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 At the amazing Library Palooza lit festival in San Antonio, they have a panel discussion featuring all of the visiting authors and illustrators, and then there are three sessions with individual authors. It was so hard to choose just three author sessions! I was very glad that the panel allowed me to hear from all of them. The book creators talked about their craft of writing and illustrating, their process, their work, and gave tips to aspiring writers and artists. Here are some highlights I took away from the panel and individual sessions.
Victoria Aveyard: You have to have a thick skin to be a writer. Show your work to other people! She started off writing fan fiction. She grew up in a very small town in New England where everyone knew her but didn't feel like she fit in. She moved to Los Angeles for college and got to figure out who she was. Feels writing is a compulsion, not a choice. Writes epic fantasy stories. The Red Queen series she describes as Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones. Fans have also compared it to the Selection series. She wrote the Realm Breaker trilogy because she wanted to see females as part of the Lord of the Rings-type quest. She describes it as Lord of the Rings meets Guardians of the Galaxy. The idea for Red Queen came to her as an image of a girl in an arena about to be killed when she electrocutes her executioner. This image led to so many questions: What has the girl done? How did she electrocute someone? What's happening in the world she is living in? Victoria loves maps and world building. She loves creating unusual names for people and places in her books and is well known for throwing in unexpected plot twists. She also shared that Red Queen is being adapted into a streaming series!
Kelly Yang: Take writing seriously like it's a sport. Put in the time and work to get better. She moved to China from the U.S. at age six. Her parents only had $200 when they came to U.S. and the whole family had to learn English. There were a lot of hard years where they moved a lot and didn't have much money. She said stories gave her hope. As a kid she didn't find books about people who looked like her, so now she is writing them! She did a lot of research on how social media changes the architecture of our brains for her new book, Finally Heard. She learned that when we watch videos online, our brain releases oxytocin, a chemical that encourages love and trust and helps people bond. This chemical makes people want to keep watching, even when they're actually bored and would rather do something else.  Marc Favreau: Started as a publisher. If you want to write, just do it! Follow through. Didn't start writing and publishing until he was in his 40s. Writes history for kids. Loves seeing kids disappear into literature. Says most history we learn in school comes from the perspective of white men. He seeks broader perspectives and has included the experiences of Japanese and African Americans in his books
Gabriela Epstein: In learning to draw, a great technique is to copy work of the masters as a learning exercise. You can apply the same idea to writing. She likes that she can choose when and where to work. She grew up as an athlete playing ice hockey which helped her grow a thick skin. When she was young, she drew political cartoons her dad published in the newspaper. Some of her work made people angry, and she liked that because it made her feel powerful. I was very excited to hear Gabriela speak for a few reasons. 1) She is a graphic novel author and illustrator and GNs are super popular! 2) Her graphic novel Invisible is on next year's William Allen White list. At her session, she shared tons of info and photos of the whole process of creating Invisible. I am looking forward to sharing what I learned with my students to get them even more excited about reading Invisible. 3) She has experience adapting someone else's story into a graphic novel (Baby-sitter's Club) and working on an original story, so she had lots to share! 4) She is funny, sarcastic, honesty, and completely engaging. 5) She shared her experience as a female person of color working in book creation.
I love literature festivals, and Library Palooza was outstanding. I got to spend the day with hundreds of fellow book lovers and learn from talented book creators. I even won some amazing books in a drawing! And I love meeting the authors and illustrators personally and getting books signed. Library Palooza was a fabulous experience. I soaked up a lot of learning and added several new books to my TBR list.
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Amy BrownleeLibrarian, reading teacher, presenter. Archives
February 2026
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