The North Texas Teen Book Festival was Overwhelming but Fun #nttbf17

So, I went to the North Texas Teen Book Festival for the first time Saturday and I have to admit, it was pretty exciting. The only other book festival I went to before was the Texas Teen Book Festival and that didn’t hold a spark compared to this one. I thought that the NTTBF was going to be a bit smaller in scale because it only covered a small portion of Texas, but surprisingly the turnout was big. The convention center that it took place in was PACKED. I had never seen so many people in one place just for books.

The best part of the whole event (other than meeting my favorite authors) was meeting so many nice people and getting excited with strangers I’ll probably never see again. Everyone was so welcoming and understanding, but didn’t take crap from anyone. If you cut in line, you bet your shiny dollar that someone is going to pull you out and tell you to go to the back.

So, my Saturday started off with me waking up 30 minutes before my alarm because I was so excited. I haven’t done that before in YEARS. That proved just how much I was hyped for the festival. I wanted to get to the convention at 7:00 am in order to grab a ticket to meet R.L. Stine, which they were giving out at 8:00. My plan was to get up at 5:30, leave at 6:30, and get there by 7:00. However, that wasn’t what happened. Even though I woke up early, I didn’t get out of bed until 5:45. That made me only a couple minutes late from my planned schedule, but it didn’t affect me much because when I got to the convention, the line for the tickets to meet R.L. Stine was surprisingly short. It was only after I got in line when a whole hoard of people came.

It was about 50° F when I was standing outside in line, so I was cold. (You have to remember, I’m from the southern part of the US, so we don’t really get cold weather often over here.) Everyone was shivering, but I struck up a nice conversation with some college students behind me. And by having a conversation, I mean they talked and I listened because I was too shy to say anything. After an hour of standing in line in the cold, they finally started passing out tickets, and thankfully I got one.

The inside of the convention center was GLORIOUS. It was warm (thank goodness) and it was beautiful. I’m sad I didn’t take any pictures of the building.

Once I got inside, I went to the book sales area because there was a rule that for every two books you bring, you have to buy one. Thankfully, because I got there early, I was able to get the books that I wanted before they sold out. Then, I went up to catch the 9:00 panel with R.L. Stine but was too late. I wasn’t too deterred because there was a YA fantasy panel at 10:00 with some of my favorite authors. It was right when I was about to go up to the fourth floor was I saw Jesse from Jessethereader on YouTube. I was super fangirly and asked to take a picture with him. He was super nice about it though. I could tell he was a bit overwhelmed from the sheer size of the event, just like I was.

After that awkward encounter, I went to the room where the YA panel was going to take place. Because I got to there early, I was able to get a pretty good seat. Sadly, my picture of the panel was crappy.

(from left to right): Sara Roberts (moderator), Victoria Aveyard, Kristin Hubbard, Marie Lu, Veronica Roth, Jessica Shrivington, Amy Tintera

My friend finally joined me and we watched the panel, which was funny and insightful.

After the panel ended, we went down back to the book sale to get my friend some books. Afterwards, we went back up to wait in line to go to the BookTuber panel.

(from left to right): Sara Roberts (moderator), Whitney Atkinson (WhittyNovels), Regan Perusse (PeruseProject), Sarah “Lizzie” Christoffel (LizzieLovesBooks), Naya Perkins (NayaReadsandSmiles), Jesse George (JesseTheReader)  

This panel was super fun to watch. It was strange to see people than I only see on screen right there in real life.

Afterwards, the BookTubers went outside in the foyer to do sort of a meet-and-greet. I got to take pictures with them and talk to them for a minute or two.

We went to stand in line to meet the authors after we met all the BookTubers and the line was already through the building and outside. We stood in line at 1:00, and the signings started at 3:30.

After the long wait, my friend and I got to meet some amazing authors. They signed my books and I took pictures with them (below).

(from left to right): Jesse (JesseTheReader), Angie Thomas, Whitney (WhittyNovels), Adam Silvera, R.L. Stine, Marie Lu, Kami Garcia, Regan (PeruseProject), Naya (NayaReadsandSmiles)

(I covered my face because I looked so awkward in all the photos.)

It was a long day. I was out and about for 10 hours, meeting the people I admire as well as meeting new people.

I’ve got to admit, my arms got a workout on Saturday. Lugging around eight books plus a backpack was tiring. Now my muscles are sore, but it was totally worth it

Stay weird and awesome!