eleven hours & back: sc highways, author pals, (super*new) books, and learning to spell my name
left: my anticipated ya’ll fest quick*trip anticipation in my weekly planner; right: quintessential charleston house on my way out of town. love the green door, the hidden porch top and bottom, and the font on the numbers above the door.
two years ago, i swore (well, i kept it pg and no blood oaths were involved) that i wouldn’t return to ya’ll fest until i was INVITED. as an author. on a panel. for a signing. and not just as a fangirl.
alas, when there was a chance that teaching my friday night watercolour workshop would be postponed, i began to dream. and tentatively plan. and, even though i DID teach friday night… and i didn’t book a hotel for friday or saturday in charleston… i couldn’t help but jump in the car early saturday morning.
i mean: just look at that proposed itinerary in my hobonichi planner above…! soman, whose career i’ve been following and fawning over for more than a decade now… well. i could make it in time to see him. and drive home afterwards. even if i had to miss the spectacle of his iconic smackdown performance and nonsense… i would at least get to say “hi.”
so i jumped in the car a little after 7am saturday, fueled up bessie’s gas tank, and hit the road, a thermos of my second cup of coffee and my two bites of cheese-to-go lasted me the 220 miles down 385 & 26, and poof! i was in charleston. JUST in time to find the line for soman’s 11am panel at the american theatre: neverending stories, worlds without end: the art of the series.
and look who it is! there on the left! it’s soman!
moderating a conversation with (from l. to right): amanda foody, c.l. herman, ava reid, and j. elle.
did i learn anything new? mmmm, no.
but am i always relieved to hear (once again) that absolutely everyone’s journeys and experiences and writing styles and careers are different as can be? of course.
& was i happy to be there? you betcha. (even if the tween wiggle worm in front of me was distracting, i wrote down 90% of the panel’s conversation just because that’s how i listen—with a pen in hand. and rotating between four different colors of ink, of course! aaaaand i have to remind myself, especially when they’re cutting in line, that those kids are MY future readers, too. soooo… we persevere!) : )
jun complimented my style, which always feels like a genuine compliment coming from a new yorker. i mean, my red hello kitty pumas DID look good against the american theatre’s variety of flooring, no?) ;)
after the panel, we left the building (not without ME being recognized by a fellow greenvillian author! teehee!), and got in ANoTHEr line outside… soman’s signing line!
the FIRST time i came to ya’ll fest (wth my future-handler haley! blog post HERE), i had soman sign my FIRST paperback edition of the FIRST book in his school for good and evil series.
so THIS trip, i brought book TWO: a world without princes. so we’ll eventually get them alllll signed.
(numbers 4 through 6 are already signed hardcover barnes & noble editions, although not personalized yet; the two prequels, i pre*ordered from books of wonder, and those ARE signed and personalized— as are the sfge book one netflix edition AND the book one collector’s special edition… and yeah. i’m obsessed. but i’m me, and i don’t have a problem with it.) ;)
while walking down the block to join the back of the (already formed) signing line,* i FINally got to meet jun sekiya! he’s been soman’s assistant basically for forever— and we’ve communicated and connected online a bunch— not just for the fan art contest (still proud of that one!), but for other fun stuff! (he’s writing a book, too— so we’re both in the pre*publishing trenches!) so it was FUN for him to recognize me and hug me— all while supervising soman’s street team of dudes handing out flyers for his NEW book coming out in may— which was having an arc (advanced reader's copy) drop at 2pm!
*here’s the thing about ya’ll fest: there are approximately 50 authors and about ten things happening simultaneously all day saturday with another couple dozen events that happen on friday… so you kinda have to decide: am i getting in signing lines? am i there for the free books/new releases/swag? am i there for the panels…? so unless you have an illegal time-turner, you can’t do it all. :the tough decision-making totally wears me out! ‘:)
i LOVE that pic of soman on the left— he’s got the rock star book star author smile down and always looks great— so when i said “it’s me! hallie! halthegal! last time we met i was in a mask!” he got all excited/surprised and actually DOES know who i am, so that proof was a joy.
the lady at the front of the signing line (who works for get underlined, the random house imprint that is publishing YOUNG WORLD) assured me that yes, soman was taking pictures with fans. and she offered to take pics (and hold my sweater!) while i met soman! yay!
so it was basically BOOK DISNEY WORLD.
soman signed book no. 2, my travelers notebook (spread below!) AND the flyer that teddy (one of the YOUNG WORLD “models” outside; teehee, i am agatha from sfge, apparently, even if i do still want sophie’s wardrobe sometimes) had given me!
he’s just the best.
