YALC 2022
Last Friday I attended my first ever YALC (both as a reader and an author), and I’m still kind of reeling from the whole experience. In a good way, I promise. It just all feels kind of surreal.
When I first looked at the line-up, I joked that I wasn’t sure how or why I was invited - Alice Oseman and Jacqueline Wilson were there, for god’s sake. I knew nobody would really be there for me, that I’d be a sort of byproduct of the whole thing; a bonus, if you will. So I was genuinely floored when people came up to me having brought their own copies of my book to be signed, having read it beforehand. Like, obviously that’s what this whole thing was about, but still. It still blows my mind that anyone would care at all about what I have to say or about these people I made up in my brain, so this was basically a day where this was thrown in the air around me like fireworks.
The panel itself was so much fun. I was joined by Nadz & Grace (FRIENDS DON’T TELL), Attiya Khan (TEN STEPS TO US) and Sara Barnard (SOMETHING CERTAIN, MAYBE), who all had such insightful things to say about our topic, which was friendship in YA and just books/pop culture in general. Honestly, I feel like I just talked about The Office and weird anecdotes from my life, only really plugging my book to unintentionally give away spoilers (cringe). I was so nervous and so excited which, for me, generally results in a certain level of mania.
From left to right: Sara Barnard, Nadia Mendoza, Grace Francis, me and Attiya Khan
I left the experience feeling so heartened and happy, but now looking back at everyone else’s social media pictures, the self-doubt is increasingly creeping in. Did I totally embarrass myself? Did everyone who sat in the audience walk away thinking, Dear god, who was that lunatic? Did all the YALC organisers think, Lol never again? Did I completely waste the opportunity to talk about my book and amp it up to other writers and authors and now approximately zero people will care?
This is my first book, and I know I’m still learning. I find it hard to walk away from anything I care about feeling like I did a good job. But I did meet some great writers, bought an INSANE amount of books, and had the chance to talk to the people that make this whole experience worth it - the people that read my book and were so kind about it.
So if you did get a chance to say hey, please know that I think you are genuinely rad. Genuinely. Maybe (hopefully, definitely) I will see y’all again next year, even if I have to wear a weird cape or something to disguise myself because I’ve been banned on account of weirdness.
