Serena Takes Ontario Teen Book Fest (+ giveaway!)

12:00 AM Serena 11 Comments

I spent yesterday at the Ontario Teen Book Fest, and I had a blast! Being surrounded by awesome authors, and fellow bloggers and readers was even more fun than I thought it would be. 

 I wrote out a really in depth recap of the event that I was super excited to share with you guys, but Blogger ate it and I had a good cry over it. So I decided that this would be more of a photojournaly post. Hope you enjoy it and be sure to check out the giveaway at the end! 

 There were three wonderful keynote speeches in the morning. Claudia Gray talked about how NOT to be a writer. Aaron Hartzler talked about being the weird you want to see in the world and moved everyone to tears with his genuine speech. Shannon Messenger talked about reading in her childhood and teen years and finding her voice in both middle grade and young adult literature. 
Aaron giving his keynote. 
My bookish BFF and I decided to listen to the Secrets and Lies panel for our morning session. It featured Jessica Brody, Anna Carey, Jessica Khoury, Katie Finn, and Kasie West and was moderated by the always fashionable Gretchen McNeil. Kasie and Katie talked about how secrets and lies in contemporaries are emotion driven instead of action driven. "Lies [in contemps] are ticking time bombs." Jessica B. and Anna talked about the challenges of writing characters with extreme memory loss. Jessica K. discussed how she researches both science and setting for her books. 

The ladies of the Secrets and Lies panel!
I had to get a picture with Gretchen. 
Author speed dating was next, and it was a unique and super fun experience. We were joined by Stacie at A Wonderland of Reading and got to speak with a lot of authors. My favorite interactions were with Katie Finn, because we talked about Taylor Swift, and debut author B.T. Gottfred, because he looked liked Richard Madden. The Robb Stark version of Richard Madden, not the Prince Kit version. 

Then we saw the Girls Gone Sci-Fi panel/official tour stop with Jessica Brody, Jessica Khoury, Melissa Landers, Lauren Miller, and Claudia Gray, again moderated by Ms. Gretchen McNeil. We saw a lot of each other yesterday, which was fine by me because I adore her. They talked about a lot of sci-fi awesomeness like Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Most of them, especially Jessica K. and Claudia Gray and minus Jessica B., are huge sci-fi nerds so it was really fun listening to them. 

The ladies of #GirlsGoneSciFi
Last but not least was the all author signing which was amazing. I got to meet Kasie West, an author I've wanted to meet for ages because her books are some of my favorites, and see Katie Finn again (who I haven't seen for almost three years!). I met tons of other authors whose books I cannot wait to dive into. 

My newly signed beauties! 
Ontario Teen Book Fest was an incredible, well-run event, and I'm already looking forward to next year's! (Andrew Smith and Marissa Meyer, anyone?) To find out more about the event, check out their website. 

And now for the giveaway! I picked up lots of swag yesterday from some amazing authors, including a Girls Gone Sci-Fi poster signed by the authors, a bookplate signed by Jessica Brody, various bookmarks, and some chapter samplers. Enter with the rafflecopter below. 
One lucky winner will get all this stuff! 
Da Rules:
1. US only! (so sorry, shipping is expensive!)
2. You must be 13 or older or have a parent's permission to enter.
3. No cheating please! Cheaters never win and winners never cheat and stuff. I'll be checking entries to make sure no one picks up entries for tasks they don't complete, so don't be that person.
4. You have to be comfortable with giving me your address (for shipping reasons, not creepy reasons). 
5. I'm not responsible for anything that happens to the package once its been shipped. Sorry, it's out of my control after that! 
Anyway, good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor! 

11 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 22, 2015 at 8:32 AM

    So glad you enjoyed the event! I too attended an event yesterday and had a great time. Thank you for the great giveaway! :D

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    1. SerenaMarch 22, 2015 at 10:39 AM

      Thanks! And I saw your pictures from the launch party. Looks like fun! You're very welcome, and good luck! :)

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  2. Kimberly VMarch 22, 2015 at 1:48 PM

    Oh, you are so lucky. Looks like you had a lot of fun and your stack of books is lovely.

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    1. SerenaMarch 22, 2015 at 2:49 PM

      I did, and thank you! I'm quite fond of it myself. :)

      Delete
  3. NSchuMarch 22, 2015 at 2:44 PM

    That has been the closest event to where I live and I had to miss it! :( Glad it turned out to be a good event though!

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    1. SerenaMarch 22, 2015 at 2:49 PM

      Aw, too bad you had to miss it! It was a lot of fun. There's still YALLWEST coming up though, if that's relatively close to you.

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  4. UnknownMarch 24, 2015 at 5:54 PM

    So many amazing things!!!! Thanks so much for this amazing opportunity and giveaway!!! *fingers crossed*

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  5. Kristen @ Pretty Little PagesMarch 27, 2015 at 9:58 AM

    That looks like such an amazing event! I wish we had something like that near me.

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    1. SerenaMarch 27, 2015 at 6:03 PM

      It is! Super well-organized with looks of fun stuff and great authors! You can look into starting one. The founder of OTBF because of her love for books and authors and because she wanted something in the area.

      Delete
  6. outasiteMarch 28, 2015 at 3:29 AM

    thanks so much for this giveaway

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