Announcing YALC Month!

Banner by Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts

It's that time of year again! YALC 2015 will soon be upon us! Last year I hosted the YALC Readathon which I had so much fun with but a week was nowhere near enough time to read all of the books I wanted to ready for YALC and so with even more authors announced this year I decided to turn the YALC Readathon into a themed reading month.

For YALC Month the goal is simple: read as many books by authors attending YALC 2015 during July as you can! Authors attending can be found here. I know that a lot of us attending YALC have massive TBR piles and review book obligations so you do not have to read YALC books exclusively. With YALC itself happening in the middle of July this also gives us a chance to read the books we buy at YALC afterwards. I remember having a lot to get through last year!

I won't be reading YALC books exclusively in July because I have other review books I need to get to so I'd like to read at least 5 books for YALC Month and I have a great pile to choose from. What do you recommend I pick from this pile?

To sign up share your intention to join us either on your Blog, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Goodreads and share the link to your post in the linky below. If you'd also like to share the banner, your TBR or goals for the month then please do, although this isn't mandatory. When talking about the event on social media please use the hashtag #YALCMonth so we can all follow each others updates and progress! I hope you want to join me in reading YALC books throughout July! If you do please sign up here

YALC Readathon Guest Post: My Big Fat Imaginary Production Company by Cat Clarke

I can't believe that this little readathon project that I've been plotting for months is nearly over! But fear not! We have a whole weekend of reading ahead of us and I intend to make the most of it.

I hope that by now you've all had chance to read some excellent books and that you'll be trying to squeeze in as many more pages as you can during this last leg of the readathon. No matter how much or how little you've read I hope that you've been having a lot of fun!

My YALC author guest today is Cat Clarke. With YALC taking place at London Film and Comic Con, Cat is going to be talking about which books she'd choose to adapt if she owned her own production company. I'm always casting actors as characters in my head as I read so it's nice to know that authors do this too with their own books and other peoples!

MY BIG FAT IMAGINARY PRODUCTION COMPANY by Cat Clarke 

I often get asked if I’m going to turn any of my books into a movie, and every time I get this question, I sigh a little wistful sigh. I wish it were that easy. I think most writers would love to see their books on the big screen, but unfortunately it’s completely, totally 100% outside of our control. But now that I’m in charge of an imaginary production company, the power is MINE, ALL MINE. MWAHAHAHAHA.

Obviously I’ll have to start by adapting one of my own books into a film. The first one that springs to mind is a novel that’s coming out next year, but that’s cheating, right? So I think I’m going to go with TORN. There are a couple of scenes in particular that I would love to see on film, but I’ll be vague to avoid spoilers: the scene in the cave and Tara’s demise (and immediate aftermath). Oh, and I’d love to see Jack on the big screen, mostly because he’s the most adorable character I’ve ever written.

OK, now that the TORN movie is in the works, there are a few YA books I’d like to tackle right away. Some of my favourites have already been/are already being made into movies (Grasshopper Jungle springs to mind), but there are some gems I’d love to get my hands on…

1.) THIS IS NOT A TEST – Courtney Summers. I recently saw Courtney describing this book as ‘The Walking Dead meets The Breakfast Club’. If that’s not enough to make you want to see this movie, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.
2.) FIREBRAND – Gillian Philip. I reckon I’d need a big budget to do this one justice, but I think this could be the first in an epic fantasy series.
3.) CRUEL SUMMER – James Dawson. This movie would be a total riot. Definitely one for a raucous late night showing on a Friday. I suspect I’d also like to make a movie of SAY HER NAME, but I’ve yet to get my grubby little mitts on a copy so I can’t say for sure. I’ll definitely be nabbing this book at YALC.
4.) IMAGINARY GIRLS – Nova Ren Suma. Oh boy, this would be SUCH a cool film. Creepy as hell and achingly beautiful too.
5.) Every single Christopher Pike book ever written. Nuff said.

Would anybody like to volunteer to be my Imaginary Casting Director? Because if the casting were left to me, I’d somehow find a way to shoehorn the entire cast of Game of Thrones into every one of these movies. Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) as Jack in TORN, perhaps? (OK, don’t answer that.)

Sigh. Now I feel sad that my production company is just a figment of my imagination. If any high-powered, fancy-schmancy movie-making people happen to be reading this … PLEASE MAKE THESE MOVIES NOW! I promise I’ll come and watch every single one on their opening weekends.

