That's a Wrap: UtopYA Con 2013

Let my start off by saying this: I was right in my previous post about UtopYA Con. I totally fangirled. It was bad. I'm also going to apologize here for the length of this post. A lot has happened in two days, so it's probably going to be pretty long.

If you're reading this post on my blog, you obviously like books. Any book lover has those authors that you just look up to. Those ones that you hope to someday be like. I met all of those authors during this convention. It's one thing to read what they post online, but it's another to talk to them in person. It's strange to actually see them outside of my Kindle or outside of the blogging/social media world. I have to remind myself that these are just people. Real, honest people, not just figments of my imagination that happen to write awesome books.

This has been an amazing experience. I've learned so much at each of the panels I went to that I will be applying to my writing and how I start to market my books. As of now, I've not really done any marketing on the Prophesized Series. Everything that has happened has been because of word of mouth. You fans are amazing at spreading the word, so thank you for that! I reached out to maybe three blogs total and never heard anything back, but after going to the Blog Your Face Off panel, I'll probably start looking into some things. 

I think the biggest thing that resonated with me was that these people understand. Not just the authors on the panels, but everyone. We were there because we all share a common interest.These authors were talking about how real their characters were to them. My characters are real to me. My sister is always making fun of me because I talk to my characters. When I'm stuck, I sit down and talk with my characters. Ultimately, it's there story. I'm just the person that's putting it down on paper. These authors said that this weekend. They stated that their characters are as real in their mind as my characters are in mind. I makes me feel less weird about what I do, because I've found out that I'm not alone. There are others like me! I don't have any other writer friends, so it was really cool to hear that from someone else.

Read all of her books if you haven't. She's amazing!

Yes. That is me with Shelly Crane. The Shelly Crane: NY Time and USA Today best-selling author of the Significance Series.

She's seriously the sweetest person you will ever meet. I was almost too chicken to go up and talk to her, but I'm so glad that I did. Then, I got an autographed book, Accordance, which I will never open. It's so pretty and I don't want to ruin it.

Now, all I need is a display case, a spotlight, and music that goes "Ahhhhh" every time someone walks past it. That's how treasured this book is going to be. I love my books...especially signed books.

This was the point where I almost fangirled.

I don't know what happened to me, but I totally fangirled over Amy A. Bartol. I was blushing before I even went up to talk to her. It took a lot for me to even get up the courage to walk up to her after the Music as a Muse panel.

I asked for a picture with her and told her about how she helped me get the courage to go forward with publishing and I almost cried. I don't know why I always cried, but yeah...that almost happened. Afterwards, I just sat down and started shaking. I was literally shaking. My sister found it so amusing that I was reacting that bad to just talking to her, but I couldn't help it. I mean...that's Amy A. Bartol for crying out loud. I'm surprised I didn't squeal in her face and run away giggling.

THEN, the next day, I went and bought a book (Incendiary--which if you haven't read the Premonition Series, please do. You won't regret it!) and she signed it and asked about my book series and I almost died. Yes, that is a total exaggeration, but still. It could have happened.

 I'm sure she talked with many people throughout the day, but she remembered that I published a book. (It could be that I tagged her in stuff all the time on twitter...I'm not stalking, I swear! Just a big fan!) But it meant a lot that she actually asked.

Even now, the day after UtopYA Con and I still can't believe that I actually met her.

I think the thing that got me was that she contacted me before. In fact, she actually follows my blog. She wrote that message above on my Goodreads profile two months before I published BlackMoon Beginnings. The fact that an author that I looked up to wrote something like that was very helpful to me. The whole indie world is very supportive of each other and even if nothing else comes out of this book series, I will always be grateful for those simple words.

I really wanted to get a signed book from Samantha Young, but by the time I made it to her table, she had already left :( Slumber is one of my favorite books and I would have loved to have a signed physical copy. I will probably be buying a copy in the near future anyway though. I wished that I could have met her, but I chickened out every time I saw her. By the way, her accent is amazing.

Here are just some other pictures that I took during this time.

The first picture there is Victoria Faye Alday, who some of you may recognize her as the woman who designed my book covers! She's amazing. I kind of avoided her all day because I was afraid to actually meet her. I was a little star struck again. Haha. I'm weird like that. Sorry for my camera's poor quality.

The second picture is from the Cast Your Characters panel feature Chelsea Fine, Amy A. Bartol, Shelly Crane, Frankie Rose and her cover model Colin. (Colin walked around shirtless a lot during this convention...no one complained.) The last picture is of CJ Redwine and Samantha Young from the How to Snag a Traditional Publisher.

Also, I was asked for an autograph! I signed a UtopYA Con 2013 bag that had all the other author's signatures on it. SHE ASKED FOR MY AUTOGRAPH. Do you realize how big that is? I had a moment where I was like "Is this real life?" I couldn't believe it.

* I've linked all the books mentioned in this post to their Amazon page, so if you want to download them which I would highly recommend, you have easy access :)

I'd call this a very good experience for my first UtopYA Con. I will definitely be coming next year. I'm already looking forward to it and can't wait to see where this next year is going to take me.

The theme for the next UtopYA Co is aliens. Isn't that an awesome tagline?

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