Another day means another day of YALC, which consequently means another day OF BOOK SHOPPING! As expected, today was jam-packed with anything and everything. There were loads of big-name authors that were signing, there were amazing panels, and there were quite a few giveaways! Like I said: JAM-PACKED!

The day – like previous days – started off with me getting up at 7am and having breakfast. Luckily, a random stranger didn’t sit down at my table and steal my toast.

This morning, I met up with Kate and Hollie in the Tesco, and I stocked up on freezing cold drinks so that I could keep myself hydrated during the boiling hot day. We got into the convention at around 10:15am and we just had a wander round the stalls and seeing which books took our fancy. I kept hovering around some stalls such as Faber & Faber, and a couple of others, and before I even knew it, I had bought The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco, and Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne. The latter purchase actually made a lot of sense, because I was meeting Holly Bourne later on in the day, and I wanted her new book so that she could sign it.

At 11am, I headed over to the stage area so that I could attend the ‘Politics on the Page’ panel with Tomi Adeyemi, Yaba Badoe, Alice Skinner, Karen Gregory, Sarah Shaffi, and Tom Pollock. The panel was discussing how the government are shaping young adult’s futures, and how we can make our voices heard about issues such as feminism, the BLM movement, and LGBTQIA+ rights. It was such a fantastic panel, and it moved me to tears at some parts because it just solidified what I thought about our world: that it’s messed up.

However, on a lighter note, I ended up meeting Holly Bourne for the third time. I love her so much. She is such an amazing human being, a brilliant author, and a great advocate of mental health. I got her to sign my copy of Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? and now I’m just really excited to take it back home and read it straight away because I’ve been waiting for this book for so long. I did also try and meet Tomi Adeyemi and Samantha Shannon but the queues were SSSOOOOOOO long. I had bought both Children of Blood and Bone, and The Bone Season to get signed, and I was so excited to meet them both. I got ticketed for both queues (meaning that when my number was called, I could join the queue, which was a brilliant system), but in the end, my numbers weren’t actually called. There were so many people waiting to meet both authors that the Showmasters had to cut the queue off and call it a day, which I WAS VERY VERY ANNOYED by because I had been wanting to meet both authors for a very long time.

Between signings and panels, me and Kate headed over to the My Kinda Book stall to get our lips done by two professional make up artists. They were doing lip designs based off Children of Blood and Bone and I actually think mine turned out to be awesome!

What I could do though, was attend the ‘Amongst the Stars’ panel with Lauren James, Sasha Alsberg, Becky Chambers, and Samantha Shannon. Again, this was a brilliant panel where the topic of sci-fi novels were discussed, and what goes into making the perfect sic-fi novel. During the panel though, guess who just decided to waltz through the fire exit doors? ONLY BLOODY JASON MOMOA. I NEARLY DIED OF SHOCK. HE LOOKED SO GOD DAMN PERFECT, and everyone in the crowd (and the panel) just gasped in surprise. Seriously though… he looked like perfection.

Also during the panel, Lauren James had some exciting news for us: her next book titled The Quiet at the End of the World is coming out March 2019! Speaking of Lauren James, I also went to her signing, and I got her to sign my copy of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe (which I loved). She’s such a lovely, down-to-earth person and I’m glad to have met her for the second time.

The next thing on my list, was to go to the ‘My Body My Way’ panel with Charli Howard, Charly Cox, Dhonielle Clayton, Laura Dockrill, and Laura Steven. Again, this panel was brilliant, and like the ‘Politics on the Page’ panel, it drew me to tears. I could relate to so much that they were talking about surrounding body image and how it’s portrayed in the media, and how – through their novels – they are trying to tackle that issue. Going to that panel just made me want to read all of their books (except Dhonielle’s and Laura Dockrill’s because I’ve already read them!) Following the panel, I waited in line to meet Dhonielle Clayton so that she could sign my copy of The Belles. The queue went down so fast, and when it got to me, and I was so happy to finally meet her. She’s so full of energy, and even though she had spoken to dozens of fans, she still had so much enthusiasm which was really nice to see.

It was 4:45pm and I was getting so sleepy… I was just about to head back to the hotel, when suddenly there were loads of giggles and then there was Jason Momoa… Again… Just walking through YALC like it was no big deal. He kept turning and waving to all of us, and I swear he was doing it on purpose just so he could give us all heart attacks.

But when he left, and everyone had calmed down, it was about 5:20 and I was finally ready to go back to the hotel and get some food down me. To be completely honest, I’ve only just come back from having my yummy McDonalds! I was sat there for about an hour just catching up on all my notifications and then talking to my parents.

I can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day of YALC!! I don’t want it to end because it’s just been so good meeting all of the authors and meeting all my friends… Tomorrow is definitely going to be more relaxed as well because there’s not as much going on, so I think that tomorrow, I might head down to Comic Con and see what’s down there!

So, that’s everything for today, and I will speak to you tomorrow for my last day of YALC!