YA Authors: Who Have We Met?

We’ve been lucky! Between the two of us, we’ve met some of our favorite YA authors. We’ll add to this list as soon as we meet more. If you’re a YA author reading this, come visit the D.C. metro area!

1. Jennifer L. Armentrout

Claire met JLA at her YA/NA event, Apollycon, in 2018! Claire has been a fan of Armentrout’s since 2012, so she fangirled hardcore when she finally got to meet her. Who wouldn’t want to meet the mind behind Aiden St. Delphi. Armentrout is as fabulous as she seems on social media— so fun and charming. Her event was amazing and we’d definitely love to go again post-COVID. She even brought in the actor that plays Seth in her promos. Claire took a pic with him and JLA— ha! 

2. Cassandra Clare

Christy met Clare on her City of Bones 10 year anniversary tour— and it did not disappoint! She asked which character Clare related most to in the shadowhunter universe. The answer: Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments. 

Clare drew a huge crowd at Barnes and Noble and people of all ages came out to support one of the most popular YA urban fantasy authors. Hopefully Clare does more book tours in the future. 

3. Karen McManus

Like Cassandra Clare, Christy met McManus at the same Barnes and Noble. She was on a book tour for the release of Two Can Keep A Secret. It was really cool to hear about her backstory and how she wrote multiple books before publishing One of Us is Lying. The queen of YA mystery/thrillers said that QueryShark really helped her for the querying process. 

4. Jodi Meadows and Cynthia Hand

Meadows and Hand came to our local Barnes and Noble for the release of their new series, Our Lady Janies. We randomly stumbled upon the event online and spontaneously decided to go about an hour beforehand. And boy are we glad we did! The authors were so engaging and funny. They shared insights about their writing process and their characters. More importantly, we ended up buying their book, which we don’t know if we would’ve if we hadn’t stumbled upon their meet-and-greet event! 

5. Sarah J. Maas

Claire also met SJM at Apollycon in 2018. Due to her popularity, to stand in SJM’s line you had to win a special ticket (our friend won!!!!). But to ensure everyone could at least meet her, she left stamps at her table for her to “sign” your book. She was so friendly and easy going. It was cool to meet an author of her magnitude in such a chill atmosphere. Claire thanked for creating Rhys and then promptly died in the corner after.

6. Neal Shusterman 

Shusterman was a headliner a few years ago at the Virginia Children’s Book festival. Christy got to hear about his career and how proud he was of writing Challenger Deep with his son. She also got him to sign her copy of Undivided, the last book in the Unwind series. 

Shusterman joked about how his daughter’s friends really enjoyed his books, but his daughter refused to read them and instead, wanted a brief summary.

7. Lisa Maxwell

Maxwell held a meet-and-greet with the authors of the My Lady Janies series at our Barnes and Noble. We admit, this was the first time we’d heard of her books, but hearing her speak about the research and thought she put into The Last Magician left us dying to read it. We ended up loving it and have been huge fans of her since. She even did an author interview for our blog. Check it out here! 

8. Richelle Meade

Claire met Richelle Meade in 2016 when she came to our local Barnes and Noble for the release of her book, The Glittering Court. She’d been a fan of Meade’s since reading Vampire Academy, one of the first YA series Claire devoured. The audience was able to ask loads of questions, so she talked about all of her books. We also got some insight into her as a human. It was neat to meet one of our favorite YA authors IRL. 

9. Katie McGarry

Another Apollycon author meet-and-greet! McGarry was so approachable and even took pics with her fans. We are big lovers of her YA romance books. They always have the best bad boys. 

10. Christina June

June also attended Apollycon in 2018. Fun fact: she actually hails from our neck of the woods. Claire really enjoyed meeting her and learning about her book, It Started With Goodbye.