Tuesday Top Ten-Authors I Can’t Wait to See at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books!

Tomorrow will mark exactly one month until one of the biggest events for a book lover like me, sickness living in California: the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

I’ve been going since I was kid, order but really didn’t realize I could meet authors at the festival until I met Meg Cabot back in…2009? 2008? Something like that. Then I got even more addicted to the festival, story and have added more authors to my “Must Meet” list when I attend.

Last year, I had an absolute blast, meeting Cassandra Clare again, and meeting authors I had never met and was so excited to meet like Morgan Matson, Sarah Dessen and Veronica Roth.

But I also met some of the amazing friends that I have now. My best fangirl best friend Sylvia? Met her there. I met Jasmine and Paulina and so many others of my friends there.

So I’m really excited about this year. They just announced the list last week, and I’m so excited. Its hard to narrow it down to just ten authors because this year is going to be so totally epic, but here it is:

Honorable Mention: Andrew Smith

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I’ve met Andrew Smith SO many times already and I do want people to know that he is going to be there. I hope I will be stopping by to say hi to him during the Fest but I’ll be seeing him at Pasadena Teen Book Festival so I won’t be having him sign books and such. There’s a lot of authors I want to see so I have to make time for the ones who I will only see at FoB. But Andrew Smith is an awesome author and fun to meet, and fun to talk to so I hope I can at least say hi to him during the Fest.

10. Melissa de la Cruz 

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I’ve already met Melissa de la Cruz a couple times. But never as an author. I’ve met her at other author events and have taken pictures with her and talked to her, but I don’t have any books signed by her! That’s crazy face. I just received an ARC of her new book, The Ring and the Crown in the mail and it sounds absolutely amazing so I hope to finish it before the fest (I should) and get it signed by her. I have a feeling I’m really going to love this book.

9. Tamara Ireland Stone

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So I have her two books already signed because I won a giveaway over at The Adventures of a Book Junkie and I got a copy of Time Between Us and Time after Time (UK Editions..wooo) signed. But I do want to meet her. She has a fun little duo going on. I thought it was contemporary, which is why I read it, because I was trying to avoid science fiction and stuff like that, but it has a little twist to it and the books are so good. I love that they take place in 1995 and 2012. Its super fun, and suddenly reminds me of True Detective, even though the book came out first. But I want to get my copy of Time Between Us signed and I’d like to get the UK editions personalized. She’s really cool and she read my review of Time Between Us and I’d like to meet her.

8. Huntley Fitzpatrick

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I LOVE Huntley. I picked up her book My Life Next Door on a whim, because it was next to Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and it just caught my eye, and again, was a contemporary novel, which is what I was looking for. I loved the story, but I loved Jase and his ginormous family the best because it felt so familiar to my large family. I really want to meet her and tell her she wrote a big family so perfectly, both the bad and the good. I felt like I was Jase, definitely. So I hope I can meet her. I wish that her next book came out before the Fest but it comes out the day AFTER. Of course.

7. Ann Brashares

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I actually got way excited when I learned Ann Brashares was going to be there. I know that she has a new book coming out in early April before the Festival that I’m probably going to pick up BUT she was HUGE to me in high school. I can’t have been the only girl who was absolutely obsessed with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I seriously LOVED those books so much and I remember having a serious book crush on Kostos. Hot, sensitive, passionate Greek boy? I’m down. So I’m really excited to meet her to tell her how much her books meant and influenced me when I was in high school.

6. Stephen Chbosky 

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I’ve already met this man, and he is absolutely amazing and I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to. Seriously. He gave me wonderful writing advice and I was able to talk to him about a part in his book that most people look over, but was incredibly important and emotional for me. He is fantastic. At the time I met him (Ontario TBF, god that event was amazing), I didn’t have the money to buy his book so while I have his writing advice on my poster, I don’t have a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower signed by him. So I hope to track him down and get that signed because that would be absolutely awesome. He is a seriously fantastic writer and a funny and inspiring person.

5. Deb Caletti 

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I am so excited to meet her, I can barely contain it. I feel like I’m constantly checking her website to see if she’s coming near me and she never is. I definitely definitely want to meet her. I love her books, she’s a brilliant contemporary YA writer and I definitely think she’s had an influence in the way I write my contemporary YA. My friend Jade was like “WHAT? You haven’t met her, she was at the fest a couple years ago”….and I’m like, I know! The one year that I didn’t go! So figures. So yes, very excited to meet her. Its silly, but her book, The Nature of Jade, is the reason that I got obsessed with the penguin webcam at the Long Beach Aquarium. Jade watches the elephant webcam from the local zoo, and I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if there’s a penguin cam…” and totally found it. And I am so in love with it.

