Mundie Moms

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Austin Texas Teen Book Festival


This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Austin Teen Book Festival, and it was such a blast! This is their second year and WOW what an event. It was organized so well and ran smoothly. I was a driver and a panel host. As a driver I picked up James Dashner and Susane Colasanti and took them to the festival, when it was done, I took Sophie Jordan and Kiersten White to their hotel. Both car rides were a lot of fun and way to short. Susanne's excitement of going to the high school where they have filmed Friday Night was awesome. Visit her site here http://tinyurl.com/2ex8ly3 to see her post. As a panel host, I walked with the authors between panels to the back and made sure that they were given room to take their breaks before the next panel. That's the nice for saying that if I needed to, I could use my elbows (just kidding). I wouldn't have done that. It was so neat seeing how many people turned out for the event and were so excited to meet them.

There was such an amazing group of authors there. The keynote speaker was Ellen Hopkins, and she is simply amazing! I wish I could have recorded her keynote speech for everyone to hear. She talked about Censorship. I loved her comment, "if you can ban the President of The United States in classrooms, you can ban books." It was such a great point, as no one has the right to ban either one. You could hear a pin drop while she read emails from her young readers telling her how her books saved their lives. One girl's email had me on the verge of tears. To hear the horrible things this teen has been through would make you cringe to think that there's such horrible adults in the world. Having no one else to turn to, this young girl found help in Ellen's books. I'll quote what Ellen read, "Your books saved my life!" How much more powerful can that get. This is why it's so important NOT to ban books. Just because one person doesn't like a book, doesn't mean it won't be the life preserver that saves the next reader (that rant is for another post).

I was a panel host for the Boundary Breakers, which included Ellen Hopkins, Jon Skovron, Kenneth Oppel, Charles Benoit and Susane Colsanti. Who ever said authors don't have a sense of humor has never met the Boundary Breaker authors.
I had a blast with them. They are hilarious, as they kept everyone laughing through out their panels. They were so great to everyone and answered all their questions. It was great being able to talk to all of them between panels. I was really amazed to hear Ellen say she has 100's of emails she keeps of teens telling her how her books saved their lives. That is just amazing! We talked about censorship a little bit and the power her books have with teens in between panels.

In between breaks, it was a lot of fun hanging out with all the authors. I was so excited to finally meet Sophie Jordan and Kiersten White! Plus, look, we're all the same height! Being short, I love it when I'm around all people who make me feel normal. LOL Thank you Jen B for taking the picture.
I really loved finally meeting all the authors who came, especially Sophie Jordan, Kiersten White, Ally Carter, Melissa de la Cruz, Susane Colasanti, Jon Skovron, Pam Bachorz, Ellen Hopkins, seeing James Dashner again. This is the kind of fun that went on during lunch-
Jon Skovron, Kiersten White, Charles Benoit, Kenneth Oppel, James Dashner, Susane Colasanti, Ally Carter and Melissa de la Cruz. A local middle school's drama class put on a great performance of Thriller for the authors. The entire day was so much fun and flew up way too fast. I'm looking forward to the authors coming to town again.

The signing was HUGE! There were so many people there, it was simply awesome. As the signing was winding down Ally Carter, Kiersten White, Sophie Jordan and I had a little fun by hopping into a photo booth they had there. It was a little too much fun. I adore these girls!

It's not only fun meeting all the authors, but it's so much fun seeing so many bloggers. Here is Missie (a fellow blogger), Sophie Jordan and myself.
Pam Bachorz & I and Melissa de la Cruz & I.













Here's some goodies I got and some I have to giveaway. I'm so excited to get all my books signed and I also purchased a book from everyone who was on the Boundary Breaker panel, plus Nancy Werlin's newest release. I also received a teaser for the 1st 5 chapters of The Scorch Trials. It's really good, though James said the 1st chapter in the published book is a little different. I can't wait to read it. I'm very excited to read Pam Bachorz's Drought. I wish I was able to afford ti snag a few books to giveaway. I did get a couples ARC I might be giving away after I read them.

I picked up some signed swag to giveaway. No the bag isn't signed and I can't believe I'm parting with it. LOL Here's what one person will win:

Be sure to ask Jon Skovron why he had Red Hots!!


Thank you to The Austin Teen Book Festival, Book People and all the authors who came out to make this an amazing event! I can't wait for next year!!

11 comments:

  1. Oh what a blast!!! And an incredible opportunity!!! I can tell from the pics how much fun everyone was having!!!

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  2. thank you! :D and wow, wish I was there!

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  3. KM- It was such a blast! I wish you were there!!
    Fi-Chan- You are so welcome!

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  4. they look so cute! everyone definitely had fun!

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  5. How awesome!! I wish I could've made it. I'm definitely going to try for the 16th. Looks like it was a lot of fun! =)

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  6. Looks like you had so much fun! I LOVE the photobooth pictures!

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  7. I realised you didn't link this giveaway on your giveaway sidebar.

    just mentioning.

    :D

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  8. Wow you look like you had a really great time, it looks like so much fun. The photo booth pictures are great.

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  9. Maidenveil- It was so much fun.

    Cynthia- We missed you!

    Christina- Thank you! The photobooth was a blast.

    Poing- Thank you! We added it.

    Nicky- The festival was so much fun.

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  10. That looks like you had a great time and so many great people to meet! Thanks for you giveaway :)

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  11. latishajean- Thank you! It was a lot of fun. Best of luck with the giveaway :)

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