Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Skulls and Dancing, or: My First ALA!

ALA stands for Awesome Librarians are Awesome. You knew that, right? Secondarily, it means: American Library Association. Not everyone is familiar with the first acronym, but they should be. 

Of my first ALA summer conference (I went to Midwinter five years ago), I say this: two days was not enough. Next year I hope to go for the whole thing, and pillage far more books, and meet far more librarians and bloggers and authors and bookfolk. Next year it is in Anaheim, so bonus Disneyland! But next year shmext year. Let's talk about this year.


There was dancing! 


this happy blur is Ames from Little Brown, me, Carrie Ryan, and agent Jane :-)


There were skulls! And jars of teeth. Jars of teeth.




And there were books! What is better than books? Here is part of my exciting loot pile:




Ooh, where to begin?


Things kicked off Friday evening at 5, when the convention center opened its doors. You guys, I seriously wish I had filmed this. I am not joking when I call it "the running of the librarians." It was awesome and hilarious and passionate. Jim and I were already inside with Alvina, ogling the lovely Daughter of Smoke and Bone mountain in the Little Brown booth.






(Mountain built by Alvina. These book towers are an art form. Check out this one for Bunheads:)






Hi, Daughter!

So anyway, there we are and the aisles are empty one moment, and then 5 pm hits and ... they let in the librarians. They really were running! Racing! To get to certain booths that had giveaways scheduled right then, be it of particularly coveted ARCs, or free T-shirts ("Authors are my rockstars," yeah) or whatnot. For the first half hour I think we just kind of wandered around following the enthusiasm. Ooh, what's that line for? What are they giving away there? Etcetera. There was so much fun shwag! Jane got a beautiful little cutting board engraved with something like I love books. Not everything is free, but A LOT is free. 

Chief pleasures: 1) Seeing friends; 2) Witnessing friends' books in their natural habitats; 3) Discovering new books. 

Here are some friend books:


Sarah Beth Durst's Drink Slay Love, in Simon & Schuster booth


Suzanne Young's A Need So Beautiful at HarperCollins

Stephanie Perkins' Lola and the Boy Next Door at Penguin

I got to meet a couple of lovely bloggers who've written beautiful reviews of my books in the past. Here's Sarah at GreenBeanTeenQueen. Check out the pink!




And Sondra of Sonder Books:




I met author Veronica Roth, too, and got a signed copy of Divergent, a new YA distopian that's getting all kinds of bzzbzzbzz.




And then it was time to go to dinner, and from dinner to ... the Daughter of Smoke and Bone party!!!

Oh man. To Victoria Stapleton and Zoe Luderitz at Little Brown who put this shindig together:




THANK YOU.

It was of the awesome.

It began with ... the coolest invitation EVER. Look at this.




It's Karou's sketchbook!!!!!!!!!!! With her address and everything!!!!!!!!!




And inside, besides being an invitation ... it's a preview! The first four chapters:




Why yes, this is the first page. If you squint, perhaps you can make it out ...






And it came just in the mail like a little book, not even in an envelope, which somehow made it seem all the cooler. I LOVE this invitation!




Little Brown, you guys rule.

And then, before we even got to the party, they gave me a cool headdress to wear:




*LOVE*

"There" was The Republic in New Orleans where, rumor has it, Anne Rice has her Halloween parties. True? I don't know, but I can imagine it. It's a great venue, all moody and blue.







There were carnival masks and skulls everywhere, and ... the cocktails! Two special drinks had been concocted for the event, the "smoke" and the "bone." I can tell you that they were both delicious!







There was a bone reader present, and a tarot card reader too!






But the best part? Librarians! 




These ladies below comprise the ILOA, that is: International Library of Awesome, whose motto is Stercum Venio in Vestri Mens Ut Vos Lego. Or:

"Sh** happens in your brain when you read a book." Yep.




Here's my sweetie with agent Jane, who is wearing the necklace we got her in Morocco. 
Jane is the best. The best best best.




Oh man, happy sigh. Bookfolk, bones, cocktails, weird blue light, my book cover enlarged all huge on the wall and animated with wisping smoke. What more could a girl want?

You ask? What more could there possibly be?

Well. The party tapered into ... an '80s dance party!

Oh yes it did. 








And Little, Brown folk can dance, let me tell you. It was just so fun, so fun, so fun.