Thanks for sharing Cat! Personally I would LOVE to see This Is Not a Test and Cruel Summer on the big screen. It's a real shame that we don't have ALL OF THE POWER and can't turn cinema into one big YA love-fest *sighs* maybe one day. I'm sure there's got to be *someone* we can talk to about this at YALC.

Cat will be appearing at YALC on Sunday 13th July 

Free this weekend? It's not too late to sign up for the YALC Readathon! Why not join us for the last two days and read some fantastic books? Sign up here!

YALC Readathon Guest Post: When authors meet other (more famous) authors by Holly Bourne

Hi guys! We're on day three of the readathon now and I hope that you're all making great progress with your TBR piles. If not, no worries! We still have another four days to go which includes a weekend so keep calm and read on!

Speaking of keeping calm my YALC Readathon guest today is the lovely Holly Bourne who is going to be talking about her experience meeting an author she admires and sharing some tips on how to keep your cool.

I'm going to be meeting some of my all-time favourite authors during YALC. It'll only be my third book signing and so some tips on how to not get too overwhelmed by it all could not be more welcome!

Here's Holly to talk about her experience including what it feels like to be on the other side of that signing table...

When authors meet other (more famous) authors by Holly Bourne 

I don't want to sound anti-social but... I find meeting readers scary. Like, really scary.

I LOVE it, but I also spend the build-up to any author event hyperventilating into a bag and sweating all over the floor.

There is SO much to worry about. In my case:
• Swearing
• Spelling someone's name wrong when signing a book
• Spelling my own name wrong when signing a book (this has happened three times)
• Not being 'nice' enough - if people have gone to all this trouble of meeting you, what if you're not the person they want you to be?
• Etc...etc...etc... thus all the sweat.

It never occurred to me that it's equally nerve-wracking to be on the other side - the reader side. That was, until, I got to meet one of my own writing heroes recently.

EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert is a marmite book. If you love it, perhaps that's because it's like a heat-seeking missile that finds its way into your life exactly when you need it. When I was 24 and a miserable news reporter I picked up an old copy in an Oxfam shop and read it within a few days. It changed my life.

Within a month or two, I'd quit my job to go travelling, just like she did. While travelling, I stood on top of a mountain, feeling all deep and meaningful and a bit like Kevin Spacey at the end of American Beauty, and had a very profound thought I'll never forget:

"Holly, go home and write that book you've been thinking about writing."

Four years later, that book is on bookshelves. My life has changed considerably and for the better. Last month I got to meet the woman partly responsible for all that happening. Elizabeth Gilbert was coming to London to do a talk, and I got tickets to see and meet her.

Holly meeting Elizabeth Gilbert

It was so weird going through the process from the other side after only ever being on the 'author' side of these events and it came with its own set of anxieties:

• How early do you need to go to get a good seat?
• Whereabouts do you even sit? Isn't it too keen to go right at the front? But you ARE KEEN!
• Do I look too much like a crazy fan? Oh God, I'm at the front of the queue, I do!
• What the hell do I say to her? Do I tell her I'm a writer too? Or will that annoy her because I'm making it about me? Will I come across OK? Will she even remember me?
• Will it annoy her that my book is a secondhand copy?
• What if her talk is crap? What if I don't like her? Will that ruin the book for me?

It was oddly surreal when she walked into the room - suddenly I was sharing the same breathing space as the person who wrote those words. This person, who has no idea I exist or how her words and story have touched me, was now inhaling the same oxygen.

Of course, Elizabeth was WONDERFUL and her talk was everything I wanted it to be. Then for the really scary part, actually meeting her. WHAT DO YOU SAY?

For me, it all happened in a rushed blur. I blurted out: "Your book changed my life, and now I'm an author too. Thank you so much."

I waited for her to roll her eyes, or look at me as if I was bonkers, or both. Instead, she asked all sorts of questions: 'What's it called? What's it about?' And she looked pretty darn happy when I said her other book, COMMITTED, provided a lot of the research for SOULMATES. She finished by high-fiving me and saying 'ROCK ON.'

It's fair to say, my literary crush is now fully fledged. But despite the good vibes, I still left in a state of worry. Had I made a fool out of myself? Should I have said what I did? Should I have asked for a photo? Damnit! I should've asked for a photo! Did she enjoy meeting me? Will she remember me? Or do I just fade into the long line of fans?

