TAC Recap

May went by so fast! I remember planning months in advance for BEA and TAC and now that it's all over, I'm left feeling slightly breathless. I had a lovely time at the carnival and an even more fantastic time at BEA (way better than last year!) (but that's only because I knew what I was doing).

So this year for the carnival, I decided to drag one of my oldest friends, Diana, and her younger sister to this event so they could experience what the carnival was like as well as seeing me in "my element." (D's words, not mine.) I took my backpack with me and of course, dangling from it was my little blue penguin ♥ We arrived to the library a little late (our train was delayed) and it was even more packed than last year. I think there was, like, double the amount of people there. I reunited with Lexie, Taschima and Emily and met some other bloggers too. I chatted a little with Steph Su, and I met both Keyona and Frankie from First Novels Club. Meeting Frankie was especially awesome for me since I follow both her blogs and I love, love, love her Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars recaps...and she's just wonderful as a person so yeah ;)

As for authors...I almost died when I recognized a few of the most well-known YA authors in the crowd. We're talking Gayle Forman and David Levithan status.  (I stood next to David Levithan. I STOOD next to the author of Boy Meets Boy and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I felt myself reeling, I tell you. But I didn't want to be creepy so... I didn't say anything nor did I whip out my camera (which was dead at that point, dammit)).

Note: I had brought my camera with me to take pictures but it decided to die on me midway during the train ride. Later on I realized the batteries were dead and I didn't think to bring any extras. So I can't show you guys any pictures of that day. I'm sorry :(

source

So let's see....right. Well, I arrived with my friends about half an hour late so naturally there were tons of  people by the time I went downstairs to the panels. There were four panels in total and two of them were happening at once. I didn't know which one to choose (or what to expect) so I went to the room where I knew Lexie and Emily were. I left Diana and Tanya in the other room where I remember Andrea Cremer was talking in the panel for Kick Ass Females in YA: And Why It's A Big Deal To Have Them. (Cool title, right?) 

Decisions, decisions...

I ended up staying in the same room with Emily (Lexie went off to another panel?) and we sat next to each to listen to a few authors discussing their journey to publication. The list of all authors present can be found here but just to throw out a few names: Michelle Hodkin, Scott Tracey, Kirsten Hubbard, Bettina Restrepo... and Lenore was there too. She was the moderator :) Sigh, listening to each author tell their story of how they got to where they are now (their paths were littered with rejection letters, false hopes, etc.) was truly inspiring...and the audience got to listen to them read passages from their novels (except for Lenore. She had just finished her manuscript so it was too early for it to be read.). The most memorable for me where Bettina and Michelle's. Everyone was hanging on Michelle's words while she read a particularly sexy passage (oh yes) from THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER and the room became tense with emotion when Bettina read a tear-inducing moment from ILLEGAL.

After that, though, everything else is honestly a blur. I walked around a little, meeting bloggers (the ladies I mentioned before) and staring at all the authors present (yeah, I could NOT muster the courage to talk to any of them). I didn't get any books either (all of the arcs went really fast) but I did get the MARA DYER shirt that Michelle was handing out and I did wear it to BEA. ;) I ended up leaving soon after since one of my friends wasn't feeling well; she felt claustrophobic from all the people there o_O;

So overall, my experience with the teen author carnival this year was more rushed than last year's and I wasn't able to stick around longer to talk to more people. But I had a lot of fun listening to the authors from the panels I attended and I did meet some new people. I only regret not meeting Jessica; it looks like she was in the other room for the OTHER two panels that I missed. Damn. :/