Decatur Book Festival 2013!!!!

Hannah: Over Labor Day weekend we got to take a road trip to Decatur, Georgia for the Decatur Book Festival!
Natalie: It was super fun!

With Myra McEntire

*Emma pops in*

Emma: Hello! *waves*
Hannah: Emma is going to help us recap the festival since she was along for the (nine hour) ride.
Natalie: And she was our sherpa!
Emma: That basically meant that I held umbrellas and saved seats.
Hannah: Have Natalie and I told you how awesome you are lately, Emma?
Emma: Not particularly.
Natalie: Well, you're awesome!!!

Part One: It's a Party in the Min-i-van

Hannah: We started our car ride with the playlist that Natalie and I specially made for DBF. That didn't annoy our mothers at all.
Natalie: Especially when we turned "Party in the U.S.A." into Party in the Minivan.
Emma: We did actually pass a Hollywood sign somewhere in the middle of Illinois. Though it was on our left, not on our right.
Hannah: Then I started reading Wuthering Heights, which I had to finish for school.

Natalie: We stopped at the Metropolis rest stop, where Hannah and Emma's mom got us Great River Road in Illinois National Scenic Byway coloring books! Then I told Hannah to "finish your book for AP Lit so we can be like five year olds!"
Hannah: Then we colored in a picture of "dear" and then corrected all of the spelling and grammar mistakes in the GRRiINSB coloring books. And then commented on how nerdy we are.

We only had orange, purple, and red Sharpies

Emma: After the coloring got boring, I started knitting a veryvery long Doctor Who scarf.

Hannah & Natalie: We don't understand this.
Hannah: Then Emma taught us to knit pygmy puffs (and we again commented on our nerdiness) and Natalie got mad at her knitting needles. A lot.
Natalie: I can now say from experience that knitting sucks. Unless you're good at it. Which I am not.
Emma: Then Lee, our Australian GPS, told us we were almost at the hotel, so we bounced around excitedly.
Natalie: Until we saw the hotel.

Part Two: Alarm goes "whoop, whoop"

Hannah: The hotel we stayed at will forever be referred to as the hotel from hell.
Emma: They lost our reservation.
Hannah: Our room was on a partially smoking floor.
Natalie: There was a hair in our coffee pot.
Emma: The floors were so gross that our mom didn't even let us put our suitcases on the floor.
Hannah: The lampshade had holes in it.
Natalie: And the ceiling had a . . . bladder.

We were afraid the ceiling would leak

Hannah: We gave up on the hotel and left for dinner.
Emma: The elevator apparently was the Great Glass Elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Hannah: And we saw these signs. . .

Natalie: So then we went out to dinner with Hannah and Emma's cousins. We started to get lost and eventually figured out that we needed to go in a "Waffle-Housery direction".
Emma: When we finally got there, we told our cousins all about our lovely hotel.
Hannah: They told us to leave the ceiling bladder at the hotel and let us stay in their apartment.
Natalie: By the way, thankyouthankyouthankyou!

Part Three: "It's like the South is french kissing me all over!"--Robyn Schneider

Emma: We got there super-early and staked out some nice shady seats because it was like a billion and three degrees out.
Natalie: We're St. Louis girls, who are used to humidity but not the hot Georgia sun.

Hannah: The first panel was the Sci-Fi Panel with D.J. MacHale and Rick Yancey.

D.J. MacHale

Rick Yancey

Natalie: This was the first panel, so we didn't know how the signing line worked. So we ended up at the end of a very long line.
Hannah: Next was the Zombies and Others Who Are Not Quite Dead Yet Panel with Amy Tintera and Jonathan Maberry.
Natalie: Which I missed because I was still in the signing line from the previous panel.

With Amy Tintera

Emma: Well, How Did I Get Here? with Myra McEntire, Lauren Miller, and Michelle Hodkin was the next panel. The authors were all very funny, as was the moderator.
Natalie: We didn't understand how all of them had jeans on. Myra and Michelle even had black jackets! We were grossly hot in shorts and t-shirts.

Moderator, Lauren Miller, Myra McEntire, Michelle Hodkin

Natalie: Next was Francesca Lia Block. I got her new book, Love in the Time of Global Warming, which is really really pretty.
Hannah: Natalie stroked the cover for about ten minutes after she bought it.
Natalie: It's pretty!
Emma: Robyn Schneider, Lauren Morrill, and Bridie Clark were on the Love and Romance Panel. We all enjoyed the panel, as all the authors were hilarious.

Terra McVoy (moderator), Bridie Clark, Lauren Morrill

Natalie: We took a picture with Robyn Schneider during the signing line, and she tried to crawl under the table because she was afraid the picture would look bad. Unfortunately, there was a table cloth in the way.

