Go check out:
Cyn's report.
BookMoot on TLA 2011.
Jen Bigheart's I Read Banned Books report and giveaway!
Joy Preble!
Donna Bowman Bratton!
End update.
Much tiredness.
The annual Texas Library Association Conference ran Wednesday through Friday, followed by the Writers League YA: A to Z Conference. Cyn and I attended both :-).
Some of the TLA excellent-ness:
Tuesday night party at Truluck's celebrating BLESSED and TANTALIZE: KIEREN'S STORY! I had a great time talking with librarians, including Nicole Chagnon, Sylvia Vardell, Joel Bangilan, Jen Bigheart, and Camille Powell from Book Moot herself!
Dinner and drinks at Moonshine courtesy of the good folks at Sourcebooks and author Joy Preble (On the convention floor, they were giving away these hilarious "Writers are rockstars" T-shirts that featured William Shakespeare in Gene Simmons makeup...)! I should've nabbed one...
Joy hamming it up with the pecan pie she ordered for dessert.The joint publisher party at the Four Seasons, where I had a nice chat with (among others) Frances and Brian Yansky, Jordan Sonnenblick, and Christina Mandelski, whose debut novel, THE SWEETEST THING, comes out next month from Egmont (I did a critique of it a couple years ago in College Station and it was pretty darn good then, so I can't wait to see it).
Frances, Brian, Christina, Jordan.Dinner afterwards with the local gang, including Debbie Gonzales, Cyndi Hughes, Bethany Hegedus, Janet Fox, K.A. Holt, Emma Virjan, Kathy Whitehead, April Lurie, Lindsey Lane, Jenny Moss, and more!
The ice cream social at the CBAY Booth, courtesy of Madeline Smoot and the Texas Sweethearts and Scoundrels!
A post-prandial libation with Lisa Wheeler (the current queen of the rhyming picture book) and Julia Durango (whose new book is a volume of poems titled UNDER THE MAMBO MOON)!
Lisa and Julia.Getting to show off BookPeople to Julia when I drove her back to her hotel! And the YA reader enthusiast finance major (really) we met while browsing!
Meeting James Howe! I'll have a "Writers and Dinosaurs" post with him in a few days...
Even more signings! Jeanette Larson! Don Tate! Julia Durango! Pat Mora! Chris Barton! Liz Garton Scanlon! Kelly Bennett! Jessica Lee Anderson! PJ Hoover! And many more!
Jessica and P.J.The Austin and other Texas SCBWI folks who manned the SCBWI booth and ran the book giveaways and handed out the bookmarks and other paraphernalia!
Debbie Gonzalez and Lindsey Lane.Seen on the convention floor: Rosemary Brosnan (Cyn's first editor and the editor of Rita Williams Garcia!). David Gale (S&S YA editor of luminaries including Ellen Wittlinger!). Teri Lesesne! Lois Buckman! Mary Berry! Camille Powell! Jill Bailey (formerly of BookPeople and now a rep for Penguin)! Elizabeth Bluemle (bookseller and author)! Erin Murphy (agent)! Debbie Leland (author and librarian)! Jen Bigheart (she read Banned Books)! Gail Giles! Sean Petrie! Jeff Crosby! Librarians galore! And actual teen-aged YA readers!
All the publisher library marketing and editorial folks who attended! Thanks for everything and for being generous with the ARC giveaways!
And, as for the Writers League:
Uma Krishnaswami reading from her new novel, THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING!
Cinda Williams Chima! Book 3 of Forgotten Worlds comes out this fall!Gail Giles! YA suspense!
Luncheon keynote by Tim Wynne-Jones (Not the physicist)!
Tim and Uma.Sarah Bird! Who's published for adults but who approaches YA with such infectious enthusiasm!
The agents and editors and authors who came and so freely dispensed their wisdom!
Getting to meet Hope Larson and Carrie Jones in person for the first time!
The authors who moderated panels or conducted workshops or spoke: April Lurie, Varian Johnson, Jessica Lee Anderson, P.J. Hoover, Jeanette Larson, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Margo Rabb, Andrea White, Bethany Hegedus, Jo Whittemore, Gail Giles!
The attendees! And those who signed up for critiques and consults! Bravely done! Congrats to you all!
And the Writers League itself, which celebrated its 30th Anniversary! And Cyndi Hughes and the rest of the staff at the Writers League!
I apologize for all the exclamation points, but I'm still running on adrenaline. Happy reading!
1 comment:
So much in such a short time! It was fun.
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