That's when I remembered what it's like on the author side of the table, and how it feels to meet your readers. Here is the essence:

• The author is just as nervous as you are, I promise.
• If you love their book, TELL THEM. That is why they wrote the book - spending thousands of hours alone in their jimjams - for people like you to tell them they loved it. You won't sound gushing, or like a strange sad fan. To the contrary, you will be making their day/week/month/year.
• Please do write your name down beforehand so the author can see it and spell it correctly. A lengthy queue of Catherines and Katherines can easily produce some embarrassingly mis-signed books.
• But that should not suggest that we won't remember you. Anyone who has ever come up and chatted to me at a signing is etched on my memory forever in the section marked 'happy place'.

So, with all that in mind, my advice to anyone coming to YALC this year to see your favourite authors is this - don't panic, enjoy every moment, and make sure you take that photo if you want one!

 Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today Holly! I think I'm going to print these tips off and take them along to YALC with me!

 Holly will be appearing at YALC on Saturday 12th July

For news on Holly's new book The Manifesto on How to be Interesting check out my exclusive reveal post here. 

 Only just heard about the YALC Readathon? There's still time to sign up here.

YALC Readathon Guest Post: Katherine Woodfine talks YALC behind the scenes

Good morning readathoners! It's day one of the YALC Readathon and I hope that you're just as excited as I am to read some amazing books this week!

Throughout the readathon myself and my co-hosts Carly, Vicky and Michelle will be sharing guest posts from the YALC authors but today to kick the readathon off I have a very special guest post from Katherine Woodfine who works at Booktrust and is part of the team putting YALC together. She's here today to talk about how YALC came about and to give us an insiders look at what it takes to organize such a big book event. Without further ado it's over to Katherine.

YALC: the story so far by Katherine Woodfine

I’m lucky enough to manage the Children’s Laureate programme at Booktrust – which currently, of course, means working with the fabulous 2013-2015 Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman.

But if that alone wasn’t enough of a treat, I’m also currently organising Malorie’s major Laureate project – the UK’s first Young Adult Literature Convention! Today I’m here to tell you the inside story of YALC, and how the event came about.

When Malorie was appointed as Laureate in June 2013, one of the key things she wanted to do was ‘make reading irresistible’ to young people. With research showing that only 3 in 10 young people read daily out of class, and a fifth of young people saying they’d be embarrassed if a friend saw them reading, she knew she wanted to change perceptions and get ‘more young people reading more’ – but how?

As it happened, the UK’s Young Adult publishers had already been talking about an exciting new idea to put a spotlight on books for young people. Inspired by events in the USA, they wanted to hold the UK’s first YA Lit Con, and had even had some conversations with Showmasters (the organisation behind London Film and Comic Con) about hosting it – but they were short of someone to take the project forward.

As the first Laureate primarily known for writing for teens and young adults, Malorie was the perfect person to step in – and the Children’s Laureate team were on hand and ready to help make the event happen!

Our first job was to go along to LFCC and conduct some ‘research’. We went along for the day with Malorie and had a brilliant time – celebrity spotting in the Green Room, admiring the incredible outfits, and Malorie even had her photo taken in the Iron Throne. We all loved it and knew that LFCC would be the perfect home for the event, where books could sit alongside films, TV and comics.

So far, so good. But to get an event as ambitious of YALC off the ground, we knew we would need a lot of help. Enter the Young Adult publishers – as well as getting lots of advice from them, we also recruited a fantastic YALC Committee of publisher enthusiasts to help us with all the planning. Our brilliant Children’s Laureate PR agency Riot Communications came on board, and Laureate sponsors Waterstones confirmed they would be able to provide a bookshop for the event. We were also delighted to be able to secure additional support for YALC from Prudential Plc, as well as the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society.

We got the ball rolling by inviting all the UK’s YA publishers to suggest topics and authors, and then we started work with Malorie to put the programme together. This was the really hard part - there were so many brilliant ideas and fantastic authors put forward that we could easily have planned a whole week of events, never mind just a weekend!

We announced plans for YALC at the Winter 2013 LFCC, with a special event with Malorie and three other YA authors - Anthony McGowan, Lucy Christopher and Meg Rosoff. The event was great, but it was even more exciting to see the explosion of excitement about YALC from authors, bloggers and readers.

