I tend to take spur-of-the-moment last-minute decision trips. The usually turn out to be my most memorable and favorite trips. Yallfest 2017 was exactly this kind of trip. I made the last minute decision to go (as in I was at work Wednesday night and thought 'what the heck, it's only a couple hours away'). This meant some quick decision making and planning on my part about where I would stay and what exactly I would do. I made a list of all the authors attending the festival (also while I was at work - a highly unproductive night) and I compared that list to my catalog of books that I owned to see if I owned anything by any of the authors attending. I knew a few names and knew that there were a couple books that I had but had not read. The part that solidified my decision to make the trip however, fell upon a Danielle Page. I didn't know her name off my list but I definitely recognized her books. She's the author of the Dorothy Must Die series, a series that I loved. I couldn't pass on the opportunity to meet her and get my books signed.
Thursday I spent more time than I should've planning the trip, getting my books organized to take with me, doing laundry so I could have fresh clothes to take with me, and cleaning out my car. In order to save money and not get a hotel room, I made the choice to sleep in my car. I knew it was suppose to be cooler Friday night (as in 40s) so I was pretty confident that I wouldn't have too many issues sleeping in the car - heck I'd done it before. I tried to get enough sleep before going to work that night but I was too nervous and excited. This was a little odd because I rarely get so nervous or excited for anything. When I went to see Hanson in concert (my childhood favorite band) I wasn't this nervous or excited and when I took the trip to Raleigh to meet my doctor, Mr David Tennant from Doctor Who, I didn't get nervous or excited until I was heading through the doors of the convention center. Let's just say my expectations were high for this trip and I wasn't exactly sure why; it wasn't like I'd been to the festival before. I've never even been to Charleston before.
Running on only 4 hours of sleep, I was able to make it through my 8 hour shift with the help of a large McDonald's coffee with a double shot of espresso added. I came home, took a shower, and laid down for a quick 45 minute power nap before leaving for the 3 hour drive down to Charleston, SC. The trip was uneventful and I aired on the side of caution due to the back struts being bad on my car and it needing new tires. I brought every camera I owned and vlogged the whole trip, see below:
I arrived Friday a little after noon and rushed to find my first author's line. Friday is called Yallcrawl where some of the authors show up for early signings which allows you to take advantage of something else on Saturday such as a panel or keynote. I waited patiently in line for Becky Albertalli who wrote Simon vs the Homosapien's Agenda and The Upside of Unrequited both books that I owned but had never read. I was too nervous to talk to her so we had an awkward signing but she seemed really nice. Afterwards, I made my way to Blue Bicycle Books which were the hosts of the festival. There I picked up a signed copy of The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas and an unsigned copy of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Neither book had I read but I'd heard great things about both. I tried to get a hardcover copy of The Yellow Brick War to complete my Dorothy Must Die Series but the shop only had the paperback. I would rather have all my books in a series be of the same type and my other three in the series are all hardcover. A tad disappointed, I headed over to Danielle Page's line. Her line was shorter and moved quite quickly. She was super nice and now I was a little more comfortable so we talked a little bit about her Dorothy Must Die series and I got my picture taken with her.
By this time, all of the caffeine in my system had slowly drained away and I was getting tired. I also hadn't ate all day and I was starving. I was craving pizza but as hungry as I was, I was worried I might pick some local pizza place who didn't have good pizza (plus I didn't want to keep paying the outrages parking prices $1.00 per half hour? What is this New York City?) so I quickly pulled up the nearest Pizza Hut and navigated traffic to get there. Ordering online had the added bonus of being 50% off so I was feeling good about this decision. I took my large stuffed crust pizza to the nearest Walmart and hunkered down for the night. Oh car camping. To give you an idea, I have a 2 door Dodge Stratus - not ideal for car camping. Now picture my 260lb self trying to get comfortable lying half in the trunk with the backseats laid down. Not nice at all. I ended up bringing my sleeping bag up to the front passenger seat and laying the seat all the way down. I was parked a ways away from the actual store and it was no time before other cars started trickling in to do exactly what I was - spend the night in our vehicles. I actually felt safer with these other people around and it was comforting to know I wasn't the only one who thought this was a viable and reasonable option.
Saturday morning I woke up with the sun (after about 10 hours of sleep - could you tell I was tired) and I headed back to the downtown area. My plan was to hit up an arc (advanced reader's copy) drop before getting in line for Marissa Meyers signing which started my list of author signings I wanted to get to before doing anything else. I wanted to get signatures from Marissa Meyers, Sabaa Tahir, Veronica Roth, Jeff Zentmer, and Lauren Oliver because I had missed all of them the day before. When I got there and saw the crowd of people...well let's just say I had a moment of panic.
I picked up my first two arcs before I got in line for Marissa Meyers and I enjoyed the experience of receiving something for free that very few people owned and it was also something that wasn't publicly available yet. I spent the entire hour and a half in line for Marissa Meyers watching people jump from one booth to the next getting different arcs and I just wanted to be one of them. It was only when the line started moving did I realize that I could've spent that time reading Renegades, Marissa Meyers new book that I had bought Thursday morning. I hadn't read any of her books but I had heard that her Lunar Chronicles series was pretty good and she seemed to be a popular author. Those of us in her line were given bracelets - well the first 200 people were given bracelets. I was able to get through the prologue and part of the first chapter of Renegades before I was up. I really enjoyed what I had read so far of it and I told her as much as she signed the black page in beautiful silver ink. We had a nice chat about other books I'm reading and I got my picture taken with her as well.
Instead of moving on to my next author, I made a slit decision to jump into a line for an arc. I didn't know which book was dropping but I jump in line anyways. I was hooked then. I spend the rest of the day standing in various lines for books that I knew nothing about other than the fact that they were all advanced copies. At the end of the day I ended up with 6 signed books, 5 arcs, and a crap-ton (yes it is a word) of other swag. I ended up with so much that I made a separate video just to keep the time down.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Yallfest and I will most definitely be planning ahead for 2018. I'm pretty sure a hotel room will be in order next year as well as making a request for a day off on Thursday (if not Sunday too!) If you want to be updated on the progress and reviews of the arcs that I received, subscribe to my Youtube Channel because that was one of the dominate ideas that popped into my head as I stood in ridiculously long lines on Saturday. I am planning on doing reading vlogs for each arc I received as well as a quick review. Until next time,
Song of the Day:
Welcome Home by Radical Face
Movie of the Day:
Megan Leavey
