Utah adventure

(Pre-post entertainment. Are you following the results of the Top 100 YA Novels poll over at Persnickety Snark? Check it out!)

What with all the new website hullaboo, things have been not quite as serene as normal, so I am way behind on telling you about the BYU Children’s Literature Symposium.

(Thank you, by the way, for all the kind comments about madwomanintheforest.com)

First things first – did I mention that the conference

was in Utah? Do you even know how gorgeous Utah is?

Not only is it gorgeous, but it is filled with some of the nicest people in the world.

like Kristen Chandler, author of WOLVES, BOYS AND OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT KILL ME, who was my gracious host during the conference. She helped me track down a rather important cord that I forgot to pack, and also made sure I was able to sample regional cuisine:

fry sauce

and something called an iceberg shake.

I was at the conference with old friends Elizabeth Partridge and Kadir Nelson, and new friends, Brandon Mull and

David Shannon, who is a very funny man.

Elizabeth put together a great blog post about the whole conference, BTW.

One of my favorite activities was that we each had 4 30-minute sessions that were lightning round Q&A. I loved those. Only wished they could have each been an hour long.

On the last night we drove up even farther into the mountains and had a magnificent dinner in one of the most beautiful places in America.

Thank you to all of the teachers, librarians, and readers who came out to the conference. You were amazing.

If you ever get the chance to go to Utah – take it!!