It's been a little while, but as I said in one of my later posts, uni has been obscenely busy. I haven't finished a book in almost a month!
However, I did spend yesterday at an absolutely fantastic event - YALFU! This is the Young Adult day of the International's Literature Festival of Utrecht, a large event that happens every year in The Netherlands. This year, amongst small Dutch authors, the event hosted V.E. Schwab, the author of the Shades of Magic trilogy, Vicious and Vengeful, as well as a whole collection of other fantastic books! She is an author who I had been wanting to meet for a long time - I love the Shades of Magic trilogy, and this put her in my top 5 authors to meet someday!
I was not disappointed. The event ended up being a lot more organised than last year, and I went there with a group of friend who I met at the event last year. We all had a fantastic day fangirling and seeing people we had not spoken to in some time! The day started off the day before. Some friends and I met up together in Amsterdam, where we played a personalised game of Cards Against Humanity. Combinations were fantastic, and we ad a great time playing and just catching up from the last time we met up earlier this year.
The next morning, we all took the train to Utrecht! The venue was fantastic - a large theatre-like building that makes for the perfect convention centre. We started off by exploring the various bookish shops that had set up a stand in the centre - most of them I knew well! I did end up buying two small candles, though! One is specifically made for the Shades of Magic series - made by RomeMadeCandles!
We then saw a talk with 3 dutch authors. I mostly didn't pay attention because, well, my Dutch isn't perfect. But the Italian author was super sweet and had a fantastic way of looking at writing and life in general, making him really interesting to listen to!
After the break, it was time for Schwab's interview! We all loved it - she said things that resonated with us, each for different reasons. She said that there was some sort of prophecy when she was born that said she would become an author or a cult leader - she totally is a cult leader who got us all in on it with words!
After the talk (that let us all feeling wholesome, somehow), we hung out until it was our turn to get our books signed. Despite staying in line for close to 2 hours, the bunch of us had a lot of fun talking about everything and nothing. The signing session was absolutely lovely - I was wearing a shirt depicting words from her books and had stylised my nails, which she seemed to really like! All of us had a lovely talk with her, and we all left super happy!
We did get a goodie bag as well, that I decided to donate to a local book drop point. This goes to a local open library that anyone can access. Since I don't read Dutch I believe that this was the right choice :)
If you ever are hesitating about wether or not to go to events, always take the step to do so. Not only can you make super fun friendships, but you get to experience great days and hear some truly motivational comments that makes it all worth it.
Stay bookish!
