Decatur Book Festival 2012

I've know about the Decatur Book Festival (DBF) for about three years now but this was the first time hubs and I have attended. DBF is free to attend and held every year in Decatur, Georgia (Atlanta area) on Labor Day Weekend. It is pretty awesome because they get several big name authors come to speak and sign books, as well as an opportunity for lesser known authors to set up booths for old and new fans to connect. I'm really thrilled I got to attend this event this year on Sunday and got lots of new books, all signed of course! In Alli's World, it was a pretty amazing day!

Author: Nancy Holder

Panel: Way Beyond Fan Fiction

She writes companion books to TV shows 

like Buffy and Teen Wolf,

as well as her own books

such as Wicked.

Author: Barry Lyga

Panel and Book: I Hunt Killers

Fav quote from Panel: "Killers have standards too."

Authors: Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritsen

Panel: Deadly Combo-Blockbusters from Page to Screen

These are the masterminds behind the Bones and Rizzoli and Isles

book series and therefore ultimately the TV shows.

It was interesting hearing them talk about their involvement in there respective shows. Reichs is a producer on Bones and Gerristsen has little to no involvement in Rizzoli and Isles. They also discussed the differences between the books and the shows. 

Hubs, Me, & Tess Gerritsen

Authors (l-r): Jessica Khoury, Sarah Maas, Dan Krokos, C.J. Redwine, 

Heather Brewer and SR Johannes

Their Books (l-r): Origin, Throne of Glass, False Memory, Defiance, 

The Legacy of Tril: Soulbound, Untraceable

Panel: Warrior Grrrrrrrrls

The theme of this panel was really cool. The authors talked about the movement in YA lit towards strong female characters. Females that don't need to be rescued but in fact are doing the rescuing. I think this is wonderful and hope that it is more than a passing fad in the genre. 

Paraphrase from Heather Brewer on why there are never 

any parents in a YA Novel:

"Parents make things safe. If parents were present nothing 

exciting could happen."

(She said it better but it was the end of the day and I was hot and tired and failed to write it down. But this is often something I'd pondered myself and thought it was a good explanation.)

I also spoke to a couple other awesome authors but failed to get photos.

I will do better in the future.

Shout outs to authors: 

Heather Self (book: The One) and 

C.A. Kunz (book: The Childe).

Here's a link to Smash Attack Reads. She is another blogger who attended DBF and I think she did a great job of recapping the event. She attended more than I did and went to some different panels so if you want more from DBF check out her site! 

Plus, the site is just super cute!

If you are a book lover and in the area around Labor Day, I simply must recommend the DBF to you. I'll def be going again!

For more info on the Decatur Book Festival, click here.

Here's the books

and swag from DBF2012!