Just a few pics from the “We’re Not in Kansas...

Just a few pics from the “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” panel at Austin Teen Book Festival. This was my stop between London and Milan, and let me tell you, it was worth all the transatlantic travel. What an AMAZING event. It ran like clockwork. The volunteers were the coolest. I met incredible authors and got to chat with librarians, bloggers, and tons of teen readers.

On the panel, we talked magical systems, world building, good versus evil, and Luke versus Han. One of the things I liked was that the discussion wasn’t confined to secondary world building. Regardless of genre, a reader needs a sense of place and I loved hearing how the other participants went about establishing that.

And speaking of the other panel members, can I just say how thrilling it was to be on a panel with the epic Rae “Killer” Carson (Luke lover), the delightfully dangerous Kami Garcia, the hilarious Margaret Stohl (who forced me to recite the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear—okay, she didn’t exactly twist my arm), and the inimitable, legendary, glorious Libba Bray? I mean, what’s a fangirl to do? It’s not healthy to bottle up so many squees.

I must also give proper thanks to our moderator, Sarah Rees Brennan, who is hereby dubbed The Immoderator. She danced on a chair and threatened our lives. I’m not sure there’s any easier way to garner my affection.

I also want to say that it was lovely to put faces with so many of the great people I’ve met through twitter (bloggers Jen Bigheart, Willa of Willa’s Ramblings, Katie of Mundie Moms, authors Jenny Martin and Victoria Scott, lovely peeps from the YA Sisterhood, Once Upon a Twilight, and Girls in the Stacks, and a few of my Apocalypsies brethren including E.M. Kokie and Tamara Ireland Stone—and so many more but my brain is jetlagged mush).

Again, this was an incredible event and highly recommended for readers and authors. Thank you, ATBF!!