(see also: his podcast PLOT TWIST with his bestie victoria aveyard, and his substack, DIARY OF A NOVEL, which he’s been writing weekly leading up to the release of YOUNG WORLD!)
le sob.
so stupidly grateful that authors i fangirl over accept everything i do as a compliment and haven’t put out restraining orders for my rabid fangirling/encouragement. er, yet… ;)
the YOUNG WORLD flyer soman signed for me; and sitting on the sidewalk (pretending to be) reading victoria aveyard’s RED QUEEN. p.s. anyone else think of THIS SONG when looking at that flyer for “REVOLTING YOUTH?” teehee. :)
jun warned me that there was ALreaDY a line for the arc drop of YOUNG WORLD, so by 12:20 i was already boogying over a couple blocks to wait outside the charleston museum/the get underlined sponsor tent for the 2pm happening.
i attempted to read RED QUEEN (yes, first time reader; yes, i’m ten years too late to the party, but it was SO good!), but just like in line at disney world: sometimes the conversations and people-watching around me were too good to be able to pay attention to/make sense of the words on the page.
at about 1:45 (the line NOW WRAPPING DOWN and ARounD the block and through the spanish-mossed trees!!), we were given tickets. and whew! i was number 25 of 150— i was going home with an arc of YOUNG WORLD! hip hip huzzah and internal happy dance!!
soman appeared in the tent in a bright orange jersey, and i got giddy all over again.
(much UNLIKE my very first time meeting him, i wasn’t nervous AT ALL. just excited. this trip i felt like i was a PEER, even if our careers are nothing alike. someday maybe i’ll have a chance to have a real conversation -without a line behind me- with him, too.) :)
i didn’t realize until i got home that night, but YOUNG WORLD (coming may 5, 2026!!) was signed, too! (and in gold metallic marker, no less. thank you, soman!!)
of course i’ve already pre*ordered a copy (to get that bound book of his DIARY OF A NOVEL entries!), but will also order a copy once he announces signed copies from BOOKS OF WONDER. or, heck, maybe i’ll even be able to make it up to the city next may.
hey, a gal can keep dreaming. and i love an extra excuse to get to nyc… (met costume art, anybody? uh, me please!!)
so while i was too hyped/anxious/hyper to eat while downtown charleston, i DID swing by the blue bicyle books tent (the indie bookstore that sponsors/supports ya’ll fest every year) juuuuuust to browse.
& the hubs should be v. proud of me as i only bought ONE book: TO BE OR NOT TO BE (“a choosable-path adventure”), written (and signed, of course, even if i didn’t see him/meet him at ya’ll fest!) by ryan north.
i DID see rachel griffin under the tent (her latest, THE SUN AND THE STARMAKER, comes out februrary, 2026 and i cannot wait!), but, of course, didn’t dare interrupt her earned & gloriously looooooonnnnnggggg signing line. :)
so YOUNG WORLD arc and my shakespeare-adjacent HAMLET sorta-perpetual-retelling in hand, i also bought a sticker for my travelers notebook and got my car back from the lot where i’d parked.
i shimmied out of town, and by 4-ish, was in a chick-fil-a drive through in the middle o’ nowhere-south carolina because i needed something to eat more than my morning coffee and cheese of 8 hours earlier. (also paused in the cfa parking lot to put up a reel on insta because i was already replaying the day’s memories in my head and wanted to share the fun!)
this year’s ya’ll fest spread in my traveler’s notebook. needless to say, famous soman knows how to spell “hallie” a lot better than the kid in the drive-through line. (“howley” was a new one. although i did get “hale” as in “hail” recently!)
the sun set, i made it home, and reveled in the day’s adventures as i finished RED QUEEN in my pajamas. (soon as bessie’s out of the shop this afternoon for a burned-out headlight, i’m totally going to my bookstore go get numbers two and three in the series!)*
so am i glad i gave in to fomo and drove 440 miles in one day to see soman for, like, 90 seconds? totally. did my day*venture trip exceed expectations? absolutely.
am i ever gonna be spontaneous again? er, unlikely. (unless it’s related to books. then i’ll probably be just as hopeless.)
i still wanna go to ya’ll fest at their invitation.
which, yes, i know means i shall get to EVEN feWER panels and signing and arc drops and events… but, hey. either side of the signing table is a-ok for this book gal.
i’m always happiest surrounded by books (and/or authors), and those anxiety meds sure have helped SO much to see other book people as people just like me: sharing the same excitements and career yays and woes.
as long as there are humans, there shall be stories to tell.
and i want them all. :)
until the next imminent tale to tell,
*hallie :)
*update: i went. there are apparently FOUR more books in the RED QUEEN series. and yes, i got them all. + REALM BREAKER! better take the rest of 2025 off to read! ;D