There's No Place Like Vegas!

As you already know two of my daughters and I went to Vegas last weekend for the Vegas Valley Book Festival. It was an eye opener for me, because the Festival was downtown--which is so much different from the Strip. I can sum up what we saw in one word --kitsch! Kitsch, kitsch everywhere--there is nothing more beautiful than kitsch against a bright blue sky.

Where else in the world can you see a red pumps floating in the sky that have the added benefit of glowing at night.

Or,  star spangled bikini women against a backdrop of a patriotic parking garage.

Or, bare bones casinos that advertise everything they've got.  Coffee Shop--CHECK, Bar--CHECK, Gambling--CHECK, and what else, Free Parking of course.

We ate at The Beat coffee house. The food was okay, but the atmosphere was very hip. My husband would have loved their record collection.

We also ventured out of downtown and off the Strip to the Komex restaurant for dinner. Yes, you know Komex food, it's everywhere. Everyone loves their Korean Mexican fusion restaurants. We all had the Bulgogi Burrito which is a type of Korean Barbecue style meat (in our case beef) in a classic Mexican style burrito.  It was super yum--on my scale of yum, super yum is the yummiest. I wish I had been brave enough to order the kim chee with it.

Every restaurant has to have Chinese placemats with their chips, salsa and guacamole.

Vegas makes multicultural work baby!!!

Vegas Valley Book Festival Paranormal Ball--Where we were all winners!

We had the best weekend! The Las Vegas Book Festival was amazing and the Paranormal Ball, well, who could resist that!  Even though the Paranormal Ball was the last thing we did at the festival--I just had to start this blog post there.

You cannot really read the sign they kneeling before, but daughter S and L are both pointing to where it says, "The Paranormal Ball, Hosted by Brodi Ashton, with other authors attending." There were many other authors there and I thought it was incredibly generous of them. There was probably about 60 people at the ball and about15 of those were authors--we were able to sit and chat with many and it was quite amazing. For a list of the authors attending and some of their books read on--they are listed below where I mention the panels we attended.

Here we are in costume--so, I have to explain the costumes because they are from Brodi's Book that doesn't come out until January. Daughter S is the main character from Everneath, Nikki. She is dressed to attend a rock concert of the Dead Elveses--a band in the book. Daughter L and I are band members of that evil band! Don't we just look like rockers! It was really silly--but fun! Daughter S drew our wonderful Dead Elveses t-shirts in our hotel room. (Sorry, daughter S that I chose the picture with your eyes closed--but it is the best picture of me and the blogger chooses!)

I have to admit that I felt like an over-the-hill cougar on the prowl in Vegas. Not exactly my favorite look.

Daughter L was very paranormal, she could play the guitar and hula hoop at the same time!

Here are my girls with the talented Brodi Ashton who was taking a break from her hosting duties.

Here is Brodi hosting and handing out books. They gave many books away and we won two!!!

Brodi may just kill me, but I had to put a picture of her dancing the Electric Slide. Now that is a host that takes her duties seriously!!! There was no way you could stand on the side--we all had to dance!

I thought our Utah authors--Bree Despain, Brodi Ashton and Emily Wing Smith looked incredible. They were angels, but I don't think I knew why their wings were black. It's a mystery.

Daughter S was recruited to help hand out books!

While the Paranormal Ball was decidedly fun the Vegas Valley Book Festival was quite amazing! They had several different things going at once. First of all it was just a great book festival--there were panels, book signings, poetry readings, face painting, singing and yummy food carts. Then there was a special Children's Book Festival with a fun play area and authors--and finally this year the Vegas Valley Book Festival added a YA section to the festivities.

The Young Adult section is where we spent most of our time. We went to a couple of panels that were amazing and we were able to ask questions and listen to distinguished authors.

Here's a taste of what we saw:

1st Panel: What's hot for teens in fantasy and paranormal fiction.

Rachel Caine (the Morganville Vampire series), James Dashner (the Maze Runner trilogy and 13th Reality series), Becca Fitzpatrick (the Hush, Hush trilogy), Sophie Jordan (the Firelight series) and Bree Despain (The Dark Divine). Veronica Wolff (The Watchers series), Tera Lynn Childs (Oh. My. Gods) and Rachel Hawkins (the Hex Hall series).

In this picture: A side view of Becca Fitzpatrick, Rachel Caine, Bree Despain, the very funny James Dashner, Sophie Jordan and Tera Lynn Childs.


I wish I had taken a picture that included the moderator Rachel Hawkins because she was quite hilarious and also Veronica Wolf because she was thoughtful and interesting and she just shot the breeze with us at the ball.


2nd Panel: Contemporary teen fiction: the dark and the light.

Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why), Daisy Whitney (The Mockingbirds), Liz Gallagher (The Opposite of Invisible), Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss), Emily Wing Smith (The Way He Lived) and Lisa Schroeder (The Day After).

Pictured here: Lindsey Leavitt, Emily Wing Smith, and Daisy Whitney

3rd Panel: Blending Realistic Fiction With Fantasy.

Jay Asher (The Future of Us), Heather Davis (The Clearing), Cat Patrick (Forgotten), Lindsey Leavitt (the Princess for Hire series) and Suzanne Young (A Need So Beautiful). Daisy Whitney moderates. 


Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.


The amazing thing was there weren't a ton of people, so we could actually talk to the authors. We stood in line and received a free ARC of Bree Despain's next book The Savage Grace that doesn't come out until March 13. Then we were able to have her sign it too!

Thanks Bree!

Here is daughter L with Sophie Jordan getting her book signed.

I am not usually a embarrassing raving fan--but this was just too fun!