Comic Con Wrap-up

First things first: the randomly-selected winner of LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR giveaway was Ruthie! Thanks everyone for commenting and coming by, I know I speak for both of us when I say that it was a ton of fun re-reading the Anna & the French Kiss swoon. We have another giveaway coming up Wednesday – of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor.

We are so overdue for this post, but Holy Hot Cricket this last week was nuts. Priorities: here’s some swoon:

Anyway, recovering from Comic Con requires at least a week, and of course it was a bananas work week (Lo) and/or everyone in the family got sick (Christina), so I think this week is the one for actual recovery.

The usual SDCC awesome?

So, other highlights? Game of Thrones panel (Jason Momoa as Drogo yelling in Dothraki in person? Yes.Please.) Also, the Psych and Chuck panels were hilarious. Torchwood! Big Bang Theory! Spielberg and Jackson together in one place for Tin Tin! I’m woman enough to admit that I snuck into crazy Hall H for the ~~Best Destruction of a Headboard Ever~~ Breaking Dawn panel. And although Rob Pattinson’s hair was a disaster (did anyone else see it and think Gary Oldman in Fifth Element?), the cast seemed super excited for the Uterine!Chomp! scene, so that’s… great!

In addition to all the book panels (yay for book programming!), we also attended the Penguin publishing panel. Alas, we did not win any of the giveaways, but we did get to go to the Penguin party afterward where we met and chatted up the funny non-Penguin-but-awesome-fellow Ryan Ferrier. Also, we hugged Andrea Cremer who is so adorable and huggable it should be illegal. AND, she is a history professor at my Alma Mater, Macalester. CRAZY, RIGHT?

Also at the party was Penguin author Marie Lu. I am SUPER excited to read her upcoming novel, LEGEND. *does the braggy ARC dance* But don’t worry, Swoonies, we’ll share it soon, I PROMISE.

The author panels were my favorite. There’s something really wonderful about meeting one’s favorite writers in the flesh (that sounds creepy), and being able to grab them by the shoulders and shake them like the wild fangirl you are and yell, “YOU ARE AMAZING I WANT TO BE KAROU AND IS AKIVA REAL?” (from DoS&B, review coming soon). Or, you know, do that on the inside while on the outside you extend your hand and shake theirs gently and say, “It’s really wonderful to meet you, Laini Taylor.”

Laini Taylor standing in front of the promo for Best.Book.Ever.

I had the honor of organizing one of the author panels this year, and so I ~~chased down~~ politely asked several amazing YA & crossover authors if they would like to come to Comic Con and participate. By May, we had my dream panel: Andrea Cremer, Amanda Hocking, Tahereh Mafi, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White. On top of THAT Most Awesome Panel Ever, Nathan Bransford agreed to moderate.

I KNOW, RIGHT? *happy claps*

It went perfectly. No surprise here that Nathan is insanely poised and articulate and the entire panel was funny, humble, thoughtful, and just all around lovely. Everything from what drives a huge demographic into the YA section, to what’s too dark for YA, to what they would say to aspiring writers was covered in the fantastic discussion. I’m smitten with all seven of them. I want to bake each of them a cake and draw mustaches on their adorable faces.