Now, everyone probably knows I’m no stranger to Not Your Mother’s Book Club Events (@nymbc). Yesterday’s super sold-out lunch with Sarah Dessen was no exception and I’m happy to be able to share pictures with you.
Sarah, who is extremely charming, spent an hour or two circulating from table to table to chat with her fans and readers up close. Then she did a little reading from her brand new release, ALONG FOR THE RIDE, which everyone should go pick up. Right now.
She had some really interesting things to say. Did you know that she found being a full time writer more difficult than she ever thought it would be?
When she was sitting at my table, she told us how having her baby recently completely changed how she thinks of her writing career. Caring for something else so much really helped get her out of her own head. Writing ALONG FOR THE RIDE, as a result, was a completely different experience.
That’s a good thing to keep in mind, and you don’t have to have a baby to experience it: step outside of yourself every once in a while. Get your mind off your obsessive writing patterns. Approach your craft from a different direction. Even the biggest, baddest, most bestselling pros do this.
Without further ado, here are some great pictures from the event, after the jump.
The event was set up in the back of Books Inc. Opera Plaza with tables and chairs for 50 of Sarah Dessen’s closest friends.
Here are some awesome writers and Sarah Dessen fans, including three members of my brand new critique group. Hey Connie, @whitneymiller and @marthaflynn!
Sarah posing pretty for another camera, so I had to sneak in a shot of my own.
Sarah chatting away at a table.
More chatting.
A lovely close-up shot, if I don’t say so myself. (Someone give this photographer a hand, whoever she is!)
More Sarah Dessen fans. Can anybody spot Heidi Kling, Cynthia and @debbieduncan?
The room looks awesome, and not just because I got there early to help set up, hehe. Jenn did an incredible job organizing everything.
A group of high school students enjoying lunch with their teachers and talking books. (How cool is that?)
Sarah during her reading, holding up a copy of ALONG FOR THE RIDE.
Reading…
An attentive audience drinks it all in.
More reading.
Who rocks the mic? Sarah Dessen, of course.
Reading…
Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Heidi Kling pretend they’re hanging out with an almost life-sized Sarah. The real Sarah is right there, you guys!
Writers and fans cradling ALONG FOR THE RIDE.
Sarah posing with a fan in her signing line.
Sarah signing for Heidi and Debbie.
Debbie, Heidi and Sarah.
Alright! That wraps up another awesome NYMBC event. Hope everyone got a vicarious thrill from the pictures. If anyone needs these pictures in a larger format, just e-mail me (mary at kidlit dot com) and let me know what you want and how big you need it.
This was another incredible Books Inc. event.
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Confession - the book I bought for this event was the first Sarah Dessen I’ve ever read (The Truth About Forever) but now I am totally hooked and addicted to her.
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Thanks for recording a beautiful event beautifully, Mary. Heidi and I decided on the way home that we’d take a page from Sarah’s book and make sure to write on Jan. 1 every year - maybe begin a new project, as she did with ALONG FOR THE RIDE.
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Martha — Don’t worry, your secret isn’t out on the Internet for all to see now or anything. =)
Debbie — Thanks! It was great to see you. That’s another great bit of advice that I should’ve posted, the January 1st thing. I think I’ll do that, too.
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Oooh, ooooh! Did you see all those books behind her? Didn’t you just want to hug them all?! Sorry, weirdness. I just kind of have this dream of living in a bookstore/library….
Anyway! Cool pics. Thanks so much for posting them. I love Sarah’s books. And she seems wonderful. And the room did look awesome!
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Sigh….as if I’m not already suffering from event-envy! This looks like it was a great one, Mary - thanks for sharing the photos for those of us who live on the other side of the country!
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L — It really is nice to see a huge room full of shelves from floor to ceiling, isn’t it?
Kate — Yes, it WAS a great one… I take complete credit. =P I love these events. Can’t wait to go to your future event, rock star!
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Seems like tons of fun! =) So envious of you!
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Mary — Yes! It is nice. In fact, it’s just about the nicest thing ever. Most people prefer to look at oceans or sunsets or, I don’t know, birds (what the hell, I spelled birds as “burds”…glad I caught that typo). They’d probably rather look at those things than stare at hundreds of books. Not me. I’m such a total book freak that just the sight of them makes me happy.
And I hadn’t realized Along For the Ride was out already until earlier when I read this post. I am soo buying it tomorrow. =D
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Hi Mary!
Thanks so much for posting these pics from the event, it was a blast. I had no idea that this was your website (I was just looking at it last night)! I’m definitely going to add it to the blog list on my website.
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OOOh! i’m reading Along For The Ride right now, and I’m looooving it!
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Lucky, lucky all of you! Picked up her book last week, read it loved it…and so fun, fun to sell it to teens browsing the section. There are of course, the old fans who’ve been waiting for it to come out, and there are the yet to be made fans who I hand the book to….thanks for sharing your day!
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OMG!!!!!
I read Just Listen–it’s pretty good.
You’re so lucky…I really hope I can meet her one day.
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