Tag: francesca zappia

2019 Conference, Ch21Con

2019 Keynote Speaker: Francesca Zappia!

Julia Byers
The Chapter One Events team is over-the-moon to announce our keynote speaker for the 2019 Chapter One Young Writers Conference and Chapter Twenty-One Conference: YA author Francesca Zappia!

Chessie ZappiaFrancesca Zappia lives in Indiana and graduated from the University of Indianapolis with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, cooking, or playing video games. She was chosen as the 2017 Emerging Author at the Indiana Authors Awards, and her second novel, Eliza and Her Monsters, was chosen as a Kirkus Best Teen Book of 2017, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and was among the Top 10 of the YALSA 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.

You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @ChessieZappia, and on her website, www.francescazappia.com.

Chessie will be giving the keynote addresses at both Ch1Con and Ch21Con, discussing how to keep sight of our reasons for creating stories, and how to harness those reasons. She will also be speaking on the conferences’ combined ask anything panel and signing books at the end of the day.

(If you’re a Ch1Con alumnus, you might remember Chessie leading workshops and speaking on the ask anything panel at our 2016 conference!)

Plus, in honor of speaking, Chessie has generously offered to give away a signed paperback copy of her amazing sophomore book, Eliza and Her Monsters! Just click the link below to enter the raffle. We’ll leave it open for one week!

Click here by 5/31 to win a signed paperback copy of Francesca Zappia’s Eliza and Her Monsters!

Find Chessie online:

Find Chessie’s books on GoodReads:

Interested in attending one of our young writers’ conferences on June 29 in Des Plaines, IL (a suburb of Chicago)? You can learn more at:

We’ve got another amazing speaker or two to announce as well in the lead-up to the 2019 conferences, so keep an eye on our websites and social media for more speaker announcements coming your way soon!!

– The Ch1Events Team

2016 Conference

2016 Conference Recap

Julia Byers

This weekend was the 2016 Chapter One Young Writers Conference! We had an absolutely incredible time at the conference this year and hope you did as well.

The weekend started with a pizza party Friday night in the hotel courtyard!

IMG_0522

IMG_0527

The official conference began Saturday morning, with a fun query-writing workshop led by Ch1Con team members Christina Li (YA writer represented by Jessica Regel of Foundry Media) and Patrice Caldwell (editorial assistant at Scholastic).

IMG_0566
“A query letter is a very fancy first impression.” – Christina Li

After the workshop, our first speaker took the stage: Jordan Villegas (YA writer represented by Emily Keyes of Fuse Literary)! He gave a great lecture titled “How to Write a Book: A Guide to Getting Your First Rejection.”

IMG_0573
“You can’t write if you haven’t lived.” – Jordan Villegas

Between sessions throughout the day, Ch1Con team members asked attendees trivia questions. Winners got to select books from the huge stacks of ARCs and signed editions on a table at the back of the conference room.

IMG_0571

Attendees also had an opportunity to color a picture and answer questions on the white boards throughout the room.

IMG_0625

IMG_0723

After Jordan spoke, it was time for the keynote address by the one and only Susan Dennard (New York Times bestselling author of Truthwitch)! She gave an inspiring talk titled “How I Became a Writer.”

IMG_0578
“There are no expiration dates on dreams.” – Susan Dennard

Next up was lunch and our group picture!

IMG_0582
Future of the New York Times bestsellers list, right here.

After lunch, Jennifer Yu (author of upcoming novel Four Weeks, Five People) took the stage to talk about how to balance writing with school in a super helpful workshop titled “College 101.”

IMG_0592
“You go to college and everyone suddenly wants to know what you’re going to do with your life.” – Jennifer Yu

Following Jen, Francesca Zappia (acclaimed novel Made You Up) led a wonderful session titled “Character Building Across Genres.”

IMG_0600
“Motivation is the character’s car, and it’s going to take them to their destination [their goal].” – Francesca Zappia
The last session of the day was our annual Ask Anything lecture, which we live-streamed online! (You can watch it here.)

IMG_0605

Aaand following the panel, Francesca and Susan signed books for attendees!

IMG_0624

Overall, Ch1Con 2016 was awesome.

IMG_0697.JPG
The Ch1Con team was all smiles after the conference.

See you next year!

– The Ch1Con Team

2016 Conference

2016 Live-Streamed Panel

Julia Byers

Hey there, awesome people! IT’S TIME FOR CH1CON 2016.

As always, one of the sessions at the conference will be a panel featuring our speakers. (You can check out who all is speaking this year here.) Also as always, we’re going to live stream this on YouTube so all of you amazing young writers who couldn’t make it to Ch1Con 2016 still get to participate in something.

This year’s panel will take place from 3:00 to 4:00 PM central time during the conference on Saturday, August 6th.

This is totally free and you don’t need to sign up for anything; it’s simply our gift to you to thank you for all of your support throughout the year. You can find the live stream on our YouTube channel at:

www.youtube.com/chapteroneconference

We’ll be asking the panelists a mixture of questions from both the attendees at the conference and those of you watching from home. The questions can be about absolutely anything you want, serious or goofy, writing-related or not. (For example, in 2014 we asked our speakers about their OTPs. One replied that she shipped herself and Panera.)

