July Wrap-Up and YALLFest News

Well to say that I didn't get much done in the month of July is kind of putting it lightly. But I have an excuse! I had two finals for my summer classes within a couple of weeks of each other and in the end, I only ended up finishing one book (The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen) and starting one other book (The Death Cure by James Dashner) this month. And on top of my summer classes ending, I had to help plan my family vacation to Disney World (which will be this weekend!) and finish my paperwork for my internship and yeah July just was not a good reading month for me. I may or may not have found myself in another reading slump, which will hopefully be broken by my 12 hour drive to and from Florida this coming week.

However I do have some good news! I'm planning on going to YALLFest, which is Charleston, South Carolina's, young adult book festival. It'll be held on November 9, 2013, and it's a one day shindig in one of my favorite cities and admission is absolutely free. There are going to be 50 young adult authors there (among the list are Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia of Beautiful Creatures fame and Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss) along with a keynote speaker, who will be Veronica Roth this year. Yes. THE Veronica Roth! As in the author of the Divergent series (the last book of the trilogy, Allegiant, is set to release October 22 of this year). Her book signing is going to be a huge even in and of itself especially with the first book of the series, Divergent, getting it's own movie next year. On top of that, this is one of my favorite series at the moment, so I will definitely be bringing my own copies for her to sign at the event and yes I am fangirling over the thought of just meeting her (but only a little).

A more complete and detailed description of when, where, and who will be attending YALLFest can be found here if you're interested in learning more about the event.

I've never been to a convention or book festival of any kind before, so this should be a wonderful and exciting new experience for me and I absolutely cannot wait!