YALL WEST - Santa Monica - Day 2

Day 2 of YALL WEST was not as great of an experience for me as Day 1. This was due to a lot of reasons. For one, my husband and I had to drive an hour in the opposite direction in the morning (Santa Monica is already an hour away from us). Secondly, the venue (Santa Monica Public Library) was much smaller and there were a lot of non-YALLWEST people wandering around, which was weird. It was just too crowded and cramped, even though significantly less people were there than Day 1. Finally, I brought my husband with me which was really awesome of him, but he was BORED. HA! At one point I wanted to wait in this horrendous line to spin a wheel for a free book and he said, "I will take you to Barnes and Noble right now and buy you any book you want if we can not wait in that line..." HAHA! I don't recommend bringing someone who isn't as emphatic as you area about books!

Remember how I missed Veronica Roth's signing on Day 1? Well, 2 hour drive or not, I was committed to racing to her line the minute I got to the venue! Unfortunately they cut her line off an hour before it even began, so once again I missed her. Ohhhh well. I wasn't very happy with that last book anyway! #sourgrapes ;)



In the morning, the only other author who I had a book that needed signing was Tahereh Mafi, so I stood in her line. I even made a friend who drove all the way from Arizona!! (Hi Kristi, if you ever find me here haha!). I had my paperback copy of Unite Me, the only book I haven't gotten signed by Tahereh. I mostly just wanted to thank her for Instagramming the hoop I made her, it was seriously so amazing of her. I almost didn't even give it to her, but to see how much she loved it was ridiculously special to me. When I told her she was super gracious and grateful for it all over again and then told me her husband, Ransom Riggs, ALSO posted the hoop!! I had no idea because he didn't know who to tag (and I admit I don't follow him online as religiously as I do Tahereh), so I was just dumbfounded. Awkward fangirl moment, for sure. Of course, I left Tahereh's table to find Ransom's post... gahhh!

This guy Instagrammed about me, so crazy! Hahaha!

So after that awesome moment, I watched some panels, namely the Fandom panel moderated by Kami Garcia. I was excited to see Katie Cotugno and I had How to Love with me for her to sign, but her signing was hours away. I could tell that my husband was so bored and I was tired from the previous day, so together we found Katie in between panels and she was awesome enough to sign her book for me outside of her signing. Also, my husband swears we know her from somewhere. I WISH. She couldn't have been sweeter!



Unfortunately we left after that. It was hot, crowded and I needed to eat haha. While Sunday was kind of underwhelming, the whole weekend was epic and it fueled my fire to go to the LA Times Festival of Books next weekend!! I cannot wait!

Anyone else going? Did anyone go to YALLWEST? What was your favorite moment?