If you’ll be watching the live stream and would like to ask the speakers a question, there are two ways you can go about doing it:

1.) If you already know what you’d like to ask, you can email your question(s) to us at chapteroneconference@aol.com any time until the day of the conference.

2.) If you come up with a question while you’re watching the live stream, you can tweet it using #Ch1Con.

Either way, feel free to ask as many questions as you’d like. No promises we’ll make it through every single question during the hour-long panel, but we’ll do our best.

Thanks again for supporting us, guys! It means the world to everyone on the Ch1Con team.

See you at 3:00 PM!

– Julia

2016 Conference

Last Day Before Late Rate!

Julia Byers

Hey, guys! Thinking of attending Ch1Con next weekend and haven’t registered yet? Now is the time to do that!

Tomorrow (August 1) our late rate price hike occurs. However, register before then and you can still take advantage of our regular admission price of just $99.99!

Head over to our Register page for more info. We hope to see you in Chicago next weekend!

– The Ch1Con Team

2016 Conference

T-Shirt and Book Order Deadlines

Julia Byers

Hey there, ya cool cats! We’ve had some questions recently about the deadlines to order t-shirts and books for the conference.

The deadline to order a Ch1Con 2016 t-shirt is 11:59 PM EDT on Wednesday, July 27.

Interested in getting a Ch1Con t-shirt? It’ll look like the one in the picture below (except the year on it will be 2016, of course). You can order a t-shirt either as part of the registration process or independent of a conference registration here. (Yes, you do not need to be a conference attendee to order one of these snazzy t-shirts.)

2015 t-shirt
You too can sport a giant tomato on your chest.

The deadline to order any books you might need for the post-conference book signing with Susan Dennard and Francesca Zappia is Wednesday, July 27.

Need books? You can order any of Susan and Francesca’s novels through our official conference retailer, the wondrous Anderson’s Bookshop, and we’ll deliver them straight to you at the conference! Click here to place an order using the special order page on the Anderson’s website.

Have any questions about Ch1Con? Feel free to comment on this blog post, tweet at us, email us (chapteroneconference@aol.com), send us a message on Facebook–really, whatever you’re most comfortable doing!

We can’t wait to see you in St. Charles this August!

– The Ch1Con Team

2016 Conference

Early Bird Registration Deadline: May 31

Julia Byers

Hey, guys! 

Thinking of attending the 2016 Chapter One Young Writers Conference? Make sure to register by 11:59 PM EDT tomorrow (Tuesday, May 31) to take advantage of our special early bird registration rate! After that, we have to move to our regular registration rate of $99.99. Don’t miss out! 

Ch1Con 2016 will take place Saturday, August 6 in St. Charles, IL, a western suburb of Chicago. Speakers will include New York Times bestselling YA fantasy author Susan Dennard (Truthwitch and the Something Strange and Deadly series) and acclaimed YA contemporary author Francesca Zappia (Made You Up). We’ll also have lots of fun giveaways throughout the day for you, including signed books and some of this summer’s hottest ARCs!

You can find more information on how to register to attend the conference on the page titled Register!

We hope to see you in August!

– The Ch1Con Team

2016 Conference

Ch1Con 2016 Book Signing Info

Julia Byers

Ch1Con is pleased to announce that we’re partnering again this year with Anderson’s Bookshop as our official conference retailer!

Now through Monday, July 27, you can purchase books by the Ch1Con speakers using a special order form on the Anderson’s Bookshop website. At the end of the conference, we’ll deliver your books straight to you in order to get them signed by Susan Dennard and Francesca Zappia. (Yay!)

You can find the order form at: www.andersonsbookshop.com/chapter-one

We can’t wait to see you August 6th!

Love,

The Ch1Con Team

2016 Conference

2016 Workshop Leader: Francesca Zappia!

Julia Byers

The Ch1Con team is thrilled to announce our first speaker of the 2016 Chapter One Young Writers Conference: Francesca Zappia!

40818
Photo by Donna Rice

Francesca is the author of YA contemporary novel Made You Up, published by Greenwillow/HarperCollins in May of 2015. She lives in central Indiana and majors in computer science at the University of Indianapolis. She spends most of her time writing, drawing her characters, and reading. Her writing is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency.

Besides participating in our special “ask anything” panel, Francesca will be leading a workshop at Ch1Con 2016 on character building (which is SO EXCITING, considering how amazing the characters are in Made You Up). Plus: in honor of speaking at the conference, Francesca is pleased today to give away a SIGNED copy of Made You Up!

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway

And, if you guess our keynote speaker (visit the giveaway to guess) you can win a Ch1Con t-shirt!!

Find Francesca online: Website / Twitter / Instagram / Tumblr / Pinterest

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another speaker reveal!

thursday

– The Ch1Con Team