYTHING. As long as it had to do with Clockwork Angel.

Chance made a video of himself holding the book in places he wasn't supposed to be. (A true teenage boy concept) Cassie ended up never seeing the video cause of a mix-up with the website hosting the contest entries. She named the winners and (since she hadn't even seen his) obviously Chance didn't get so much as an honorable mention. But I was looking at the time stamps and realized what had happened.

I ended up writing to Cassie, explaining the situation and asking if she could watch Chance's video. I told her I wasn't trying to complain and that I knew the mix-up wasn't her fault. It wasn't like I wanted her to re-vote on the contest or something. I just wanted Chance to know that his favorite author had seen the contest entry he'd worked so hard on. I sent her the link and got this email back from her ten minutes later. :

Dear Tammy,

You are absolutely right. It did look like the video came in after the cutoff date. 

And you are also right. It is a fantastic video. Chance clearly put a huge amount of effort into it and I'm glad you called my attention to it. It deserved a first prize and it should get one.

I've edited the post that states the winners to include Chance, and I will figure out *some way* to get him a copy of the new book if I have to print it out myself!

And don't worry, you don't sound complainy. Sometimes moms think the things their kids do are fantastic just because they are their moms. Sometimes they're right. :)

Cassie 


So, that's how Chance ended up winning first place in Cassandra Clare's contest. When we went to the book signing Chance introduced himself and Cassie immediately remembered him. She was SO nice. She got up and gave him a hug and thanked him for working so hard on his video. It was AWESOME--and since she is one of my idols, I made sure I got a hug too. haha. That ten minutes with her pretty much made my entire trip--especially since she also signed my canvas I made of the Infernal Devices book...It's SO much cooler now than it was. :)





And, the rest of YALL Fest was a lot of fun as  well.

The YA Smackdown at the end was hilarious. I have never seen a group of adult so utterly incapable of paying attention or following directions. My kids are always calling me oblivious, but apparently that's an inborn trait of everyone who writes YA. Every writer there was talking and joking and completely clueless that the host was trying to get them to line up and take a bow. It was so funny to watch them. And that was just the parts in between the actual skits they came up with--which i can't do justice here. There were effing elves, murderous mermaids, romancing snakes and, in the end, they threw pies.  Actual cream pies. You can't beat that, right?

AND--I got to see exclusive MTV clips of City of Bones!!! AND some super cool behind the scenes stuff about Beautiful Creatures. CAN'T WAIT FOR THOSE MOVIES!!!

So, all in all, we had an awesome time and I hope some of you guys make it up next year!! I'm posting Chance's video, just in case anyone wants to see it.

In other news, MINA LOBO actually chose me as one of her finalist in her RESURRECTION BLOGHOP. Here is where I'm supposed to pimp my entry but--having seen who I am up against--I can't even do it. haha. All the other entries are amazing and I'm just honored she chose to put me in with such illustrious company. I will however, ask you to take a minute to pop over to her site (which you should anyway, cause her site is awesome) Choose your favorite out of the seven finalist, scroll down to the poll at the end and vote. Please!! Thanks guys!! Hope you all had a great weekend!! 

And happy Veterans day. Thank you to all the amazing men and women serving our country!!