With Robyn Schneider

Hannah: Lauren Morrill was also awesome! We talked Gilmore Girls couples (Rory and Jess are the best) and lamented Bunheads.

With Lauren Morrill

Emma: The last panel we went to was the More Sci-Fi Thrills and Chills, with Robin Wasserman and Geoffrey Girard.
Hannah: When Robin Wasserman signed her alibi in Who Done It?, she said that she still had not gotten a copy of the book.

With Robin Wasserman

Part Four: "This is the most biblical reading I've ever given"--David Levithan

Natalie: The weather was perfect when we arrived at the Fierce Reads Panel. Leigh Bardugo, Gennifer Albin, Anna Banks, and Marie Rutkoski were all hilarious.
Emma: The q&a started off with Leigh Bardugo's twitter dance. That video is floating around on instagram if you want to see it.
Natalie: The best quotes of the panel were courtesy of Anna Banks.
"Everything I say is under the influence of Benadryl."
"That's how I felt about outlines: bra in the shower"
"I thought I could write a book when I first read Twilight"
"I set out to be really charming and that didn't work out" (on what she wanted to be when she grows up)
Emma: Leigh Bardugo was a close second in hilarity
"I have metaphorical allergies so I want to go to a metaphorical spa"
"And I occasionally have broccoli in my hair"
"I don't agree!!! Thank you."
"It's like you have taken a giant pile of crap and spread it on the screen and said I wrote that!" (on first drafts)
"He asked me if I had minions, which I don't, but then he introduced me to his." (On talking to George R. R. Martin)

With Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo, Marie Rutkoski

Leigh Bardugo, Marie Rutkoski, Gennifer Albin, Anna Banks (who has a pole covering her face. Sorry!)

Hannah: Next was one of the panels we were most looking forward too, the Love is Love Panel with David Levithan and Sara Farizan!
Emma: We missed the first few minutes of Sara's reading because the Fierce Reads signing line was kinda long. :(
Natalie: Then David Levithan started reading from Two Boys Kissing and it started to thunder ominously. Hence the quote used for the title of this section.

"It's always the lesbians who fall for me. That's why I'm single."--David Levithan

Hannah: The weather got bad and we were all ushered under the signing line tent, with its metal poles, because apparently it is magical and will protect us all from the ominous weather. 

*Not trusting the magical metal tent*

Natalie: Then we finally got our books signed by David Levithan and Sara Farizan, and we only got a little bit wet. (Thanks to our sherpa holding an umbrella over us)
Hannah: Actually, I think the umbrella was over the books, not us. Because they are more important. 

With David Levithan

Emma, Hannah, & Natalie: Next we got to meet SUSAN BETH PFEFFER!!!!!
Emma: And we learned that the P is silent in Pfeffer.
Natalie: But it's still more fun to pronounce the P and say P-feffer.
Hannah:  She went on the stage early so people could ask questions, so we got a picture with her!

With Susan Pfeffer

Natalie: She was super nice and funny. And we only fangirled a little. Fine, a lot.
Emma: Hannah and I share a lot of books, including the whole Life as We Knew It Series. Susan Beth Pfeffer alternated signing them Hannah & Emma and Emma & Hannah, which was funny and nice of her.

Susan Pfeffer

Natalie: We had a break in between panels, so we wandered about the wet square. And we met Mirabelle, an adorable dog, who has her own book series.

Doesn't Mirabelle look thrilled to be posing with us?

Natalie: Next was the blogger panel, which was interesting and made us realize that we have no idea what we are doing.
Hannah: Then we got to eat dinner with Sara Farizan!
Emma: !!!!!
Hannah: Turns out Sara knew our cousins from college.

With Sara Farizan

Natalie: Anyway, dinner was awesome. We talked writing and book nerdiness with Sara, and ate yummy potato rounds.
Emma: They reminded us of Trader Joe's popped potato chips, which we ate a ton of in the car, so we decided they were the official food of our trip.

So good!

Part Five: The End (plus random pictures)

We had such a fun trip and we hope we can go back next year!

Emma wore these earrings on the first day and got tons of compliments! We think she should open an Etsy store.

Little Shop of Stories

We saw these in Little Shop of Stories and flipped out! We love the new covers!

All of our books! (And some slightly crappy lighting)

We got a some cool swag. The "Let's all privateer" button is Natalie's favorite

The song that was stuck in our heads for the majority of the trip: No One Knows by The Section Quartet

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee the accuracy of any quotes. We only paraphrased from our memories. Or something. So they could be wrong, but they should be mostly right.

Emma and her pygmy puff say thanks for reading!

One last note: We have some extra swag from this and the RT Booklover's Convention that we went to last May. Would any of you be interested in a giveaway? Let us know in the comments!