Day 2 YALC | Sci-Fi and Horror

So, Day 2 of YALC!

I thought yesterday was hectic and wow was I wrong. I should have guessed Saturday would be busier because, well, it’s the weekend, but I was still a bit surprised.

Now, what did I get today?

(I don’t have my professional camera with me as I’m staying at my boyfriend’s so no prettily arranged photos I’m afraid, but anyway…)

I bought The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich and Radio Silence by Alice Oseman.

The rest of the books I took to be signed, so I got to meet Alwyn Hamilton, Kass Morgan, Lauren James and Dawn Kurtagich today. I actually got in the queue for Alice Oseman’s signing but then I opened the book to the front page and saw I’d actually bought a signed copy from the Waterstones shop on site!

All four authors I met were lovely. Kass Morgan was really enthusiastic and so was Dawn Kurtagich, although I actually said no to a selfie with Dawn because I had a train to catch and I felt sooooo rude. I hope it didn’t come across as rude (I didn’t just say “no”, I obviously thanked her because it was lovely of her to ask if I wanted a photo) but I had 6 minutes to leave the venue and catch my train, plus I’d come down with another migraine so I was eager to get the first train I could. Sorry Dawn! You were really lovely and I’d love a photo with you any other time when I don’t have 6 mins to get a train! But look at all the goodies she had on her signing table! Including these awesome little cupcakes, which I practically inhaled whilst hurrying for my train:

Lauren James was also very lovely and Alwyn Hamilton was really friendly and chatty. Although, Alwyn Hamilton’s queue was extremely long and I spent 2 hours queuing which was a bit of a pain but I think Alwyn was so enthusiastic to meet everyone, and people were so excited to meet her, that it meant the queue was quite slow. But hey I can’t complain, I got to meet her and get my copy of Rebel of the Sands signed! I also met some great people in the queue whilst I was waiting so that made it alright.

Now, what did I see?

• Join the Rebellion! Resistance and Protest in YA with Alwyn Hamilton, Julie Mayhew, Simon Mayo and Kass Morgan. This was the first panel of the day and it was definitely an interesting one. I’ve of course read The 100 series and Rebel of the Sands, but both Blame by Simon Mayo and The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew sounded really good, especially Mayhew’s setting of 2015 Nazi England, what the present day would be like if the Nazis had won. All four of them had some really insightful opinions.
• I then had my signings for Kass Morgan and Alwyn Hamilton.
• Alwyn Hamilton’s signing ran over a fair bit so I missed most of To Boldly Go: YA in Space with Malorie Blackman, Eugene Lambert and James Smythe. However, I caught the last ten or so minutes of the talk and both Malorie Blackman and James Smythe were really funny. The panel made the good point that people shouldn’t be scared of sci-fi because it’s just exploring the known and the unknown, discovering the universe around us.
• I then went to a workshop with Lauren James and Alice Oseman about Creator vs. Fandom – Authors on Social Media which was quite interesting, and they made some good points about the power of fan bases to influence authors or directors etc. I also didn’t realise pirating was such a big issue with books! I’d never dream of pirating a book, and even if I did I wouldn’t know where to start, so it was interesting, and shocking, to hear that pirating is a big issue with novels and can make a huge difference; it can even mean series are discontinued, or books are printed in fewer languages.
• After that, I got my copy of The Next Together signed by Lauren James and she was lovely.
• Next was The Fear Factor: Horror Inspirations with Dawn Kurtagich, Derek Landy, Alex Scarrow and Darren Shan which was good, although I left a little earlier to get near the front of the queue for Dawn’s signing because I needed to catch my train.
• And then Dawn Kurtagich’s signing, obviously.

So, another good day but pretty hectic (that photo was taken not long after doors opened when I was blissfully unaware of what would ensue).

I even managed to bag some more freebies that I missed yesterday; I thought I’d raided all the stands but apparently not.

And that’s another day over!

Did you attend YALC today? Did you enjoy it? Check back tomorrow for my recap of day 3!