Texas Library Association Conference 2013 (#TXLA13)

Just back from the 2013 Texas Library Association Conference in Fort Worth! 

 First, some pics I took when I went running:

Reflected in doors of federal courthouse

Boarded up freight depot

Post office

Gorgeous art deco court building (foreground). New city hall (back)

Monument to JJ Burnett

A couple shots of publisher dinners:

Daniel Nayeri and onion ring mountain

Candlewick "family" dinner

Steak tartare

 And on the conference floor:

Spirit of Texas panel

Cyn and me and this awesome dinosaur book

Signing with E. Kristen Anderson and the Book Festivals of Texas booth

Kathi Appelt poses with her forthcoming release

Debbie Leland and Gingerbread Football guy

Cyn at the Mackin booth

Many thanks to all the publishers, librarians, organizers, sponsors, exhibitors, etc., for a fabulous event!  

Austin SCBWI Conference 2013

The Austin SCBWI Annual Conference has come and gone and was, as usual, a great success! This year's conference focuses largely on the picture book.

Speakers included illustrators E.B. Lewis and Patrice Barton; agents John Cusick, Rubin Pfeffer, and Erszi Deak; editors Neal Porter, Kathy Landwehr, and Tamra Tuller; and authors Shutta Crum and Cynthia Levinson. 

Thanks to outgoing RA Debbie Gonzales, ARA Carmen Oliver, Illustrator Chair Mark Mitchell, and all the volunteers! Looking forward to the new administration of Shelley Ann Jackson, Sam Clark, and Amy Farrier!

Here are some pictures:

Mark Mitchell, Julie Lake, Cyn, Liz Garton Scanlon

Debbie Gonzales and me during First Impressions panel

Jessic Lee Anderson, Lindsey Lane, Betty X. Davis

Jo Whittemore, Jeff Crosby, Emily Anderson, Nikki Loftin, Me

Bethany Hegedus, Gene Brenek, Vanessa Lee, Sean Petrie

First Impressions Panel

WIFYR 2012

Last week, Cyn and I taught workshops at the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference in Sandy, Utah. Organized by award-winning author Carol Lynch Williams, the conference is now in its thirteenth year and brings together published authors, agents, editors, and eager-to-learn beginning and advanced writers and illustrators.

Faculty members for the morning workshops included Cynthia, Carol, A.E. Cannon, Ann Dee Ellis, Mette Ivie Harrision, Matt Kirby, Trudy Harris, Julie Olson, and Tim Wynne-Jones.  We also all did afternoon presentations on aspects of craft.  In addition, Trent Reedy delivered the keynote.  The King's English book store conducted the book sale.  Editors Ruth Katcher and Alexandra Penfold and agent John Cusick also critiqued, spoke, and did in-class Q&A's.


Carol Lynch Williams at King's English Book Store

I had the pleasure of teaching an absolutely terrific and awesome-to-work-with group of twelve students in the Advanced Writing Workshop.  We read and critiqued thirty pages of manuscripts and synopses for each student, and did writing exercises in support of the particular manuscripts (based in part on the prompts Cyn and I used for Writefest back in '04 and '05).  

The grounds of the facility

My assistant, Tiff, in full dino regalia, with Neil, Chris, and Beth seated.

Most of the class and me.

In the last picture, clockwise from top left: Bruce, Herb, Me, Laura, Neil, Tiff, Liz, Jonene, Tessa, Chris, and Beth.  Not pictured: Noelle and Mike.

Thanks, everyone, for all the hospitality and hard work, especially Carol and the assistants!  Particularly, Tiff, who was also juggling her full-time job with the BLM fire service! 

The TLA Report post

Last week, Cyn and I had the pleasure of attending the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Houston!  Cynthia signed the TANTALIZE series with Candlewick and also with Perma Bound Books, and I had the pleasure of my first conference signing of CHRONAL ENGINE with Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  It was great fun to meet librarians and fellow dinosaur enthusiasts!  They cleaned us out of books and postcards...

Wednesday was the Texas Tea YA Author event, sponsored by YART (essentially speed-dating: pairs of authors serially circulated at tables filled with Texas librarians).  I was paired with Mary Lindsey, whose novel, SHATTERED SOULS, has one of the best covers ever (at least, one of the best that doesn't have dinosaurs :-)).  We presented our books and swag -- in my case, postcards, author feature brochures, and temporary dinosaur tattoos -- and had some great conversations.

On Friday, Cyn was named the first featured Spirit of Texas author for high-school aged readers. Check out the page for activities, curriculum tie-ins, and fun! The featured middle-school author was Andrea White.

Encounters in the exhibit hall or various other venues included out-of-state authors Toni Buzzeo, John Green, Shannon Hale, Kelly Milner Halls, Geoff Herbach, David Lubar, Greg Neri, Dom Testa, and Sara Zarr; and Texans Lynne Kelly, Don Tate, Kathi Appelt, Christina Mandelski, Elaine Scott, Jeanette Larson, Cynthia Levinson, Madeline Smoot, Salima Alikhan, E. Kristin Anderson, Bethany Hegedus, Jessica Lee Anderson, Debbie Leland, P.J. Hoover, Mary Lindsey, Jennifer Ziegler, Chris Barton, Joy Preble, Kelly Bennett, Nikki Loftin, Anastasia Suen, Jo Whittemore, Jeff Crosby, and Shelly Ann Jackson; and countless librarians and publisher marketing and editorial personnel.

