Teen Book Con!

Sooo this past weekend, I headed down to Houston for the Teen Book Con, which was seriously amazing! It had a phenomenal line up, with 17 authors-- including Deb Caletti as the keynote-- plus several graphic novelists. I had such a fun time! I went with my best friend and Mary Lindsey, and the three of us most certainly had our share of laughs throughout the day. Kelli and I crashed at Mary's the night before, so the poor awesome woman was stick with me for like an entire day. Baha sucker! =)  Then we got up, got some breakfast, and headed off to the con!

Deb's keynote speech was beautiful, and from there the day was divided up into 4 different panel slots. The first we went to was the paranormal one, called Here There Be Ghosts... and Werewolves and Everything Else! It was made up of Andrea Cremer, Rachel Hawkins, Joy Preble, Stacey Kade and Joy Preble. These ladies are a fantastic bunch, and it was a blast to see them play off each other and answer questions together!

Then it was lunch time, and off to more panels! We hit up the Guys Write Great Stuff panel next, with Brent Crawford, RA Nelson, Brian Yanskey, and Blake Nelson. I didn't get a picture at this one, and we had a hard time hearing them, but they were funny and it was definitely interesting.

From there we hit up The Lighter Side, with Some Bumps Along the Way, which was a contemp panel with Lindsey Leavitt, Deb Caletti, Stephanie Perkins, and Kristen Tracy. These ladies were downright hysterical and this might have been the one I enjoyed the most. Definitely a toss up between this and the paranormal.

And from there, it was off to A Walk on the Dark Side, featuring Ellen Hopkins, Gail Giles, Lauren Myracle, and Elizabeth Scott. This was definitely a really interesting panel too, and all of them were mostly audience based for questions. It was awesome seeing what all the teens had to ask, and their comments for it all!

 (Sorry for the blurry photos. The camera was having an off day...)

After the panels was the signing lines... and yes, this chick most definitely hit up every. Single. One. I spent a ton that day, but it was SO worth it. And I am pretty sure that this weekend is when I got the single most fantastic book inscription I have yet to receive, from none other than Andrea Cremer:

Yes. That does say "Ren does good things in the closet."  Best. Inscription. Ever. I am so glad Andrea supports my Boy Closet and yes, Ren is most definitely stashed away in there in all his hot, cocky, alpha male amazingness.

But I had a fantastic time meeting all the authors, and I even got almost all of them to sign my awesome orange chucks! I would photograph those but the signatures never show up quite right. But suffice it to say, they are getting fantastically full. I might be needing a new pair soon... 

And then after the convention, Kelli, Mary and I headed to Hungry's for dinner with some a few other bloggers and had a fantastic time talking books and more!

(Left to right is Stacy, Mary, Kelli, me, Shannon and Jennifer. Stephanie was taking the picture...)

But that was the awesomeness that was Teen Book Con! Certainly an exhausting day, but WELL worth it! Here's some of my pictures with authors:

 Andrea Cremer

 Brent Crawford

 Lindsey Leavitt

 Stacey Kade

 Rachel Hawkins

 Deb Caletti

Saundra Mitchell

And because I think this picture is adorable, here's imprint sisters Andrea Cremer and Mary Lindsey. Philomel rocks!

And once I got home, and finally lugged all my new books upstairs, it was Toby torment time! Though I admit, it took a few sleepy beagle sneak attacks to get all these photos. These are all signed, but I'm entirely too lazy to take pictures of every inscription. I brought a bunch of books from home, but made it through all 17 signing lines in the allotted hour thanks to Mary and Kelli! Mary parked herself at a table and put all my books in stacks by authors, and then Kelli stood in the longer lines for me. Team work FTW!