When he did a Not Your Mother’s Book Club event at Books Inc. the other day, he regaled the audience with a snippet from ANDROMEDA KLEIN and also with some great songs like the aptly-titled “I Wrote a Book About Rock and Roll.”

It just so happens that Frank will be touring in New York when I’m there next week, so I wanted to tell all the folks who might be in the area. He’ll be appearing:

Friday, September 18, 2009
8:00pm – 10:00pm
The Housing Works at 126 Crosby St. in New York, NY

Saturday, September 19, 2009
4:00pm – 5:30pm
WORD bookstore at 126 Franklin Street in Brooklyn, NY

Sunday, September 20, 2009
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Sidewalk Cafe at 94 Ave. A in New York, NY

The last event is with Tiger Beat (led by awesome YA author Libba Bray). I’ll be at that one for sure and maybe one of the other two. (If I hadn’t already warned him, I bet he’d think I’m stalking him!) If you’re in the area, go to a Dr. Frank show… they’re always a lot of fun!

Frank signing copies of ANDROMEDA KLEIN at Books Inc.

This past Thursday, I had the great pleasure of going to see a Not Your Mother’s Book Club reading at Books Inc. in Palo Alto for rock star paranormal authors Richelle Mead (the VAMPIRE ACADEMY series) and Lily St. Crow (the STRANGE ANGELS series, both out from Razorbill).

And let me tell you, these ladies have an awesome and devoted fan base. When my friends and I dropped by an hour before the reading, the coveted chairs set up in front of the table were almost all taken! THAT’S devotion.

Richelle and Lily had been traveling together for several stops and this was their last joint reading on the tour. They both read from their respective books and took questions from fans before the official reading ended and fans formed a huge, chaotic but very fun signing line. This was my first NYMBC event where I hadn’t actually read either author… Now I’m definitely going to pick up both of their books because it was such a wonderful time and both premises sound so cool.

More pics after the jump!

Lily St. Crow reading.

Richelle Mead reading.

More reading…

Cracking a joke…

Reading…

And now, signing! Look at the huge stacks of books that someone brought. The store was full of readers who brought multiple copies to get signed. They definitely put their favorite authors to work!

The crowd during the reading.

The signing line… Note the aforementioned stacks of books!

Richelle Mead and Lili St. Crow posing with a fan.

I think I heard Lili St. Crow refer to this as her “librarian face.” Another fan gets a great picture.

As usual, Jenn and Shannon and the rest of the Books Inc. team put on a fabulous event, and it was lovely to catch up with Heidi, Debbie and, of course, some new authors I need to start reading!

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.

All right! 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.

The reading was wonderful, with so many friends, family and fans in the store to cheer our debs on. Punch, cupcakes, cookies, tiaras and pearls were in abundance to make it a truly white-glove affair. In fact, bookseller extraordinaire, Summer, even showed up with kid gloves. Cheryl read from BREATHING first, and had some inspirational words for writers:

Read a lot, write a lot, kill the inner critic.

When her first manuscript didn’t sell, Cheryl admitted the following:

It was hard not to give up, but people told me to start working on something new. That book was BREATHING. It was the best advice I got.

C. Lee McKenzie read from SLIDING ON THE EDGE next. In fact, she had her first paragraph memorized! She told the audience that her idea for the book came from a newspaper article, and brought the clipping that started it all. So look out, writers, inspiration is everywhere. She also told people to build their web presence, book deal or not, so that you can start connecting with readers and develop your career.

The pretty pink princess of the evening, Sarah Quigley, then read from TMI (here are links to: my review, my interview with Sarah). No wonder Becca, her character does theatre… Sarah had great stage, er, bookstore presence and totally nailed her character’s voice.

After getting books signed, everyone poured out of the store on a total sugar high. This isn’t the last you’ll hear from these debut authors, so if you haven’t picked up their books yet, do it now and get in the know. Some of my lucky readers don’t need to go through the trouble, though. They’ve won autographed, personalized copies! Click the link below to reveal the contest winners and see more awesome pictures from the event!

A shot that didn’t make the top of the post, I love it for Sarah’s fierce mugging.

Cheryl Renee Herbsman reading from BREATHING as Sarah Quigley looks on (note the tiaras).

C. Lee McKenzie discusses the article that sparked her book idea.

Sarah Quigley cracks us (and herself) up!

Sarah Quigley reads from TMI.

Sarah Quigley rocks the mic.

And now, here are the winners of the contest. The winner of C. Lee McKenzie’s SLIDING ON THE EDGE:

Stephanie!

The winner of Sarah Quigley’s TMI:

Lindsay! (c/o her fabulous mom, Lethea!)

And the winner of Cheryl Renee Herbsman’s BREATHING:

Kelly! (Sorry, I missed your comment about putting your last name on it, I’d already left the house for the event when it came in…)

Winners: please e-mail me your mailing address… mary at kidlit dot com. Thanks!

Speaking of pulse… my pulse is definitely jangling with sugar from all the delicious cupcakes! Mmmm.

Another standing O goes to Lisa Yee, who was her witty, charming self at tonight’s reading, as you can see from the pictures.

After reading a little bit from STANFORD WONG and ABSOLUTELY MAYBE, she spent a little time giving advice to writers, which she tried to say in one, very long word:

ReadReadWriteWriteReadWriteReadReadWrite

She also told writers to pull something different from the shelf, something other than what they’d usually read. (See: The Importance of Reading for Writers)

Instead of worrying about producing the next New York Times bestseller, she also advises writers to keep some perspective:

Keep your goals small: write one good sentence.

Overall, a very fun and totally memorable evening. More pictures behind the cut and… the winner of the ABSOLUTELY MAYBE contest revealed!

Now here are more pictures from tonight’s reading! Contest winner info is at the bottom, so keep scrolling.

Lisa signing after her reading. Note the pink wig…

Here’s the wig again, this time on Walter, who was doing a dramatic reading!

Lisa with a group of fans.

Lisa and yours truly… note the pink wig again!

And now, for the contest stuff. Instead of me picking names out of a hat, I wanted to let the guest of honor take a draw. Here she is, looking prudently away while she picks through the entries:

And she’s picked one! Whose name is it?

Can you read it? It says Della!

Della is tonight’s big winner of an autographed, personalized copy of ABSOLUTELY MAYBE! While I can’t guarantee the rock star treatment for all of my contests, be sure to enter the next one… it might just be you getting your name picked out of a pile by your favorite author.

Thanks again to Lisa and Jenn. And it’s always nice to run into friends at readings. Here are Debbie and Heidi, who I’ve been bumping into all over the place. (See? I told you there were cupcakes…)