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So I spent the past few days at TLA in Austin, Texas. And it's basically this big conference for librarians. A bunch of authors go and there are tons of free books and galleys. hinatahyuga18 and I did a panel on fanfiction, and I'll give you the rundown on my writing blog, and that's the reason we were up there. We showed up at the Hilton in Austin on Wednesday. There were author signings going on (Kiera Cass, David Levithan, Kathi Appelt), but we showed up too late to go to anything. We went to an event called TEA. This is basically speed dating with authors. You sit at a table with a 5-6 other people and two authors and you just talk to the authors. I got to meet: • David Arnold (Mosquitoland) • Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14 series) • Mary Pearson (The Kiss of Deception and the Adoration of Jenna Fox) • Joy Preble (Finding Paris) • Renee Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn) • Kiera Cass (The Selection series) • Lindsey Lane (Evidence of Things Unseen) • Ashley Hope Pérez (Out of Darkness) • Debra L. Winegarten (Oveta Culp Hobby) • Aisha Saeed (Written in Our Stars) • Jennifer Latham (Scarlett Undercover) and a few other authors I've forgotten. The next day, we went to this thing called TT4L (Texas Teens 4 Literature) at the Hilton in Austin. I got to go to a meet and greet with authors Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Summer of the Mariposas) and Micol Ostow (Amity). I also got a few free books. I then went over to the Austin Convention Center to set up for our panel on fanfiction. We had a great turnout. Again, my writing blog will have the actual content we covered. After that we got to go to the author's signing area where we got at least twenty signed free books. Next day we got more signed books, all free. I got about 40 free books on this trip and I only paid for two that cost $2. I guess I just wanted to enlighten you. All you Texas librarians, this event was truly amazing for me, and if you can introduce other students to it, I strongly suggest you do.

One of the very best things about doing author events: getting to see David Levithan! 😊 #allthebrightplaces #anotherday #davidlevithan #penguinrandomhouse #ya #yaauthors #librariansarerockstars #texaslibraryassociation #TLA2015 #austin (at Parkside Restaurant - 6th Street)

At TLA's teen day, I signed books (while they signed mine), bookmarks, post-it's, t-shirts, bags, and I even kissed my book cover for one male reader. Fun! 😊 #allthebrightplaces #TLA2015 #teenday #austin #ya #yaauthors #books #booksigning #ilovereaders (at Hilton Austin)

Just a few of the lovely librarians (and a couple of Bright Places and Velva Jean readers!) at TLA's Texas Tea. They make it lovely!! 💛💖👏 #TLA2015 #texastea #austin #allthebrightplaces #velvajean #books #yaauthors #ya #librarians #librariansarerockstars (at Hilton Austin)