Posts tagged North Texas Teen Book Festival
Lost in a galaxy of writing stars at the North Texas Teen Book Festival

Continuing our catch-up on the astounding adventures of "Revenge of the Star Survivors": 

The North Texas Teen Book Festival is, quite simply, one of the coolest book events in Texas, and I said this before they asked "Revenge of the Star Survivors" to be a part of it. 

Can you spot the "Star Survivors"? If so, thank cover designer Mark Cabuena. 

Can you spot the "Star Survivors"? If so, thank cover designer Mark Cabuena. 

I will acknowledge that it was just a little intimidating, being lumped in there with all those other really great writers. 

But the truth is, I think I fit right in. 

The best part of all is the crowds. I love meeting people. And I try not to let the lines at my table intimidate the younger people around me. Fortunately, this is never a problem when your last name begins with "M" and you are at an event with the likes of Julie Murphy and Sarah Mlynowski. I will say that the volunteers running their signing lines had a LOT of work to do. Whereas the volunteer in charge of mine had to stand around and engage me in conversation. So I post this selfie with her as a salute to all book festival volunteers everywhere. Thank you for taking on the really tough jobs. 

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But just to be clear – the event is a spectacular one. If you love books and love the idea of being around 10,000 teenagers who feel the same way, it's a little bit of heaven in Irving, full of truly inspirational moments. 

 

 

Wait. Let's pretend that didn't happen. Here – thousands of people who love books. Join them next time. 

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Michael MerschelNorth Texas Teen Book Festival
A scouting report from the North Texas Teen Book Festival

As a landing party of one, I descended upon the North Texas Teen Book Festival on Saturday. I was told that it was a potentially habitable place for intelligent life forms, but I had no idea. 


 

 

Luckily, the inhabitants of the planet were also quite friendly. And fashion-conscious. 

 

 

I started off my day with a session on Star Wars books, with two actual Star Wars authors: Ben Acker and Adam Gidwitz. How major are these guys? They have written books that are actually officially part of the Star Wars canon. Which means, as I understand it: There is like this nerd college of cardinals at Skywalker Ranch whose job it is to approve everything in every official Star Wars product, and these guys passed. 

Adam used the occasion to show off his Yoda-like Jedi-training skills:

 

 

 

I've met Adam before, and he very kindly let me tag along afterward to the green room, which is not green but is the place where authors hang out before their event. Do you want to know what your favorite authors are like when they are introduced to a new guy who is mumbling something about his new book, which he is promoting by handing out some fliers that he very hastily printed out the night before when he realized he maybe should be ready to hand people ... something if they asked for details? Here is a secret from inside that exclusive and highly secure chamber of elite and powerful people: 

They are, to a person, incredibly friendly, generous with their time and welcoming to newcomers. (One even had me sign my first autograph, on one of those cheap fliers.) 

Although there were some weird rituals that I do not quite understand. 

 

(Seriously, I have NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS ABOUT. But it apparently is a thing. I will report more on the trend in the future, if I am lucky.) 


Anyhow, after that, I saw a couple of great panels. Here's me at the end of one. 
 

(That's me in the back.) 

I also splurged on some swaggy swag.
 

And best of all, I saw a whole bunch of people enjoying books. 

 

Report summary: What a great event. I look forward to conducting future explorations in the future. 

 

Michael MerschelNorth Texas Teen Book Festival