YALC 2018 Recap

YALC (Young Adult Literary Convention) is a convention held along with the Showmasters London Film and Comic Con at the Olympia Exhibition Centre.

This year was the fifth YALC and my fourth year attending.

Here's a recap of my time at YALC.

(Embarrasingly, I can't remember that much about the panels so I apologise in advance at how brief my notes are!).

Every year at YALC there is a wall of books.

In previous years there were actual books hanging on a wall, but this year there were huge spines lined up along the wall which I thought was pretty cool.

My book haul this year is small compared to previous years...

I bought copies of all of these books at YALC.
I picked up Sweet Black Waves in the sale on Sunday for only £5 and it's signed!
 

I got Orphan Monster Spy and After the Fire from the book swap.
Penguin were giving away Class of 2018/2019 Yearbooks which have excerpts from books that have/are coming out this year and next year. I think these are a really good idea and I'm looking forward to reading it. The pages are sprayed black.
 

Here's what I got up to . . .

FRIDAY

11am - Look at the Industry

Annalie Grainger, Beth Garrod, Chloe Coles and Chloe Seager

This panel was pretty interesting. The panelists spoke about their jobs in the publishing industry.

1pm - Centenary of the Women's Vote

Alwyn Hamilton, Katherine Webber, Sally Nicholls and Sheena Wilkinson 

This panel was mainly about feminism - books with characters that the authors liked and characters the authors would have made feminists in books they've read.

2pm - Tale as Old as Time

Deirdre Sullivan, Kristina Perez, Louise O'Neill, Mary Watson and Melissa Albert

This panel was about fairytales. The authors spoke about what fairytales they would like to retell or see retold.

I got books signed by Katherine Webber and Alwyn Hamilton.

Katherine Webber's book Only Love Can Break Your Heart was being sold early at Waterstone's so I just HAD to buy a copy. I really enjoyed Wing Jones.

SATURDAY

10am - Growing Up In The Past

Frances Hardinge, Keren David, Laura Wood and Lucy Adlington

The authors spoke about their books and the research they did for them.

11am - Politics on the Page

Alice Skinner, Karen Gregory, Sarah Shaffi, Tom Pollock, Tomi Adeyemi and Yaba Badoe

I can't actually remember that much about this panel but I do remember Tomi Adeyemi saying that she originally had two story ideas and that she combined them to write Children of Blood and Bone.

1pm - Amongst the Stars

Becky Chambers, Lauren James, Samantha Shannon and Sasha Alsberg

Some of the authors spoke about how they try to make the science in their books believable/realistic. Lauren James said that she got the idea for her book The Loneliest Girl in the Universe from a university coursework question.

2pm - Giovanna and Tom Fletcher in Conversation

 Giovanna and Tom Fletcher

I really enjoyed this panel. It was interesting to hear how Tom and Gi co-write and they are so cute together.


I got books signed by Giovanna Fletcher for a friend and I got A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood signed. I'd had a Twitter conversation with Laura months ago and she recognised the profile pic on the lanyard I was wearing and remembered me! It was so surreal and I'm still shocked by it. I feel like a proper blogger now! :)

SUNDAY

I didn't go to any panels of signings on Sunday but I went to my first event in the Agent Arena.

11am - Editing Workshop
Practise your editing skills with agent Sandra Sawicka

I picked up some useful tips at this but it was a bit disappointing.



I spent most of Sunday on the Comic-Con floor where I met Rose McIver (who plays the main character Liv Moore in iZombie) and Jewel Staite (who was Kaylee in Firefly).
They were both lovely and after meeting Jewel, I know have three autographs in my Firefly dictionary :)

I picked up loooaadddss of swag and am planning to do a giveaway of some of it soon.

I really enjoyed YALC (as usual).
The giveaways were definitely a lot better organised this year (last year it was a bit of a free-for-all).
The goodie bags were very disappointing - in the past they have been given out on a Friday and they've had bits of swag in, but this year they were given out on the Sunday and there was only a booklet and a couple of bits of swag.
I got to meet two bloggers that I've talked to online which was really cool. That's another thing ticked off my book blogger bucket list :)


Did you go to YALC?
What was your favourite part?

My YALC TBR

For those that don't know, YALC is a YA book convention which is held at the Showmasters London Film and Comic Con at the end of July.

This is the fifth year of YALC and it will be my fourth year attending.
Seeing as it is now 2 months (!!!!!) until YALC, I thought I would post about the books I want to read before I go to YALC.

 

Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls - 3/5 stars
The Belles (The Belles, #1) by Dhonielle Clayton - 3.5/5 stars - read my review here. 
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven - 3/5 stars - read my review here.
The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood, #1) by Melissa Albert - 3.5/5 stars - Read my review here. 
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers - 3/5 stars



Out of these I think I might get The Hazel Wood and The Belles signed at YALC.

I was disappointed that I didn't enjoy The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet more.




 Are you going to YALC?
What books do you want to read before YALC?

YALC 2017 Recap

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to YALC for the third year in a row! I went for all three days and I had so much fun  : )

Here's how my time at YALC went . . .


Friday: 

 Panels - Heroines, SFF Now and We Love Buffy.
Signings - Alwyn Hamilton, Samantha Shannon and Elizabeth May.

Saturday:

Panels - Who Runs The World?, Myth Magic and Fairy-Tale, Laini Taylor and The Books That Made Me.
Signings - Katherine Webber, V.E. Schwab and Lauren James.

Sunday:

Panels - Patrick Ness
Signings - Anna Day





I missed out on a few panels so that I could queue early for authors I knew would have long queues. It was totally worth it - some authors were signing for over three hours!




I also went down to the Comic Con floor on the Sunday and met Alan Tudyk. He shook my hand and was lovely. He signed my Firefly dictionary that I got signed by Sean Maher last year : )

I bought this lovely drawing of Princess Leia. It's gorgeous!

 Throughout the three days I got my hands on LOTS of goodies . . .

I also got my nails painted by Anderson Press who were promoting Things A Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls. By tweeting a picture with the hashtag #BrightThingsAGirlCanDo you could enter to win a proof copy. My sister won a copy (yep, totally jealous).

 I got to see the reveal for the third and final book in the Rebel of the Sands trilogy, Hero at the Fall.

It's GORGEOUS!

I didn't buy as many books as I thought I might and managed to get a few proofs. I missed out on Zenith though : (

 Geekerella is a hardback and came with a poster. It's so pretty!

Editing Emma was a bargain - I bought it on the Sunday afternoon when publishers had lowered their prices to get rid of stock. It was only £1!

Waterstones were selling early copies of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe and I grabbed one as soon as I could (they sold VERY quickly!). I can't wait to read it.

These are the books I got for free/from the book swap.

YALC was really fun and I got to see lots of celebs in passing (Benedict Cumberbatch walked through several times) and I definitely want to go next year, BUT I found some of the stalls a bit disappointing this year - some were smaller and there was a lot less choice at the freebie table this year. It was good to see some book box subscription stalls there though.



Did you go to YALC?
What was your favourite thing?