Utah Festival of Books

No, I didn't get to go to BEA, but instead, I got to participate in our own little local book celebration last Saturday! What fun it was!

First up was listening a bit to Kristen Chandler talk about her book Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me.... which I recently read and reviewed here. She also talked about what she has coming up which sounds pretty fun too. I only caught the last bit of her presentation, which was probably a good thing, because she had a really scary wolf with her! I'll see more of her next week at our library too, so that should be fun.

After that we listened to a panel talk about writing for just a bit. Brandon Mull was there, along with Rick Walton, Lisa Mangum, Tracy and Laura Hickman, and Kristen Randle. But Toto (12 years old) was bored with that quite fast, so then we went over and listened to James Dashner, who once again showed how well he relates to the younger crowd, getting the kids all involved in his talk with much enthusiasm. Very fun. He was, however, distracted by all the random strange characters walking past the tent during his presentation, which I got a big kick out of and it made me giggle.

We stood in his line for a bit afterwards because, strange thing, we found a book at our house that he hadn't signed yet! So we fixed that and got The Scorch Trials signed.

Then we nabbed some nice seats for the David Archuleta thing, and I made Toto sit there while I went over and listened to Kiersten White for a minute. She is just as funny as I thought she'd be... after reading her book (Paranormalcy) and follow her crazy tweets.

Then we waited for David and he finally came out, but sadly didn't sing for us. Instead they interviewed him about his book, a memoir on his life so far and his American Idol experience. I have yet to read it, but have great plans to do so. Daughter JJ joined us for this part of the day, being a huge fan of his. So afterwards, we stood in a massive line to meet him and get him to sign both his book, and two CDs we have. That was fun, even though they shoved us through as fast as they could and there was no time to really talk to him or have a connection. But we got some pictures and it was fun to see him close up. (A more detailed post on David A. coming in the future, by request of Ibeeeg!)

Toto and JJ pose with David Archuleta

After that we got Illusions signed by Aprilynne Pike, and The Forgotten Locket signed by Lisa Mangum. Then there was the women's author panel, which was a lot of fun and made us laugh. It was moderated by Ann Cannon, with Ann Dee Ellis, Jessica Day George, Kristen Landon, Kiersten White and Aprilynne Pike. They were great and now I need to add Kristen Landon's book, The Limit, to my need to read list.

Ann Cannon, Ann Dee Ellis, Kiersten White, Jessica Day George, Kristen Landon, Aprilynne Pike

Aprilynne Pike

Then we listened to Dan Wells talk for just a bit, followed by Elana Johnson. Then we followed them to their signing spots and got Dan to sign I Don't Want to Kill You (where I told him I loved, really loved, his character John Cleaver) and had Elana sign her brand new book, Possession, for us,  a book making a ton a buzz and one I look forward to reading!

Dan Wells

Elana Johnson

I bought two books there, and hauled the rest with me to get signed.

I took a ton of video so here's some footage of that edited down a bit, if you are interested in more:

All in all, a very fun day!