YAGB Baltimore Workshop Recap (and Giveaway!)

Hi everyone! As you may or may not have known, last night, I attended one of the YAGB workshops! The Baltimore workshop was a 30-minute drive for me, which is the closest book event I've ever had the opportunity of attending. 

Anyway! These wonderful ladies - Erin Bowman, Kat Zhang, Susan Dennard, Sarah J. Maas, and guest star, Jodi Meadows, were amazing enough to stop by in Baltimore (instead of Wasington, D.C. Woohoo!). I am honored that they would travels miles and miles to meet and talk to an audience of the ages 13-22 in Cockeysville. An all-girl audience, I might add!

A huge thanks to the four touring ladies - Erin, Kat, Susan, and Sarah. They are AWESOME. And the information we received from the workshop was so helpful - especially, for me, the exercises with the dice! I had so much fun with that. I regret not sharing my two pieces from those exercises, but I think the young ladies who shared their works were amazing.

And shout-out and thanks to Jodi, who is not part of the YAGB tour, but came to the Baltimore workshop because it's close to where she lives. "Close". She's in like, Shenandoah Valley. That's pretty far, everyone! So I'm so glad she could join us and make the Baltimore workshop EXTRA special :D

So! On to my pictures! I think they tell a better story than me ;)

At the beginning of the workshop, the ladies put on nametags. And colored them in. Meanwhile, I end up ripping mine, so instead of "Alyssa", I had "Lyssa". Sigh.

During the workshop, in which Susan was talking, and Erin was refilling everyone's water!

Some awesome girls! The girl with the hat is Kyleigh, who is SO talented, and the girl in the yellow who is on her phone is Zoe, who just graduated from college, and is about to do her board exam for nursing! Good luck, girl! :)

The ladies, quickly signing books! The girl in the hat is Kyleigh again. We were strapped for time, because the library closed at 9:00, and the signing started at 8:30!

Sarah smiled at me while I was taking a candid picture, because she's fantastic! Susan was being awesome, as usual.

Kat and Jodi answering questions and signing! Jodi was showing me "HoHugged", which is found in the ARC of Incarnate (which I had, and brought with me to sign. I never saw that error! HOW?!)

Susan, signing my copy of A Darkness Strange and Lovely. She is so cute! She was telling me that her last name is pronounced "DEH-nerd", not "Deh-NAHRD". Southern Georgia!

The AMAZING Steph from Cuddlebuggery! I might have died when I met her. I didn't recognize her at first! I mean, I did, but I couldn't place where I had seen her face. I turned to her and asked her if she came later, since I hadn't seen her at the workshop. She said she had come for the signing. So then I asked her if she was a blogger. She said yes. I asked her for her blog link. She said, "Cuddlebuggery..." 

I'm pretty sure before she finished "Cuddlebuggery", I looked up in shock and started squealing. GUYS. She's like, the Maryland celebrity blogger! She is so fantastic! When I first started blogging, she was one of the blogs that I followed and basically worship. I might have tackled her! And probably freaked her out for life.

One of Jen's cupcakes! I know, not much of a picture. But the cupcake, a chocolate and Oreo creation, was DIVINE. Check out Jen's blog, people. You won't regret it.

Jodi, Kat, me, Erin, Sarah, and Susan!

By the way, one the of the highlights of this night for me was when Erin came up to me and said "I love your bag. It's one of the Graceling bags, that have the places of Graceling on it. AND THEN, while Jodi was signing my ARC of Incarnate, Erin said to me, "I'm so glad to finally meet you, Alyssa! I know we tweet a lot..." 

GUYS I THINK I ALMOST FELL OVER MYSELF. Erin remembered/recognized me! It made me feel so special and warm and fuzzy inside :D

So that was my night! I have a few more pictures, but I won't bore you all. I had such a fun night and I met so many great ladies (OMG STEPH I STILL CAN'T GET OVER THE FACT THAT I MET YOU!). I sincerely thank you, ladies, and everyone who came, and I hope to see you all again in the future!

Onto the giveaway!

Win some signed (and unsigned) swag! The ladies were so kind enough to let me take a duplicate of everything. 

Rules:

- Open internationally! (YAY, I caved!)

- The giveaway begins on June 6th, at 12:00 am EST, and ends on June 30th, at 11:59 pm EST

- Void where prohibited; no purchase necessary

- The number of eligible entries received determine the odds of winning

- There will be ONE winner

- Winner will be selected via the Rafflecopter

- You must be 18 years old or older, or at least 13 years old with a parent or guardian's permission (I didn't know this, and it makes sense, but it's illegal to take addresses from minors under the age of 13 years old)

- Winner must respond to the email within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in me choosing another winner

- Please enter via the Rafflecopter widget below

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway