132,585
edits
Changes
Jim Dean Talks To Bookbag About The UK's First Ever YA Literature Convention (view source)
Revision as of 09:05, 14 July 2014
, 09:05, 14 July 2014no edit summary
Much of the talk afterwards was about McGowan's criticism of fans of [[The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins]] and advice for them to live in the real world, with Lake pointing out that it perhaps wasn't the best audience for that comment! (In fairness to Anthony, who I'm a big fan of, people who were there suggested he was rather playing devil's advocate to make the panel more interesting, but perhaps misjudged things slightly.) As a huge fan of [[Hostage Three by Nick Lake]], I was thrilled to meet him briefly on Saturday night, along with the awesome [[:Category:Phil Earle|Phil Earle]], author of the wonderful [[The Bubble-Wrap Boy by Phil Earle|The Bubble-Wrap Boy]], and wished I could have made it to this panel. The convention as a whole was also slightly quieter on Sunday, which I found to be something of a relief!
As well as the brilliant panels (other authors I haven't had a chance to mention who took part included Waterstones Teen prize-winner [[:Category:Holly Smale|Holly Smale]], horror authors [[:Category:Charlie Higson|Charlie Higson]], [[:Category:Will Hill|Will Hill]], [[:Category:Derek Landy|Derek Landy]] and [[:Category:Darren Shan|Darren Shan]] in what looked like an amazing discussion, and US star [[:Category:Holly Black|Holly Black]] in conversation with Carnegie medal-winner - for Bookbag favourite [[Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner|Maggot Moon]] Sally Gardner) there were also nearly a dozen workshops held over the two days. As you'd expect, with advice on hand from the likes of [[:Category:Kim Curran|Kim Curran]], [[:Category:Lucy Christopher|Lucy Christopher]], author of [[The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher|The Killing Woods]], and [[:Category:Bryony Pearce|Bryony Pearce]], the workshops were all oversubscribed and you had to be picked at random to get in. I was lucky enough to be chosen for two, tips and tricks on planning and writing a YA novel, delivered by [[:Category:CJ Skuse|CJ Skuse]], and [[:Category:Alexia Casale|Alexia Casale's]] session on finding your writing voice. The workshops were one of the few things I think need to be improved on for future events - they were crying out for a quiet space (although I appreciate there was almost certainly little the YALC organisers could do about this due to the amount of other stuff going on for LFCC.) It was a real strain to hear at times and while this was partly alleviated by the excellent handouts both authors had prepared, it was rather frustrating.
There were also plenty of opportunities to get books signed by authors (and I have to say that, looking at the prices being paid for autographs from guests at the main part of LFCC, it was great that they were free at YALC!) although I was so busy and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people I wanted to talk to that I didn't take the chance to do so myself. Lots of my friends did, though, and were thrilled to get books signed and have photos taken with authors. I know the Rainbow Rowell queue was so massive that it had to be closed, and I believe [[:Category:Marcus Sedgwick|Marcus Sedgwick]] was unable to sign due to illness; I think signings for the other 50 or so authors went really smoothly, though - an impressive success rate!