4th Annual UCF Book Festival

Wow! It has been a pretty awesome day! I was fortunate enough to be asked to moderate a panel of Authors for this year’s UCF Book Festival.

This year there were 55 authors conducting 20 panels. Topics ranged from children’s books to pop-lit to horror and more.

So this is how it went down.

• I got an email on Monday from a coworker in a panic because she wasn’t able to moderate the panel. She was looking for help. I volunteered because it looked AWESOME!
• The 4 children’s books were dropped off to me on Wednesday.
• I read all 4 in a mad dash over 2 days.
• Laughed my butt off (Which was appropriate as the panel was titled “ROTFL= Roll on the Floor Laughing”)
• Met up with the authors the night before at the Festival Reception (I felt fancy. They served things like whipped sweet potatoes with BBQed Pulled Pork with an orchid as a garnish AND served in a martini glass… yeah, like I said, fancy…)
• Learned that I need to write a book so I can attend more fancy receptions and galas.
• Chatted and joked with various authors and big names like UCF President Hitt and Lou Frey.
• Ate more food.
• Collected business cards.
• Enjoyed the UCF Jazz band. (They are really good!)
• Went home.
• Woke up too early and got to the Festival super early.
• Hung out with my authors some more.
• Panel (We kicked butt, made lots of people laugh).

That should have been the end of my involvement but I decided to help out some more. As my authors were not familiar with the UCF arena I decided to stalk out the rest of their schedule to help them find where they needed to be. So I did this while they were stuck signing books. 🙂 I also got my books signed (Well resigned. They were already personalized to the previous moderator so they ‘fixed’ them, which makes them even more awesome (as if that were possible)). {You like my parentheseption?}

Where was I? I like to go off on tangents, a lot, ask my friends.

Right! I helped them get where they needed to go and even got to have a nice lunch with them (with the most amazing dessert bar, called a Congo bar. SO GOOD! Make some, then pile the good stuff on top for maximum awesome.)

Tangents.

Jeez, I haven’t even told you the names of the authors yet! I’m hopeless.

1. Todd Hasak-Lowy wrote “33 Minutes Until Morgan Sturtz Kicks my Butt”. It was a great book about getting into a fight in middle school, fire drills, food fights, and the idea of losing your best friend. Great read!
2. Ellis Weiner wrote “The Templeton Twins Have and Idea”. I am super excited that this will be a series! Yay! A set of brilliant  twins have to outwit their kidnappers to get back to their dad. There are zany inventions, a recipe for meatloaf, and a Ridiculous Dog. Loved it!
3. Alan Katz wrote “Ricky Vargas: The Funniest Kid in the World”. Broken up into 3 short sections of hilariousness. It holds a special place on my book shelf.

Well, all of them have a special place on my book shelf…

I will have to upload a few pictures for you from the event later this week. Have you ever been to a Book Festival or Book event in general? Where? and What did you think about it? Comment!