YA Shot & UKYABA

I'm writing this post on the Monday following one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Saturday the 14th of April was YA Shot, a YA book event with author panels, signings and basically a mass Twitter meet up. This was my first time attending YA Shot so I wasn't really sure what to expect other than lots of hugs and a lot of emotions. It was an amazing day and I hope you enjoy this blog post/diary entry/photo book type thing. 

Cue my ramblings!

The journey from Newcastle to Uxbridge started at 4:30am for me and Charlotte (charlottesomewhere) because we had to be on a train at 6:00am, which was just as painful as it sounds but we made it and the excitement kept me going.

(Charlotte and me hiding our tiredness with smiles) 

photo credit: Charlotte

We got to our hotel and immediately found other bookish people, which is amazing. Basically everyone I know from the blogging community was staying at the Travelodge so it was a bit of a Twitter take over. This is also where I met one of my best friends for the first time, Zoe (nosaferplace) who you will have definitely heard me talk about before and it was such a surreal moment that I will never forget <3 meeting Mr Zoe (Hayden) and getting to see Liv (thatfictionlife) again was also amazing, it was a great start to the day -we got photos later so there will be evidence of my glee. 

After seeing the amazing Melinda Salisbury in Newcastle last week, it was a no brainer to go and checking out her panel with Alwyn Hamilton. The panel was 'Stories for Change' and both authors discussed the politics of their books, parties, villains and both authors were so engaging in the way they talked about the struggles and joys of writing, a highlight was Mel talking about how she loves writing kissing and romance, I think that has something to do with hurting us more when she leaves us on a cliffhanger...  

I also got to attend the Home & belonging panel with SE Durrant, Will Hill, Eleanor Wasserberg and chaired by Cecilia Vinesse. It was a really interesting look into what makes home, home and afterwards I definitely needed Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg in my life. Will talking so creatively about his trip through America made me also desperate to visit the southern states, the way he described the sky and the stars -I need that trip. 

This is where the day gets really surreal. Myself, Steph (a little but a lot) and Charlotte where invited to take part in an ask a blogger chat, and we had fun talking with our pals. Before that though, I got to see Zoe's panel with Maddie and Bee and my girl did so well up there! I was so unbelievably proud of her and it was the start of such a good night. Steph won best newcomer, which was so deserved and Zoe took home Best Vlogger and Best Growing Blogger, again so so deserved.

And then the after party started. Cue drinks, laughs and a lot of selfies. We even had Will join us on our blogger adventure to the bar over the road, it was the best way to end and amazing day. I was so knackered by the end of the night that it took me exactly two minutes to go to sleep when my head hit the pillow.

I am so grateful to the blogging community for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to spend quality time with people I wouldn't have go to meet otherwise. So here are a few more photos because I want to show you all how ridiculously happy I was that day.

                (photo credit: Zoe)                                                                         (photo credit: Liv)

Thanks for reading!