Epic Book Fest Weekend

Obviously, I read. A lot. And so does my sister. So a couple of weeks ago, naturally, we did what any insane book lover would do: We drove 4 hours to the Baltimore Book Festival, and then the next day drove to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. What (or who) made us, you might ask, road trip it to these events? For me, it was three people: David Levithan, Libba Bray and Judy Blume. David and Libba are two of my favorite YA authors and I, along with thousands of other teenaged girls in years past, have loved Judy Blume for a long time.

David and Libba appeared on a panel of five YA authors in Baltimore. It was called “Coming of Age: Love, Rage & Anxiety in the Young Adult Novel.” The other authors were Sharon M. Draper, Garret Freymann-Weyr, and Edward Bloor. It was such a wonderful event, and all of the authors (though I haven’t read something from all of them) were great.

Now,  before the event began, my sister and I made it to the tent, and she said, “Is that Libba Bray?” I slowly looked around and I saw that, yes, it was her. She was wearing her trademark Converse, of course. Then I proceeded to freak out and say, “I can’t do this! I’m not cool enough to meet Libba Bray!” Once she finished talking to someone, I decided to go up to her in case there wouldn’t be enough time later that night. I said something about not wanting to interrupt her and she was like, “I’m twittering. Clearly, that’s very important.” We chatted for a few minutes, about her appearing here at The Paperbag Writer on her blog tour and our mutual love of Douglas Adams and Converse. Can I please get something out of my system now: EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! I met Libba Bray! Ok, we’re done with that.

Apparently the Baltimore Book Fest is a happenin’ place, because as the panel began, David said, “It sounds like Baltimore’s fourth best hair metal band is playing now so we’ll try to talk over them. Hopefully by the end of the night, we’ll be Baltimore’s third best hair metal band. ” You could tell he and Libba are great friends because their banter was particularly funny.

Each author had a new novel out, so each talked a little bit about their’s and read an excerpt. Edward went first since no one else wanted to and read from Taken. Sharon read from two books, November Blues, and her new one, Just Another Hero. I’ll admit that I’ve never read anything from either of these writers, but my sister bought Taken (which I’m sure I’ll borrow at some point) and I enjoyed the excerpt from Sharon’s new book, too.

Garrett went next, and she seems like such a fun person. She read sitting down at the table (everyone else stood at a mike) because she didn’t want us to see her legs shaking. The first thing she said: “It feels like I’m having sex with a microphone, this is so weird!” I thought that was just an interesting first line of her new novel, Stay With Me, but it wasn’t. She just doesn’t like talking into a mike.

Libba read next and of course started off with an excerpt not from the fabulous new Going Bovine, but from a Prince song. She then continued to wow the crowd with her hilarious wit and insight into the minds of garden gnomes. David finished the reading with an excerpt from the beautiful Love is the Higher Law.

Once everyone read, David, as the moderator, asked each author which they enjoyed writing the most, love, rage, or anxiety? I honestly can’t remember all of their answers, but I know David was surprised to realize how much he enjoyed writing rage (because he has an angry character in an as-of-yet unreleased book). Libba argued that all three are interconnected, so it’s almost hard to write about one without the others. After this, the floor was open for questions.

Then the mad rush to the table with books galore ensued. All of the authors were very nice and graciously signed everything. I felt very lucky to meet all of them.

We went to DC the next day where it was just about the antithesis of Baltimore. There were tons of people and insanely long lines. We were able to see some authors speak (including Judy Blume, Jodi Picoult, and some kids authors) and my sister was able to get Nicholas Sparks’ signature before he went onstage. While it was a lot of fun and very cool to see so many great authors in one place, it wasn’t as fan-friendly, meaning you either saw authors speak or waited in their lines for a couple of hours before hand in order to guarantee a signature. It wasn’t possible to do both because of the amount of people that were there.

It was a great weekend and I’m so glad we got to go. And maybe, just a very tiny maybe, you’ll get to see me at a book fest someday. If you do, come say hi.

Finally, a couple of pictures, all taken by me.

Libba Bray

David Levithan

Judy Blume