From October 17th to 23rd, the week long book festival, Celebrate the Book, occurred in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The event has been on a hiatus since its last event in 2013 and I was excited to attend its revamp this year. You can read my event review of Celebrate the Book 2013 here. They actually moved the location of the event to the Bosler Memorial Library this year and it was a fantastic location choice. The library was in an easily accessible area and it was spacious enough to hold multiple panels and signings at one time. The event has most definitely grown since I attended it last and I hope it continues to do so in the future.
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| (The First "Get Published" Panel: Kelley Keller, Lindsay Bandy, and Me) |
Not only did I attend Celebrate the Book on Saturday, YA Day, as a fan, I also attended as a panelist. I was featured on the first "Get Published" panel from 11:30 am-12:30 pm. I am so grateful for this opportunity. I was featured with two other amazing panelists, Kelley Keller and Lindsay Bandy, and we had a very responsive audience. I really hope that I was able to properly advise them on the publicity aspect of publishing. I wish all the attendees good luck in their journey with the publishing industry. I hope they are able to successfully meet whatever goals they set for themselves and their work. I would once again like to thank Melissa Sheperd and everyone else who made this panel possible. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity!
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| (Victoria Scott, Me, and Sarah Beth Durst) |
In addition to meeting my fellow panelists, I had an absolutely fantastic time meeting the wonderful authors in attendance. The organizers did a fantastic job organizing this year's Celebrate the Book event. It flowed so seamlessly and they had an array of amazing authors. This year's Keynote speaker was bestselling author, Lisa Scottoline, and I was fortunate enough to attend one of her sessions. She is absolutely hysterical and a genuinely nice person. I do not typically read adult fiction; however, I definitely want to check out her books. With her humor and life experiences, I can only imagine the stories she weaves together. I would most definitely attend another event where she speaks.
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| (Me and Zoraida Cordova) |
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Young Adult panel this year because my panel was at the exact same time. However, I was able to meet all of the fantastic YA authors during their two signings. I got to meet the wonderful Zoraida Cordova and Martina Boone for the second time. I also got to meet amazing Victoria Scott, Sarah Beth Durst, Jeff Hirsch, and Diana Peterfreund for the first time. They were all so sweet and I was able to have great conversations with all of them. I wish I could have attended their panel, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to met them.
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| (Me and Diana Peterfreund) |
I absolutely loved this year's Celebrate the Book event. Although I loved the event the first time I attended in 2013, my love has only grown for the event this year. It was so well organized and was in such a central location. There was plenty of parking and it was next to the beautiful Dickinson College. If you live in the Carlisle region or are willing to travel there, I highly recommend attending the event in the future. They always have a great panel of authors and this year they made the event a week long. Throughout the week they had authors such as Maria V. Snyder and Kim Briggs on different panels and writers workshops. I wish I could have made it to both of their panels but, unfortunately, I live a couple hours from Carlisle. The event is most definitely closer to my home than events around the Philadelphia region.
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| (Me and Martina Boone) |
If you live in the Carlisle region or if you are interested in traveling to the Celebrate the Book event as an author or an attendee in the future, you can check out the Celebrate the Book website, here, for more information on the event. To my knowledge, they have not yet announced a 2017 or another future event. Keep checking their website for more information. If they do create another event in the future, I urge you to go if you live in the region. I had such a fantastic time this year and I am interested to see what they might host in the future.
For those of you who were unable to attend the event, I wanted to give you the opportunity to win a bookplate signed by either Zoraida Cordova or Martina Boone and one of the following books by those authors!
Zoraida Cordova:
OR
Martina Boone:
One of the Heirs of Watson Island Novels:
Rules:
- You must be 18 years or older, unless you have a parent's permission
- This giveaway is open Internationally as long as the Book Depository ships to your country (Click here to see which countries the Book Depository ships to)
- Once contacted, the winner will have 72 hours to respond with their address, or a new winner will be chosen
- STARTS October 29th, 2016 at 12:00 a.m. EST
- ENDS December 1st, 2016 at 12:00 a.m. EST
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any lost or damaged packages
Thanks for the info ;)
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