Thanks to everyone at YART and TLA, all of the librarians who came to the signings and events, and to the publicity teams at Candlewick and Houghton Mifflin!

Here are some photos:

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth

Signing in the Authors Area

PJ Hoover and Madeline Smoot and dinosaurs

Shannon Hale, Kathi Appelt, Jessica Lee Anderson, and PJ Hoover at the Texas Tea

Mary Lindsey, my comrade-in-arms

Toni Buzzeo

Jenny Moss

Greg Neri

Cynthia Levinson

Sylvia Vardell, Teri Lesesne, Lois Buckman

 See you next year!

TLA 2012 : Updated and bumped

REMINDER:

Cynthia and I will be attending the Texas Library Association annual conference this month week. This year's conference is from April 17 through April 20, at the Houston Convention Center.

I will be signing CHRONAL ENGINE on April 18, 2012, from 3 to 4 PM in the Author's Signing area.  I will also be participating in YART's TEXAS TEA event, from noon to 1:30.

Also, on April 18, from 1 p.m. to 1:50 p.m., Cynthia will be presenting on the panel "Connecting Teens and Authors: Teen Book Festivals and Awesome Author Visits," with the folks from Blue Willow Books. She will be signing in the Author's Area from 2 to 3 PM that day.

On April 20, from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., Cynthia will be on the program, "Introducing the Spirit of Texas Reading Programs."

Jen Bigheart, of I READ BANNED BOOKS, has a nice overview of the conference here.

Go here for a listing of Austin authors signing at TLA!

Austin Authors at TLA!

Random sauropod, Houston Museum of Natural Science

[Updated 4/12]

Here's a listing of Austin authors who are going to be signing at TLA in Houston this month.  Signings are in the Author Area (AA) unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, April 18:

Jeff Crosby
WIENER WOLF
Disney-Hyperion
Wednesday, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Booth 1804)

Cynthia Levinson
WE'VE GOT A JOB: THE 1963 BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S MARCH
Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.
Wednesday, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (Booth 1434)

Cynthia Leitich Smith
DIABOLICAL (Taatalize series, Book 4)
Candlewick Press
Wednesday, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (AA)

Greg Leitich Smith
CHRONAL ENGINE
Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Wednesday, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm (AA)

Jennifer Ziegler
SASS AND SERENDIPITY
Random House, Inc.
Wednesday, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (AA)

Thursday, April 19:

Keith Graves
THE ORPHAN OF AWKWARD FALLS
Chronicle Books
Thursday, 10:00 am - 11:00 am (AA)

Cynthia Leitich Smith
TANTALIZE series
Permabound
Thursday,  10 a.m. to 11 a.m. (Booth 1529)

Don Tate
DUKE ELLINGTON'S NUTCRACKER SUITE
Charlesbridge
Thursday, 10:00 am - 11:00 am (AA)

Jeanette Larson
HUMMINGBIRDS: FACTS AND FOLKLORE FROM THE AMERICAS
Charlesbridge
Thursday, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (Booth 1305)

Friday, April 20:

Chris Barton
CAN I SEE YOUR ID?
Penguin
Friday, 10:00 am - 11:00 am (AA)

Austin SCBWI Regional Conference

 

Many thanks to the Austin SCBWI for presenting Cyn and me with the above award naming us as Ambassadors for the Austin Kid-Lit Community at the Regional Conference yesterday.  We're deeply honored.

Kudos to RA Debbie Gonzales, ARA Carmen Oliver, Illustration Chair Mark G. Mitchell, and the faculty, volunteers, and attendees at yesterday's Austin SCBWI Regional Conference, "Something for Everybody," at St. Edward's University!

Airplane hanging in Ragsdale Center

Faculty included authors Lisa Yee, Donna Jo Napoli, Anastasia Suen, and Chris Barton; attorney Barry Furrow; editor Bonnie Bader of Penguin Young Readers Group (Grosset and Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan); editorial director Diane Muldrow of Golden Books/Random House; senior art director Patti Ann Harris of Little, Brown; publicist Kirsten Cappy of Curious City; agent Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency; agent Jill Corcoran of Herman Agency as well as Erin Murphy and Ammi-Joan Paquette (who's also a children's author) of Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

Julie Lake, Mark Mitchell, Jennifer Ziegler

Erin Murphy, with Lindsey Scheibe pretending to be a theropod dinosaur.

 Critique faculty included: April Lurie, Brian Yansky, Bethany Hegedus, P.J. Hoover, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, Jennifer Ziegler, Jessica Lee Anderson, Margo Rabb, Mari Mancusi, Nikki Loftin and Varian Johnson.

The auction items (l) and illustrator portfolios (r)

For Cyn and I, the event began at the Friday night reception at the Ragsdale Center at St. Ed's.  We had a nice chance to catch up with friends and meet those of the faculty who were new to us.  Readings by Chris Barton, Diane Muldrow, Ammi-Joan Paquette, Anastasia Suen, and Donna Jo Napoli wowed the crowd.  Afterwards, a group of us headed out to Frank & Angie's for pizza and conviviality.

Saturday, we were up early for Lisa Yee's terrific keynote and manuscript critiques, followed by an entertaining session with Anastasia Suen and her agent Jill Corcoran.  After lunch, we heard Donna Jo Napoli talk about why she writes "difficult" books; listened in as Jill Corcoran gave advice on how to write a query letter; attended the Agent-Editor Q&A; and the after-party.

And then we passed out.

Here's Cyn's recap.

TLA and WLT!

Update 4-18-2011:

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!