I will admit it. I am in a bit of a fog. Yesterday – Houston day – was long and fun. But before I get into that, let me give some details about St. Louis.
If I can remember them.
::checks itinerary to jolt memory::
::slams down coffee::
Right. St. Louis.
Now I remember. I signed books.
My Missouri author schlepper, Elaine, fetched me from the airport.
St. Louis was in bloom.
We dropped my bags at the hotel, got the bad news from the hotel staff (they insisted that to guarantee I’d make the next morning’s flight, I had to catch the 4AM shuttle), and headed out on the road, trying not to think about that shuttle schedule.
We had two quick stock signings and a nice lunch (Elaine knew half the people in the restaurant, I swear), and headed over to The Booksource. The Booksource is a national book wholesaler that sells books to schools and teachers. They sell the kinds of books that kids will actually read.
And they do sell a lot of books. Boxes and boxes of them. I signed everything on this cart while I was there, plus a little more. The Hand went from being petulant and whiny to numb. But I had a wonderful time talking to Cindy and Neil and Cheryl and the other Booksourcians who dropped in. All hail to Kate, who has Georgetown in their office pool. (Proceeds from their pool go to charity, which I think rocks.) And thank you to Cindy, who had extra Powerbars to fuel me.
After Booksource, we drove to Illinois, to Andi Allen’s store, Piece of Mind Books.
A lot of teachers came out to hear me speak.
Including this one, Taree McGee from Columbia. Taree has been teaching SPEAK for six years. Every year she sends me an incredible envelope filled with letters from her students. It was a joy to finally meet her in person. She is one of the best.
Real teens came out, too. Some were there because their smart teachers (Hi, Liz) gave them extra credit for coming to my event.
There were hugs. Thank you, Mary luckyno13 for taking so many photos!
Back in the car, a very quick stop to pick up more coffee, and a dash to St. Louis for the last event of the day, at the public library.
It was a full house! (Great job getting out the word, Left Bank Books and Buder Branch staff!)
There were teens and parents and writers (Hi thatgirlygirl) and plenty of world-changing YA librarians, like these fine ladies.
Got to the hotel at 10:30pm, inhaled a sub, crashed.
The alarm rang at 3:30am. It was not a pretty sound……