Several months, many meetings, and an insane number of emails and spreadsheets later, we’re now (whisper it…) just a few weeks away from YALC itself!

Our full schedule for the event has been revealed, including 50 amazing authors and a host of industry experts. We have panel events covering everything from fantasy to horror to how to get published; workshop sessions where you can get tips on writing, creating comics, and even pitch your work to agents; and of course, book signings with all our participating authors. There will be lots of books to buy in our YALC bookshop provided by Waterstones – and of course there will be all kinds of other fun book activities and surprise goings-on to enjoy throughout the weekend!

We hope that YALC will offer something for everyone, from the chance to meet megastar authors to the opportunity to hear from new voices and discover exciting debuts. We want the event to be an amazing experience for all those who love books – but also a great way to show those who might not currently be keen readers just how exciting and inspiring YA books can be!

All you need to come along to YALC and join the fun is a pass to LFCC – find out more here. But if you can’t make it, don’t despair – we’ll be photographing, filming and live-tweeting throughout the event, and sharing as much as we can online. Follow us on Twitter @yalc_uk for all the latest news.

Planning the event has been a real learning curve – but one that we hope will conclude with an amazingly fun and memorable event for everyone, which will help create a buzz around reading for young people, and shine a spotlight on YA books.

 Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today Katherine! 

Only just heard about the readathon? No worries! There is still time to sign up here.

The #YALCReadathon Twitter Chat!

Eeekkk!!! The YALC Readathon is starting on Monday and I could NOT be more excited! I hope those of you who want to take part have signed up (gentle reminder: you do not have to be going to YALC to take part in the readathon) and if not signs ups are still open and will be throughout the readathon for any latecomers who want to join in.

We're a fairly low maintenance readathon, for us it's all about reading the books. There won't be any daily updates to link to, challenges or anything like that. But there will be some guest posts from YALC authors going up on myself, Carly, Vicky and Michelle's blogs throughout the week so make sure you check back for those.

We have also decided to run a Twitter chat which will be happening on Thursday 26th June at 7pm UK time and will run anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour long. This gives readathoners the opportunity to talk about the books they've been reading and their progress. There are also going to be YALC authors joining us to answer some questions so even if you don't fancy the readathon but are going to YALC you're more than welcome to join in the chat as we discuss the event.

The questions will be coming from me @Jessheartsbooks and the tag we're using is #YALCReadathon please use this when answering any questions and chatting to one another so that we can all follow the conversation.

I hope that you'll join us to talk books, YALC and to hear from some of your favourite authors!

If you'd like to find out more about the YALC Readathon please click here.

The YALC Readathon Sign Ups: Read the books before you meet the authors!

The YALC Readathon is a brand new readathon being hosted by myself, Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea, Carly at Writing from the Tub and Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies that will take place between the 23rd-29th June 2014 starting and ending at midnight in whichever time zone you’re in.
 

What is the YALC Readathon?
If you haven’t heard of YALC yet where have you been!? It’s the first Young Adult convention happening in the UK and in case you haven’t heard about it you can find out more here.

There are so many fantastic authors attending and I wanted to try to read as many of their books before I meet them at YALC. I noticed on Twitter that a lot of people felt the same way and so the idea of hosting a readathon was born.

The YALC Readathon is dedicating a week to reading as many books by YALC authors as possible. A list of the authors attending can be found here. We’re also planning plenty of fun stuff during that week and are collaborating with the authors and people behind YALC to bring you guest posts and a Twitter chat which will take place on Thursday 26th June at 7pm UK time.

If you’re attending YALC this is a great opportunity to read the books before you meet the authors and to discuss their books with other readers. However if you’re not attending YALC but would like to join in anyway then please do feel free to take part!

Sounds great, how do I join in? 
To sign up share your intention to join us along with our image on your blog, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Goodreads etc; then post the URL in the linky below.

If you have goals and a TBR in mind feel free to share them! This isn’t mandatory.

When talking about the readathon on social media please use the hashtag #YALCReadathon so we can all follow each other’s updates and progress.


That’s it! I hope that you’ll join us! If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments. In the meantime here is my own TBR, I doubt I’ll get around to all of these but I have an amazing pile to choose from and I’m looking forward to seeing how many I can read!