Jim had to split to the airport bright and early the next morning to go home to Clementine, while I stuck around for one of my favorite activities ever, which is: signing books!




Can you kind of tell I like it? You know, by my jaded, world-weary expression? 
Ha! Huge dork grin is more like it.






So there's my first ALA, hopefully the first of many. And now I am back home, semi-settled in the new house -- at least with enough of a space excavated from boxes to get to to work, and working I am, in the thick of the sequel to Daughter and loving it! 

Thank you so much to my fabulous publisher for the trip to New Orleans, and to all the amazing librarians who put books into people's hands all day every day. Librarians are my rock stars!



18 comments:

Danny said...

Wow that sounds amazing!! and those invitations are the cules, most creative invitations ever!! There is really a lot of love inside... The party looked amazing..;))

I'm glad you had so much fun!!

(and I'm still sad I missed your signing at BEA... *sniffles*)

Connie Onnie said...

How amazing! And you got a copy of Lola :)! Again loved both dresses, lots of love going on!

GreenBeanTeenQueen said...

I'm so glad you had a blast! ALA is always tons of fun!:) And I'm so glad we got to meet-pink hair is awesome!:)

Beth S. said...

What an awesome recap! Thanks for sharing with us the glamorous side to the authorly life. :)

Christina said...

It was so nice to see you again! And I hope you enjoy Lola and the Future of Us! And I love your dress from the party!

And if there are any other books you had your eye on, please let me know! I'm happy to send them your way!

Exclamation point!

--Christina from Penguin and formerly AALB

Angie said...

It was so great to meet you (and dance the conga with you) and I love the picture of our group you have! We're so proud you're a member of the ILOA (Writer's Branch).

There's nothing like ALA, it's the world's best family reunion meets professional party meets "everyone here is just like me!"

I hope we'll be seeing you for many ALAs to come ... I'm wrapped up entirely in "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" right now and the one thing I am now sure of is that it's EVEN BETTER than Little Brown has been promising us. Gah, fabulous! :)

TeresaD said...

Ooh! Be sure to read Divergent first - one of the best books of the year!
I can't wait for Daughter of Smoke and Bone!

Anonymous said...

I just read Blackbringer for the first time, and my hair is stick sticking up: one, because I never bothered to brush it this morning because I chose to read instead, and two, because of the whirlwind adventure I just went through. It's been SO LONG since I've read a book I got so thoroughly LOST in. Your words are magic. The world you dreamed up is a spark in my soul today. So thanks.

Peggy Eddleman said...

It looks like ALA is a blast! I absolutely LOVE the dancing pictures.

Anonymous said...

Waah! So sorry I missed getting to meet you at ALA! Love love love your books! Looking forward to reading smoke and bone. glad you enjoyed the conference!

Sondy at Sonderbooks said...

I'm so tickled to be in your blog! I was planning to post the picture of me with you on my blog, but how amazing that you posted a picture with me! :) Oh, and here's the link to the glowing Sonderbooks review of Silksinger:
http://www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/silksinger.html

Janssen said...

What a fantastic weekend. I love ALA so much (although I've only attended Midwinter, not the summer version).

Sarah said...

ALA was so much fun! I'm most excited that I scored a copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It's the first ARC I'll be reading after returning from New Orleans. Also, not to be nerdy, but you were wearing the cutest shoes for your signing! Polka dots are awesome.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you had fun at ALA! It was my first conference too and I thought the Daughter of Smoke and Bone party was awesomesauce (especially because I have read the book and LOVE it). Thanks for loving us librarians back! I was psyched to see a picture of me in the librarian group -- it is MUCH better than the picture I took. (c:

Elizabeth MacCrellish said...

omg my face might break from my grin I can't shake from reading this-- wowza! oh well-- it might get lost in the move and the pile of bookloot your brought home-- but I asked a new author (new to me, she's not new) friend to send you a book I think you might like---- hope it finds you! xoxoxo, E

Peter said...

The 80s music and dancing were a blast! So glad you had a great time with all of us librarians!

Amber said...

THAT is AMAZING!! Wowza. How very very cool for you. Again, I am so happy for your success, and to have sort of watched it grow these years from out in bloggyland.

I hope my book is on one of those stacks in the next couple years!

:)ox

BJ Winslow said...

Looks like a great event! www.dappercadaver.com was happy to provide the skulls and teeth for the decorations.

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