Anderson's YA Conference

Anderson's Bookshop 14th Annual Young Adult Literature Conference 

Saturday, November 4th, 2017

Hilton Lisle/Naperville Illinois

8:00Am-4:00 P.M.

Some of the awesome Authors I met yesterday!

I had the privilege yesterday of attending Anderson's Bookshops 14th Annual YA Literature Conference for authors, librarians, educators and fans. It was so awesome!

First of all I got to sit at a table with two authors for breakfast, keynote speakers, and lunch! I can’t tell you how cool it is to sit and talk books, writing, travel, plays, tv shows, movies, and more with someone that you admire. It’s even more awesome when you realize that they like the same stuff as you! Who knew that my knowledge of the DC/Marvel universe and Supernatural would come in handy lol! 

My co worker and I were lucky enough to get to sit next to Morgan Rhodes (author of the Falling Kingdom series) and Veronica Chambers (author of The Go Between, and many other wonderful books). Both women were incredibly nice. I snagged a copy of both of their books at the conference and will be reading and reviewing them soon! 

There were 4 keynote speakers this year, Sara Shepard (author of The Pretty Little Liars series and more), Adam Silvera (author of "More Happy Than Not", "They Both Die In The End" and more), Nicola Yoon (author of 'Everything, Everything and more) and Ryan Graudin (author of Wolf by Wolf series and "Invictus" . I loved them all. 

Nicola Yoon, you inspire me to read more diverse books. To be a supporter of humans first and put all of the race, gender, etc stuff second. To encourage hope in all. Your speech meant something to everyone in the room! You go girl!  

Sara Shepard, I didn’t know I could relate to you as well as I did. The Pretty Little Liars books have been on my list of books to read for so long, and now that I’ve heard you speak I have to read at least one. I love the Pretty Little Liars TV show and now I really want to go back and find you in those two episodes! I can really relate to having teachers and librarians who inspired me throughout the years. Koodos to you for staying so close to some of them and being able to share your stories about them. As a librarian/teacher I hope that I’m making a difference in kids life as well, just like those inspirations did for you. I can also relate to having weird awkward stages and needing time to find out who I was. I’m glad you had a teacher who was willing to give you a journal and time to figure out who you were. I never had someone like that, but kind of wish that I did. Thank you for speaking!

Ryan Graudin, you seem like a kindred spirit. I too have a dire wolf like dog. Mine is more like Ghost though. And I also had that Disaster book growing up. It was one of my favorites, especially the Titanic information! It was so interesting hearing you speak about some of your travels and how they inspired your writing. I love traveling and if I could figure out how to write a novel I’d love to use my experiences in it. It seems like a lot of your adventures relate to understanding others and their cultures and situations which I think is so amazing. While I like to think that I could do a trip like you described, I don’t think I’d have the courage to go to the extremes that you do. I do however also have a husband that gets us into strange situations. When he says hey lets try this path while hiking… well lets just say we’ve definitely had some interesting adventures and have met some interesting people that way. The way you described Invictus as a mix between Firefly and Doctor Who peaked my interest and I’ll definitely be picking it up to read soon! 

Adam Silvera, I was about halfway through with your book “More Happy Than Not” when I heard you speak. Shit! Your speech gave that book so much more meaning now! You really are an inspiration and role model. First off, I love fan fiction. That is I love reading it. I don’t think I have the courage or skill to ever write it, but who knows. Maybe someday I’ll give it a shot. I’m definitely thinking of using it as a future writing program for teens where I work though. It was awesome to hear you say that fan fiction was kind of where you got started writing. There are tons of teens in my town who will probably never go to college. If they’re lucky, maybe they’ll go to a trade school. I like to try to make it known to them that that’s ok. They are still someone no matter how much schooling they’ve had. You sir, are proof of that. We also proudly support our LGBTQ community where I work, and we try to let our teens know that no matter what they are (race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. wise) they’re all equals, and they’re all welcome. Thank you for being you, and having the courage to tell your story. Your tattoos are awesome by the way! I want an compass/arrow to remind me to follow my arrow where ever it may point.

Throughout the day there were also breakout sessions with groups of different authors. While I wish that I could have attended all of them, I only got to pick 3. I went to the Love and Contemporary one, the Thriller, Mystery, and Chiller one, and the Sci-Fi one. All were really great! It was so interesting to hear how each group writes a book (romance writers don’t really use outlines, while Thriller writers usually did), what they use for inspiration (their own kids, music, podcasts, real life crime stories, science, etc.), what kind of research they do (shooting ranges, talking to astrophysicists, riding motorcycles, going to body farms, etc), and more. The lightning round questions they were asked were a riot. It seems like most authors would like to live in a Harry Potter story and during a zombie apocalypse would either like Jamie from Outlander or one of the Harry Potter characters by their sides. 

Overall, I had a ton of fun mingling with YA authors and learning about… well all things YA lit. I even managed to get 4 books signed. (I would have loved to get one from every single author there but I didn’t have enough money.) I also came away with a huge, and I mean huge list of books that I need to read! Hopefully I’ll get to some of them soon and have reviews up for you guys. If you’re a fan of YA and you’re ever in Illinois near the beginning of November/end of October you should check out the YA Conference! You won’t regret it! 

Here are the books I got signed at the conference...

 

And here is a list of the authors that were at the conference…

Keynotes: Sara Shepard, Adam Silvera, Nicola Yoon and Ryan Graudin

Panel Authors: Ann Brashares, Crystal Cestari, Elly Blake, Kim Turrisi, Ryan Graudin, Wendy Brant, Jessie Ann Foley, Kerri Maniscalco, Katie Kennedy, Kayla Ancrum, Jessica Taylor, Julie C. Dao, Morgan Rhodes, Peter Bognanni, Traci Chee, Jared Reck, Jessica Cluess, Julie Buxbaum, Kara Thomas, M.C. Atwood, Marit Weisenberg, Tara Goedjen, Veronica Chambers, Samira Ahmed, Steve Schafer, Gabrielle Prendergast, Lisa Maxwell, Lynn Weingarten, Margaret Rogerson, Michelle Hodkin, Peternelle van Arsdale, Amy Reed, Carrie Jones, Julia Keller, Heather Maclean,  Stephanie Strohm, Livia Blackburne & Daria Polatin.