Welcome to my YALC diary DAY TWO!! If you haven’t read my post about my first day in London, then you can check it out here. Technically, today was the first day of YALC, but because I got to London yesterday, then for me, today is day two.

Since it was the first day of YALC, I had a lot planned, and I wanted to make sure that I got around to everything. I’m a YALC newbie, so I wanted to SEE everything, DO everything and just take everything in. 

When I woke up this morning at 7, my anxiety was playing up A LOT. I knew a handful of people that were going already, and I had SPOKEN to a lot of people via Twitter because I was part of a YALC group chat, but I was so nervous to meet the people that I had been talking to for about 2 months. But, I knew that I had to push through my anxiety; I couldn’t let it stop me from having a good time this weekend. So I got changed, went downstairs to have breakfast (where the people who worked at the hotel decided to sit a random man at the same table as me – and then he went on to steal my toast!), and got ready for the day ahead of me.

Over the YALC chat, I decided that I was going to meet Jemma by the Tesco (which is opposite the entrance for YALC). This was my first time meeting Jemma so I was super nervous, but SHE WAS SUCH A LOVELY HUMAN and we got on so well, and it just felt like I had known her for ages. We got a few snacks from Tesco, and I had to get some cream because well… thighs chafing for 6 hours is not good, or comfortable… So it had to be dealt with. It was hot as well… TOO HOT. Jemma and I hadn’t even gotten into the convention centre and we were sweating. It wasn’t nice. Because of the heat, the people working the YALC door, tried to get us in as soon as possible, which I found extremely helpful, and after waiting about 15 minutes, I saw Kate (who I HAD met before), and her friend, Hollie (who I HADN’T). It was just so nice to be amongst friends, MY PEOPLE!

FINALLY, we were allowed to go upstairs and enjoy YALC!

I went with Kate and Hollie around the stalls and picked up LOADS of freebies that included samplers and bookmarks. I was so glad that I had included two extra tote bags, so that I could put everything in (I also had my Totoro backpack). Luckily, the second tote bag came in handy because Hollie forgot hers!

One of the first ‘big’ things that we did was head to the Hodderscape stall. Hodderscape (imprint of Hodder & Stoughten) are one of my favourite publishers because they publish some amazing books like Caraval, Strange the Dreamer, and Flame in the Mist (just to name a few). Some of their brilliant titles were on display to buy, and if you bought 2 paperbacks (for £10, WHICH IS AMAZING), then you got to pick a free item of their stall. Among the free items were an ARC of Girls of Paper and Fire, an ARC of Emily Eternal, pin badges, patches, tote bags… I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted Girls of Paper and Fire, so I bought Iron Gold by Pierce Brown, and The Waking Land by Callie Bates and then I GOT GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE FOR FREE AND OH MY GOD I WAS SO EXCITED!! Seriously, I have been emailing the publisher so much to get an ARC of it, but I never heard back (or received an ARC) so when I saw it at YALC, I just had to get it.

That was my first purchase at YALC, and it was after 20 minutes. In my head, I kept thinking about how much money I had, and kept reminding myself of my budget (I’m such a good adult.)

I was pretty unorganised when it came to knowing when ARC drops were going to happen, so I was relying on Kate to keep me and Hollie updated. When she announced that there was a chance to get an ARC of The Girl King, I nearly screamed. This was another book that I was super excited for, and I HAD to get my hands on an ARC. So Kate, Hollie and I headed over to Orion. At this point, it was nearly 11am, and I realised that I had the Sara Barnard signing at 11am as well. Putting my priorities in order, I headed over to the Sara Barnard queue. I have never met her before today, and I absolutely love her books, so I really needed to meet her. Whilst I was waiting for Sara Barnard, Kate and Hollie were queuing for The Girl King ARC. The queue to meet Barnard went down so quick, and before I knew it, I was face-to-face with one of my favourite authors. I gushed about how much I loved her books (especially A Quiet Kind of Thunder), and I got my book signed and a selfie!

After I had met Barnard, I rushed over to the Orion queue and joined Kate and Hollie. They hadn’t managed to snag an ARC the first time around, so they had joined the queue again to try once more. Once I got to the front, I found out that to get an ARC, you had to pick a red petal out of the box. The box was filled with white petals, with only 10 red in there. Hollie tried again and managed to pick a red petal out, Kate tried and it and didn’t get one, and then I tried and succeeded! I WAS SO HAPPY!! We queued again so that we could try and get Kate one, but unfortunately, all 10 had been snagged for that hour, so we had to wait til 12 to try again.

Whilst we were waiting for the next giveaway of The Girl King, me, Hollie, and Kate went to one of the panels: ‘Can We Be Friends?’, that looked at friendships within YA novels. On the panel were Alice Oseman, David Owen, Gayle Foreman, and Lauren Price. It was such an interesting panel and we took the opportunity to have some snacks to keep our energy up.

12 o clock arrived, and we then queued up again for The Girl King giveaway, where KATE WON AN ARC! Then, we headed to the Harper booth for the giveaway of Damsel. I think it was supposed to be a raffle but the people at Harper decided to just give them out instead. I thought that Kate, Hollie and me were too far back to get an ARC, but it turns out we were just on time, as they ran out of books after about 7 people after us. Damsel was another book that I have been eyeing for a very long time, so to finally have it in my hand was brilliant.

I don’t know how it happened but it was nearly 4pm and the ‘200 Years of Frank’ panel was coming up. Whilst Kate and Hollie for queuing up for a signing, I queued up to help Vicky get an ARC of The Girl King. The 4pm giveaway was their last one for the weekend and Vicky was adamant to get a copy. I really don’t know how I suddenly became really lucky, but when it was my turn to pick a red petal, I GOT ONE! I handed the ARC to Vicky and she got so excited, jumping up and down and hugging me. Bless her.

Once that was done, we all headed to the Frankenstein panel, where I got a free copy of the new edition of Frankenstein. On the panel was Ed McDonald, Joanne Harris, Matt Killeen, Melinda Salisbury, and Sarah Maria Griffin. They talked about different types of monsters and the monsters in each of their books, and it was a really interesting panel! I enjoyed it so much.

I was shattered after the long, first day at YALC, but it wasn’t over! All of us on the YALC chat had decided that we were going to meet up at Foyles at Piccadilly, and then get some food afterwards. So I headed back to my hotel, got changed, and then went to meet Kate and Hollie at Hammersmith station. As soon as we got to Piccadilly, the heavens opened. It just started chucking it down of rain and we had to find shelter otherwise we would have been drenched. I absolutely loved having the rain since the UK has been scorching hot for about 3 months, so I went walking in it, not caring if I got soaked.

Finally, the rain slowed down and we headed to Foyles to meet everyone else. We all stood in the YA section and had a good natter. I don’t think anyone actually bought anything apart from Kate… It was more of a book meet up, rather than a book buying meet up! In the end, everyone realised that they were absolutely starving! It had been a really long day and we all needed to re-fuel, so we headed up to Pizza Hut and gorged ourselves on food! IT WAS SO GOOD! It was about 9:20pm when everyone had finished and people decided to head back to the hotel, but me, Hollie and Kate decided to go to Waterstones as there were a couple of things that they both wanted to buy.

With books bought and our stomachs full, it was time to head back to the hotel… Once I got back, I didn’t have the motivation to write this post; I was so tired. BUT! I powered through the tiredness!

It was a very very long day today, and I know it’s going to be even MORE tiring tomorrow because there’s A LOT more going on.

Wish me luck, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow!