Teen Book Festival 2015
The Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival at Nazareth
College is the best book event I have ever gone to. Everyone is incredibly
nice, there are door prizes, and amazing opportunities. TBF starts with an hour
long panel with all of the authors. This year it was hosted by one of the
authors, Charles Benoit, in disguise. They played truth or talent. Some of the
highlights were Heather Brewer and AS King revealing that they are actually
ninjas, G. Neri talked about his severed thumb, and Gayle Forman delegated her
talent to her daughter. Ally Condie told a story about how she embarrassed herself
in front of frat boys, Jessica Brody sang a Spice Girl rap, and AS King said
she once shook a hand inside of a cow. Jonathan Maberry once knocked out a nun
with a nunchuck, Jennifer Lynn Barnes talked about how monkeys are little
fluffy balls of destruction and death, and Julie Kagawa demonstrated her
awesome defense skills.
One of the greatest things
about TBF is the author panels. This year I went to Michael Buckley’s, Julie
Kagawa and Katie McGarry’s, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Charles Benoit, and April
Henry’s Panels. I went to TBF with my cousin and we both adore Michael Buckley’s
Sister Grimm Series so immediately
after the opening panel we made our way to his panel. Alright, let’s be honest
here: through this panel I gained a bit of an author crush on Michael Buckley.
He is such a great guy and I could have listened to him talk for hours. He
talked about many things, including his career. He said that he once entered
and won a joke contest in MAD magazine with the joke: “why did the monkey fall
out of the tree? Because it was dead.” What did he win? Well, technically, he
won Eddie Murphy. Apparently they shipped the comedian to his house and they
got to hang out for a day. They went to the local mall and mocked people
because there wasn’t much else to do in his small town. Buckley said he was
drawn to the “musicality of language.” He also talked about how he lives in
Brooklyn and that one “could throw a rock out of a Brooklyn window and hit a kid
lit author” that’s how many live in his neighborhood. He also admitted to
stalking Libba Bray once (who can blame him?).
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| Me and Michael Buckley |
Later during the
signing part of the day, his line was also the first line we stood for. When I
met him I told him how one of my pages at work said I was the older version of
his character Daphne. He agreed that it was a huge compliment since she is very
friendly and full of hope! He also mentioned that Laura is his sister’s name! I
asked him for a photo and when I went behind the table for it he asked me what
we should do for the picture. I replied, “Smile?” His response? “Nah, that’s what
normal people do! Let’s do this!” Hence the picture above!
The
next panel Kelly and I went to was Julie Kagawa’s. She is the author of the
Iron Fey series. She did a joint Q&A panel with Katie McGarry, author of
the Pushing the Limits series. I have never read any of McGarry’s books but I
enjoyed their panel immensely. The two authors have been friends for a while
and their easy banter was amusing to witness. They talked about their writing
processes and how they differed and what to do about writer’s block (skip it,
talk to friends, or power through it). McGarry also said that she suffers from
the “severe shiny object syndrome” in that she gets a new idea and then has to
fight not to chase it when she’s in the middle of writing something else. I
thought that was a very appropriate phrase!
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| Me and Julie Kagawa |
During
the signing part of the day I met both authors. I talked to Julie Kagawa and
told her how much I enjoyed her series. I also got the photo above. I honestly
had no idea that she was hugging me like that until I looked at the photo on
the way home! She was so cool! I didn’t have a book of Katie McGarry’s but I
did have her TBF poster which she signed for me!
After
eating a quick lunch we went to the “Crime Scene” panel hosted by Jennifer Lynn
Barnes, Charles Benoit, and April Henry. I didn’t know Henry’s work, but I had recently
read Barnes series The Naturals, and I
had read Benoit’s You back in 2011
and met him at that year’s TBF (my first one). I was extremely interested in
April Henry’s research methods. She once took a course on anti-kidnapping to
research a novel. The final exam involved actually being kidnapped and then
being graded on how well they escaped.
Each of the authors
also talked about how they get through writer’s block. Charles Benoit’s answer
was simple, but effective. He stops writing in the middle of a word. So that he
already knows what he has to write next because he knows that at the very least
he has to finish that word, then the sentence, then the whole thought. Both
April Henry and Jennifer Lynn Barnes had three ways each to combat writer’s
block. Henry would think about what she couldn’t let happen in the book and
worked from there, she would pick a random line of dialogue from something and
plug it in her book to see what would happen, and if that didn’t work she would
go on Write or Die, a helpful website that starts deleting words if you stop
writing. Barnes’ first step would be to figure out if she had written the wrong
thing. She would figure out what led her to that block, go back and fix it, then
try again. She also said that sometimes she would get stuck because she wasn’t
being nice to herself. She would be working too much and forgetting to live a
little. If that happened she would just take a night off and watch TV. Her last
step was to realize once again that writing is hard and it is supposed to be.
When that happened she would call her author friends and they would talk about
how hard it was and she would feel better. When things got really bad she would
set simple goals for the amount of words written, like after 500 words she can
eat a snack or take a shower.
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| Me and Jennifer Lynn Barnes |
The photo above was
taken of me and Jennifer Lynn Barnes before their panel started. I also met her
during the signing part of the day. She asked me if I had guessed who the
killer was in The Naturals and I confessed
that I didn’t which is one of the reasons I loved it so much.
It is during the
signing part of the day that the true wonder of the Teen Book Festival is
revealed. The authors will sign as many books as you want, they will talk to
you, and take pictures with you. They are treated like rock stars at TBF. I was
talking to Kevin Emerson as an announcement came over the PA asking someone to
report to the DJ stand and he said, “What kind of book festival has a DJ
booth?! I love this place!” During this part of the day the door prizes are
given away. This year each winner won 10 books, most of them old ARCs or
finished copies of popular books! Between my cousin and I, we won 30 books! (I
will be having a contest for some of those books later in the month!) I also
met and talked with M.T. Anderson, author of Feed during the signing, as pictured
below!
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| Me and M.T. Anderson |
As I said earlier
everyone at TBF was really nice. Every time Kelly or I were called over the PA
the people behind us would gladly hold our spot in the signing line. The third
time we won, we gave the girls who saved our spot their choice of the books we
had won! Everyone there is a reader so it was like a giant nerdy party! If you
ever have the chance I encourage you to make your way to Rochester to the
greatest festival in the YA world.
(Authors that I met at TBF that I did not get
pictures with: Charles Benoit, Kevin Emerson, April Henry, Jo Knowles, Emmy
Laybourne, Katie McGarry, and Jennifer Niven.)
~Laura!
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