My ALA schedule

Where will I be during the American Library Association conference in Washington DC this week?

Friday June 25th – I’ll be hanging around the YALSA Preconference all day long, worshipping librarians and thanking them for being such an important part of the lives of teen readers.

I’ll also be speaking on the Author Panel from 1 – 2pm, along with Ellen Hopkins, Nina LaCour, David Levithan, and Benjamin Alire Saenz.

Friday night I’ll be talking about FORGE at a dinner hosted by Simon & Schuster. (There should be FORGE ARCs available at the S&S booth.) I might try to make the SCBWI party after dinner. Or I might fall asleep in the shower, as I am an early bird and ALA is a serious night-time kind of gig.

Saturday June 26th – I have an interview in the morning.

11am – 12pm –  signing at the S&S booth, #2644

2 – 3pm – signing at the Penguin booth, #2500

Saturday night I’ll be talking about all kinds of things at the Penguin dinner.

Sunday June 27th –

9 am – 10am – YALSA YA Author Coffee Klatch in room 209C of the Convention Center. Speed dating with librarians.

1- 1:30pm – I’ll be reading from FORGE at the ALA LIVE! Stage in Aisle 2600

1:30 – 2pm – signing FORGE & CHAINS after the reading. Not sure where.

Afternoon – record some PSAs for the American Librarian Association

Evening – cheer and feast at the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder dinner.

Monday – come home and weed the garden and make nice with the chickens. And kiss my husband.

Will I see you in DC?

 

Taking advantage of the longest days & WFMAD anyone?

Sorry to have been to absent from blogging, my friends. We’ve been taking advantage of the long days in the garden. A very generous friend showed up with a pick-up truck filled with herbs. The herb garden by the cottage that I was going to work on this fall is now on an accelerated schedule! We’ve been eating peas and watching the tomato plants. The basil is ready, too.

(Have you ever made mozzarella cheese? I think I need to try that.)

(Second random comment – my experiment with clover and buckwheat as a cover crop is still very experimental. Have any of you used it in between rows of veggies to crowd out weeds?)

I’ll post my ALA schedule later today. I’m really looking forward to the conference – both to see old friends and to start talking up FORGE, which comes out it 118 days. (Gulp.) Have I shown you the cover yet?

What do you think?

In other book news, WINTERGIRLS has been translated in Spanish and published in Spain.

Any thoughts on this cover? I’m told it should be available soon in Mexico. Here’s an early synopsis en español.

::shifts gears::

For as much fun as I know ALA is going to be, I must admit I am very impatient to get home and get back to writing. I hope to fill a lot of pages between now and mid-October, when the FORGE booktour gets underway. And since I’ll have the writing process on my mind, are there any of you who want me to the Write for Fifteen Minutes A Day Challenge? (Link takes you to the first day of last year’s challenge.)

The rules are simple. In fact, they aren’t even rules. They’re more like guidelines, the Pirate Code of Writing.

1. Commit to write for 15 minutes a day for the entire month of August.
2. Just do it.

Seriously. That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to sign up anywhere, or meet minimum word count goals or complete a whole freaking novel in 30 days.

Anyone up for it? Leave me a message in comments or on my Facebook page or on Twitter, please.

My to-do list for the next 12 hours has now exceeded two pages, so I must either start crossing things off or set fire to it. Or maybe shred for use in the chicken coop.

Lady Gaga in the Library

This is so freaking awesome I have no words. Just enjoy.


(Video was made by students and faculty at the University of Washington’s Information School. One of the students is the daughter of a friend. LIBRARIANS RULE THE WORLD!)

Author Fantasy

Many people think that the life of the author must be incredibly glamorous, filled with cheering crowds of adoring fans, travel by limo, and being heralded by marching bands.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that the reality is very far removed from that fantasy.

Except for yesterday.

The Teen Book Festival in Rochester is the top teen book fest in the country. Maybe the world. Thousands of teens came to listen to a couple dozen YA authors. We were all blown away by the magnitude and wonderful atmosphere of the event.

  It’s always good to start an event with a cool cake. We had a dinner on Friday night at the Strong National Museum of Play so we could meet each other and hang out with some of the incredible librarians whose volunteer efforts pull TBF together.

I FINALLY got to meet Barry Lyga, who is much nicer than he wants to admit. You can see him TODAY at river’s end bookstore in Oswego, NY at 2 pm.

And I met Lisa McMann, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

They really did drive us to the event in two limos.

  Here’s an interior shot of the limo I rode it. You can see Matt de la Peña toward the back on the left, Alyson Noel on the far right, and just to the left of Alyson, Holly Black.

And when we got to the Nazareth campus, Ellen Hopkins and Terry Trueman were transferred to a motorcycle & sidecar. At the front of the procession? An honest-to-goodness marching band.

That was when I knew the day was going to be a waking fantasy.

  Then I saw the giant posters of all the authors on the walls and began to doubt the "waking" part of that previous sentence. It felt like a fever dream.

We all spoke on a "lightning round" panel in the gym, then broke off to give workshops to smaller audiences. Thank you everyone who took the time to hang our at my presentations!

At the end of the day we met back in the gym to sign books. And sign books. And sign books. For hours. It was heavenly.

Again – THANK YOU to everyone who stood in the very long lines!

ESPECIALLY….

The mom and daughter who traveled from Long Island for the event AND

the mom and daughter (I think her name is Mackenzie) who traveled all the way from Massachusetts (Worcester, maybe?) for the event. I see a new trend: mother-daughter book festival road trips!!!

Now I head back to the Forest where there is no marching band, but there is a handsome husband, overzealous dog, baby chickens and a garden that needs some attention.

Thank you very, very much Teen Book Festival. Amazing experience.