On the weekend of the 12th July I travelled down to London to take part in the inaugural YALC (Young Adult Literature Con) which was joined to Comic Con and took place in the Earls Court arena.
I was to conduct a Creative Writing Workshop entitled ‘Starting
to Write’, all about … well it did exactly what it said on the tin. I was a bit concerned that no-one would sign
up, and worried about having an embarrassing signing afterwards, but so excited
about the rest of the line up that I went in high spirits, dressed (after
Malorie Blackman announced that she was going in costume) as Zoe from Firefly.
The first thing that struck me as I walked around the corner
to see Earls Court
was the insane queue. There had to be
50,000 people all trying to get into the arena.
Some had apparently been queuing since 3am. My jaw dropped. Luckily I had a
special ticket with a little green dot on a lariat and had been told to go in
through gate M, so my guests and I headed past the miles of queuing Avengers,
Spidermen, Storm troopers, Lannisters, Starks and, oddly, Disney princesses,
towards the gate.
The walk felt like miles and the queue carried on. I was worried that I wasn’t going to make it
in for my workshop. But then we got to
the entrance and there was no queue. We
walked straight in, feeling a bit guilty, but immensely relieved – queuing is
one thing I really hate.
And inside what was the first thing I saw – Antony Head
doing a signing next to Paul McGann. I
squealed. My day was made (yes, I’m an
enormous Buffy fan).
I had a couple of hours before the YALC officially started so we walked
around. There was a large part of the
venue given over to stands where people were signing: everyone from the guy
from Airplane, to a ghoul from Ghostbusters, to WWE wresters, to Stan Lee. I was particularly excited about seeing
Summer Glau (Firefly) and was hoping to get a photo with her (as I was in
costume and all), but every time I walked past, her ‘stall’ was empty. Boo.
There were obviously a lot of stands selling merchandise,
which were fun to browse, and you could have your photo taken on the iron
throne (which I did).
The main events though, were the talks. Talks by Stan Lee, by the Doctor Who team, by
Game of Thrones actors and, of course, panels in the YALC area by the most YA wonderful
authors.
I made a plan of what I would see (when I wasn't working), then I
headed to the main event - The
YALC.
When I turned up: the first talk
with Patrick Ness, Malorie Blackman and Sarah Crossan was about to get going. Excitedly I sat down and listened (although my ears were ringing a bit – I was
in the same room as Patrick Ness!!).
After being impressed by their thoughts on dystopia (its all
about fear, about one person changing the world) I legged it to the green room
to sign in for my workshop.
There I found Antony Head and Jamie Bamber relaxing along
with various wrestlers, other actors I recognised or half-recognised and a
number of writers who luckily seemed as star-struck as me (later I saw Carrie Fisher and Lena Headey, but never did manage to bump into Summer Glau). My excitement could hardly be contained. But it had to be, as I had to go and give a
workshop to an empty corner of the YALC.
Only it wasn’t - empty that is. It was full.
I realised as I swiftly set up that I was going to have to yell at the
top of my lungs for an hour, as there were no mikes for the workshop authors and
there were apparently upwards of 70,000 people in the venue by this point all competing with
me along with music, other people giving talks (with mikes) and terrible
acoustics. I have two small children, so
I’m used to yelling for an hour straight, but by the end I had quite the
sore throat. Still, I felt that the
workshop went well and I didn’t lose any of my audience. I could have gone on for another hour if I
hadn’t been kicked out of the space to make way for the next one!
Then to my signing. I
knew that I was between Jonathan Stroud (I am a HUGE fan of his Bartimaeus
books and had recently finished reading the enjoyable Lockwood and Co) and Andy
Robb (marvellous author of Geekhood), so I was a bit worried that my signing
queue might look a bit sad.
I was very happy to find an actual queue (and a beer) waiting
for me when I sat down. I chatted with
readers and soon-to-be-readers who had just bought my book and had a steady
trickle of signings for a couple of hours, which was lovely. Nothing like Jonathan though, who was
non-stop signing with barely enough time for me to catch his eye and say what a
fan I was. And as for Rainbow Rowell’s
queue – for a while I thought Stan Lee might be signing books at the other end
of the YALC area!
After my signing I had time to go to the other author panels
and chat with a couple who were still signing (Sarah Mcintyre signed Oliver and
the Seawigs for the kids – she did a lovely illustration for them). I chatted to Malorie Blackman in the green
room (she is so lovely) and even bumped into fellow Edgey author Sara Grant!
By this point, on one of the hottest days of the year, with
no air con, crammed into a room with thousands of other people and in a leather
outfit with knee boots, I was feeling a bit worse for wear, so sorry Sara if I
was a bit dozy!
I popped out to change and returned for the drinks party at
which I got to chat with loads of wonderful YA authors, tell Patrick Ness how
much I loved the Chaos Walking Trilogy, catch up with old friends, meet some
twitter / FB friends and make some new ones.
On the Sunday I geeked out for the day, went to the Game of
Thrones talk I’d ear-marked, mooched around looking at cosplay and enjoyed more
of the YALC events, chatting to Anthony McGowan after his controversial panel
(where he got himself in trouble playing devils advocate) and generally having
a great time.
It was a shame to leave, but by Sunday night I was exhausted
… and they were closing up anyway.
So was the YALC an unqualified success? Well there were a few teething problems
mainly caused by the venue itself – for example poor acoustics and a lack of a
sound system for the workshops. Some
people wanted to come into the YALC but were trapped outside queuing for five
hours! But the people who did make it in
(and there were a great many) were all smiling, despite unbearable heat. I didn’t hear a single bad word about the
event and in fact, an awful lot of complimentary things. The readers, and they’re the most important
after all, enjoyed themselves immensely.
And, hey, so did I.
So thank you, Malorie Blackman, Katherine Woodfine and
everyone involved in making the first YALC so completely brilliant. I hope that it goes from strength to strength
year on year and I hope to be there each time.
Even if I have to buy a ticket and queue!