How do I even begin? I don't. I have no idea how to because I know that anything I say will be nothing compared to what I have experienced today. Wow.
I needed to blog about this tonight [and since my photos/videos are still uploading, this is a great time to do so] because I have never been so overwhelmed and happy for so long in my life. Let me just start this by saying that the Harry Potter fandom is a place that I can truly let go and know that no matter what, I will be loved. That's the kind of people that are at this Con. People that don't judge you, open their hearts to you, and genuinely care about you the second they meet you. I love it and I can't get enough of these people! I've already made at least 7 new friends from the USA, Australia, Sweden, and Norway. I can't wait to meet as many people as I can and learn more about this community of people.
Now, for Lit Day. These authors are amazing. I can't help but admire the fact that not only are they here at a conference for Harry Potter nerds, but that all of the authors write Young Adult novels for a living. They enjoy reaching out to our generation, a group of young people, and showing us different ideas and collaborations and stories that can define us later. It's so powerful and basically throughout the whole day I was sitting there in awe of these amazing people in front of me. I sat in on "How Books Saved My Sanity" and how we can all share a common love for books and reading and how it affects or is affected by social media. That was fun, but it was more like a teaser to the rest of the day. It gets much more interesting.
We then decided to talk about vampires. A lot of people came in grumbling about Twilight, but yet they still sat down and waited to hear what would be discussed....it was awesome. We did discuss Twilight and why it is or isn't good, but we also went back to Dracula, brought up some Buffy, and learned that there are tens of thousands of novels written about vampires. My favorite part of it is someone telling us a story about her friend that hated reading before she picked up the Twilight books. Now she is an avid reader, and isn't any way in to a literate, appreciative world a good thing? I really enjoyed the insight that people gave to this panel because while it gave us some playful banter it also gave us a way to look past crappy vampire stories and in to the heart of literature.
I was coerced in to attending "The Scott Westerfield Experience" by some of my new Australian friends and I can honestly say that I am very happy that I stayed for that. I have never been more intrigued by war in my life, and that's saying something since my dad is obsessed with WWII. Grabbing a girly girl princess-lover's attention with an adventure about WWI is a feat and I do believe that he has gotten me curious. It was definitely worth the hour that I spent hearing an amazing way to look at war.
We had a short lunch break [I went for Starbucks and popcorn] and I returned to the "Love and Romance" panel. I know, you're shocked that I chose that panel to attend. I loved everything about this panel because romance novels and teenage literature are almost always intertwined and yet are also fought against just as much. John Green said that reading material given in school is not for the parents, but for their children and it really struck a chord with me because being from Alabama I completely understand what it's like to have parents fight for what their children should and shouldn't read or learn about and I think that it's a little crazy. We also discussed everything from the 'clean teen' type YA novels to the 'good blow job' YA novels that give details. Overall it was a great panel to sit in on and I had a nice guest with me. Libba. Bray. That woman, ahhhh. She is so sweet and we laughed a lot at what was being said on the panel today. I said it earlier today to a friend but it's so refreshing to know that authors [and famous people, YouTubers, wrockers, etc] are just as happy and excited to be here as we are. It's so good to know that they enjoy us just as much as we enjoy them and their writing. I honestly look up to Libba and I hope that I get the chance to meet her again.
The last panel of the day that I got to see was "I Was a Teenage Author" and let me just say that I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Each author read works they had written as a child or teenager and OMG were they hilarious. Stephanie Perkins read her journal and I feel like I write similarly, but that's okay. I'm not aiming to be an author, just a blogger. I cannot believe how funny it all was.
The last part of Lit Day was a keynote with Arthur A. Levine who published the US versions of Harry Potter and many other things. He was very inspiring and it really humbled me to sit in the room with one of the people that Jo Rowling trusts. Not only that, but to have him trust us as an audience, that was amazing.
I need to sleep but here are a few quotes from the day:
On asexual relationships:
"I'm surprised I only got one 'woo' for that."
-John Green
"You only need one."
-Scott Westerfield
On sex:
"I'm not that interested in [writing] it...I think it's pretty widely covered without me."
-John Green
On writing:
"You should never compare your first draft to someone else's final draft."
-Ally Carter
On love options:
"It's not about who you should be with, it's about who you should be."
-Ally Carter
The opening festivities of the con were AMAZING. A proposal, an amazing video, small performances by Hank Green, HatP, Potter Puppet Pals, StarKid, and one more....it was all awesome.
I'm ready for Day 1 of the con!!!
Current song - Accio Deathly Hallows - Hank Green
No comments:
Post a Comment