OCCBF 2012

I'm officially back in New Mexico, but last Sunday I attended the Orange County Children's Book Festival before I had to leave for my flight back home. It took me a while to write this since my internet was being uncooperative.

I also didn't get to take any pictures, because my husband took my (our) camera and I dropped my phone so it's horribly cracked and takes really bad pictures.

This was my third year attending the Orange County Children's Book Festival and the Teen & Young Adult stage is always a great hang out place for the day. Thanks to Robyn Hawk for always coordinating an awesome event.

When my sister and I got to the festival we had to locate the YA Stage since they moved it from where it usually was, but the corner where the YA Stage was located was turned into it's little haven with booths like Mysterious Galaxy, SCBWI, Danny the Ghost, and several other booths.

On the way to the YA Stage, we stopped at the Bridge to Books booth, where I picked up a tote and some awesome buttons. Bridge to Books is a group that was formed by Alyson and Alethea to "see people come together from various disciplines to share thoughts and ideas, with the overall goal of getting children excited about books and reading." (from Bridge to Books website)

For more info about Bridge to Books, visit their website: HERE

One awesome thing about getting to attend OCCBF, is that I get to see some of my blog friends.Even if it was for a short time, it's always great to see everybody.

The first panel of the morning included Derek the Ghost who wrote Scary School. Scary School won the Funniest Chapter Book award for 2011. Scary School actually sounds pretty funny with normal kids going to school with scary kids, there's more to fear than just detention.

Shelley Thomas who wrote The Seven Tales of Trinket, which is about Trinket and her friend who go on an adventure to find Trinket's father and they learn a bit about themselves amongst the way.

Also on the panel was Nancy Rodrigue who wrote the Hidden Mickey novels. The Hidden Mickey novels follow two brothers as they find a letter from Walt Disney that leads them on a hunt for treasure. There is also an interactive hunt that everyone can do at Disneyland, which sounds pretty awesome and gives a whole new way to visit.

 Each author discovered that they wanted to write, Shelley had words that she liked and words that she didn't like. She's just always written, since that's her important place to keep her sanity. As a child Nancy wanted a horse, so she wrote that she had a horse. As she got older, she added things that she was interested in. Derek was obsessed with Dr. Seuss books, so he attempted to write like Dr. Seuss.

One of the hot questions was - 'What was the worst ideas they've had, but never saw the light of day?' Nancy pointed out that there are no bad ideas. Write all of your ideas down, it doesn't matter what it is. It someday could be that book you write.

The number one piece of advice that each author had to offer was:

"Keep writing. Write your ideas down. Just write. If you're in school, use your teachers" - Nancy Rodrigue 

"Take your writing book with you everywhere. Sometimes you don't get more done that one page a day, but one page is one page."  - Shelley Thomas 

"Write and read as much as you can. Make writing fun" - Derek the Ghost

The second panelist was EJ Altbacker who wrote Shark Wars. EJ read from one of the Shark Wars books and he had a great reading voice. Doing all the voices for the characters and everything. Each character in shark was have interesting names, which I found unique. Shark Wars follows this shark who learns a form of martial arts after he gets kicked out of his group.

Later we had our first young adult panel where the authors spoke about writing and what goes into it. The panelists were Nancy Holder - author of On Fire and several Buffy and Angel books. With a new Buffy book coming out soon. Lissa Price, the author of Starters. Jessica Therien who wrote Opression, and Gretchen McNeil author of Possess and her new release Ten.

Each author had a point where they wanted to quit while writing, Gretchen's is usually around page 100 of every novel and she just has to push through that roadblock. Lissa wanted to quit when she couldn't shop around her first manuscript anymore.

Each author agrees that you should enjoy your first book without contracts. Where you don't have a deadline and can have fun with the project.

Pretty much after this I had to go get my books signed by Gretchen and Nancy, since I had to leave for my flight soon afterwards. We got to talk a little bit about each book and some of Teen Wolf.

Also speaking of Nancy Holder and Teen Wolf, every Monday night at 7 pm PST Nancy hosts #TEENWOLFREWATCH where we re-watch a certain episode of Teen Wolf and chat about it on twitter. Monday is season 1 episode 8, I believe. You can watch the episodes online at MTV's Teen Wolf - HERE .

I also bought a copy of Last Rite and got it signed by Lisa Desrochers. Sadly after Lisa signed my book I had to get going to the airport. I really wished that I could've stuck around for the rest of the day and the blogger panel, but I had to get home. OCCBF is as always a great event, even with the heat.