4. Marissa Meyer

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I really, really, really want to meet her. I just recently read her series but I became addicted right away. Thanks Erin. Her stories are so great, a mix of dystopian, science fiction and fairy tale. I love her books. She was in California for the release of Cress, but she was down in San Diego, the day after the Vampire Academy premiere and I was just too pooped to do anything about it. I just didn’t want to go. So now that she’s going to be here for Festival of Books, I’m just so excited. I need to get actual physical copies of Scarlet and Cress, and I need to be like “You’re brilliant! AGH!” Or something like that.

3. John Green 

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I am so excited that he is going to be there. I remember seeing his name, and almost shaking with excitement. John Green is one of those authors that I thought…there’s no way. I’ll probably never meet him. My friend/contributor Christina Marie met him recently and got me a signed copy of Looking for Alaska, signed to me, and I was pretty excited about that. And John Green sent me a personalized message on Facebook when I asked for writing advice and that was beautiful. So seeing his name on the list made my heart stop. I know his line is going to be insanity but I’m determined to meet him and have him sign my copy of An Abundance of Katherines…oh, and The Fault in Our Stars, of course.

2. Veronica Roth

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Okay, I’ve totally already met Veronica Roth but I absolutely love her and her books. I wouldn’t get a Divergent tattoo if I didn’t feel that way. I met her last year at the Festival of Books and got Divergent and Insurgent signed. Now that Allegiant was released in November, I need to have that signed so I have a complete collection. Plus, I want to tell Veronica how much I loved the ending of Allegiant because she’s gotten so much hate and I want to tell her that I loved it and thought it was incredibly fitting. Oh and I want to show her my Divergent tattoo too. I’ve gotten to show Cassandra Clare my TMI tattoo and I showed Billie Piper my DW tattoo so this would be excellent. Can’t wait.

1. Rainbow Rowell

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I nearly peed my pants and cried when I found out that Rainbow was going to be here in April…and then I found out she was going to be at the Festival and got even happier. She has easily become one of my absolute favorite authors. I loved Eleanor and Park and Attachments but Fangirl literally blew my mind because of how close it was to my life. I know a lot of people think this, and its true, but Cath was so me. I felt tears in my eyes for so much of the book and its NOT a sad book. It just felt so good to relate SO much to a character, to know exactly what she means when she is talking. It was incredible. That book is now one of my favorite books and my friend Cassandra got it signed for me at YALL Fest. But now I get to meet her, and tell her, and possibly give her a letter to tell her what that book meant to me. And that’s incredibly exciting to me!

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Are you attending the Festival of Books? What are some authors that you are excited to see?

And if you aren’t going (because you live somewhere else), are there any authors coming near you soon that you’re excited to meet?

Share in the comments!

8 thoughts on “Tuesday Top Ten-Authors I Can’t Wait to See at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books!

    • Sara says:

      Yes, of course, Kayla! And its DEFINITELY not too late to hop on this train at all. The event is Saturday April 12th and Sunday April 13th at the USC campus. Its from about 10 am to 5 pm, I’m not sure of the exact hours. There are a TON of authors going, and the full list can be found at their site. You can actually apply to be press until the 31st, if you’re interested, for your blog. The entire event is free. Tickets for panels go on sale on April…6th, I believe. They are technically free, but there’s a dollar service charge for each one, so they’re a dollar basically haha. The schedule of panels and signings will be announced on March 17th. Let me know if you have any more questions.

      • Kayla Sanchez says:

        I work on the 12… and wouldn’t be able to show up till about 4 I’m sure. I guess it depends on what authors are on the 13th then. Do they have a schedule up yet? Edit: oops, just saw that you said it’s up the 17th. I’ll have to check it out and decide then :)

        What’s the difference between signing up as press or just going as a normal person?

        • Sara says:

          I haven’t done press for this event last year but I had a blogger friend who did it. The first row in all the panels are reserved for press, and you tend to have an easier time meeting authors and such. You also have the press tent to go, which can be very helpful, because it gets hot and that’s guaranteed seats and I think they have water and stuff.

          • Sara says:

            I definitely applied for press. I didn’t have it last year and I kind of want to see what the difference would be. It just asks about your site stats and stuff like that. I heard that getting into panels and signings can be slightly easier if you have a press badge

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