Signings

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Frank Portman at Not Your Mother’s Book Club

September 14, 2009 in Events | No comments

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Okay, it’s not really a secret. I happen to be a fan of local author and rock n’ roller Frank Portman, who wrote KING DORK and the brand new ANDROMEDA KLEIN (Delacorte, August 25, 2009). His readings are a blast because he always treats his audience to a song or two from the catalog he created while playing with his band, the Mr. T Experience.

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.

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Sarah Dessen Event: Not Your Mother’s Book Club

June 22, 2009 in Events | 12 comments

dessen_11Now, 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.

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BEA Warrior Fail

May 30, 2009 in Events | 1 comment

Where, oh where, is yesterday’s tremendous gusto?

The kind that propelled me out of bed, to the Javits, into line, back home, to Javits again, into line, into line, into line, into line (and on and on and on)? I don’t know either. If you find it, let me know. Since I don’t think my blog displays the time of each post, I must tell you something that will make you tremendously disappointed in me. Yesterday’s wake-up call? 4:37. Today’s? 8:24. No crazy signing tickets, no pre-dawn running around.

However, there is a caveat to these very un-BEA-warrior numbers. The plain fact of the matter is that I went to bed around the same time I woke up yesterday. The sun was coming up. It was rather beautiful. Beautiful but deadly.

Whose grand idea was it to stay up all night, at a hoochie-infested 24 hour diner, no less? We’ll never know. Rest assured, it was an amazing time. First I went to the Kidlit Drinks get-together at Houndstooth (alas, the event was not in my honor, hehe…) and met some fabulous new friends. Then got talking and just… didn’t… stop. I swear, I was out and talking for so long that I must’ve told my life story — all the fine points included — three and a half times.

“There was this one time, with this peanut butter and banana sandwich…”

“We. Know.”

Whoops.

But it was incredible and now that I’ve had a shower and some time to get used to the idea of running on so little sleep, I’m feeling pretty human again.

On today’s agenda is a lot less signing. I’m going to one panel, a signing or two when I can fit them in, and then the rest of the day I’ll probably be walking the third level, which I didn’t do yesterday, and going to meetings. Tonight, there’s a fabulous get-together for Blue Boarders and then a party that I’ll be going to.

And then I’m going to sleep so hardcore and so much that I’m about 90% certain I’ll miss tomorrow morning’s flight. But hey, this is my first time here and I might as well take it to the limit, right guys? Right? Right? I’ll assume your silence to mean a resounding “HELL YES!”

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BEA Warrior, Will Not Fall Asleep, Will Not Fall Asleep

May 29, 2009 in Agent, Events | 2 comments

What a whirlwind day! That doesn’t even begin to describe it but, since I’ve been up for about 15 hours at this point, that’s about the limit of my imagination/vocabulary. My day began, as I might’ve mentioned, early. Armed with a healthy dose of RedBull, I arrived at the Children’s Author Breakfast and had the very surreal experience of listening to Julie Andrews talk, Peter Yarrow (of “Puff the Magic Dragon” and Peter, Paul and Mary fame) sing, and Meg Cabot, Tomie DePaola and Amy Krouse Rosenthal talk.

After that, I went downstairs to start my long line of signings (and of long lines). Highlights: Neil Gaiman, Suzanne Collins, Scott Westerfeld, Mo Willems, three finalists from Top Chef, Emeril Lagasse, Adrienne Kress, Sarah MacLean and Ally Carter.

This took up most of my day. At the end of the afternoon, I caught YA Editors’ Buzz, with David Levithan, Arthur Levine, Ari Lewin, Krista Marino, Mark Siegel, Liz Szabla and Tara Weikum. What a blast to hear editors discuss the projects that make them squee! I managed to get through some pages of CATCHING FIRE while waiting in various lines (why yes, I am awesome, thank you very much) and then went to some editor meetings with the director of the agency. It was super cool to hear an agent and editor discussing projects and needs. I’ll be doing much more of that tomorrow.

Are you ready for some pictures? If you want your mind seriously blown, click the link below:

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BEA Warrior, Soaked to the Bone

May 29, 2009 in Events | 1 comment

I went downstairs this morning and, to my surprise, not only was it flu booger yellow outside, it was also raining. So, in addition to toothpaste, I picked up an overpriced yet incredibly poorly-made umbrella. Then I tromped the three blocks to Javits and found my tribe, the early-rising book geeks:

You’ll have to excuse my pictures from this trip. There was no way I planned on hauling around my extremely nice but heavy Canon Rebel SLR. Knowing me, I’d either drop it or chuck it against a wall in frustration because the lighting inside the Javits is bound to be a pain in the butt to shoot manually. So I picked up an infuriating little Nikon CoolpieceofshitPix to take on-the-fly snaps with. (Good thing Best Buy has a return policy, s’all I’m sayin’…). So, with that as a caveat, below is the best shot of me and the line. The major blurriness is fitting, actually, as it’s a pretty dead-on reflection of my bleary state of mind right now:

More Javits:

Here are my signing tickets for today. First, just because he’s here, I got:

BAM! Next, I’m more than a little excited about:

And finally, the one that officially makes me the pretty little princess:

And here’s a nice shot of my hotel, the New Yorker, from in front of Javits:

On my way down 35th street, I encountered the biggest puddle ocean in the middle of the sidewalk and couldn’t go around it. So my shoes and the entire bottom quarter of my pants are soaked. Just in time for me to walk around in them all day long. There’s a PayLess across the street but I doubt they’ll open before I have to be at the Children’s Author Breakfast at 8. Oh well. I’m a book warrior and, after this quick update, I’m off to Javits again.

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BEA Warrior, Putting My Game Face On

May 29, 2009 in Agent, Events | 1 comment

So, for those keeping track, I flew in to NYC yesterday and had a delightful dinner at my favorite pizza place, Posto, with my agent friend Elizabeth. It was so great to catch up and, even though I might’ve protested at the time, she left me the last two pieces of the meatlover’s special with roasted garlic, which I ferreted up to my room and might or might not have eaten in bed while catching up on Twitter from the day.

Now it’s day 1 of BEA. I’m sad I missed the YA Author Carnival yesterday but I was stuck on the tarmack for an inexplicable hour after we landed, gritting my teeth, only to get stuck some more in rush hour traffic. Not the case today. Today I’m getting to the Javits, only three blocks from my hotel, early. How early, you ask?

CATCHING FIRE signing tickets early, aka. hours before the sun even thinks about rising:

The mist around New York was so thick yesterday that my plane only broke through the clouds about 20 seconds before landing. It’s no different today. The city outside my window is a very unattractive shade of flu booger yellow:

And now that I’m awake, I put on my game face:

And I… run across the street to Duane Reade for the toothpaste I forgot to pack… and then, it’s on. Although I did commit a very unpleasant tactical error. I read the only book I brought (who brings books to BEA?) on the plane yesterday, so I have nothing to entertain me in line except, well, hopefully, other crazed book fans who have no life and wake up at 4:30 a.m. to lay their hands on Suzanne Collins signing tickets.

Book nerds, into the fray! Stay tuned here for my BEA adventures.

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Debutante Ball at Books Inc! Event With Sarah Quigley, Cheryl Renee Herbsman and C. Lee McKenzie!

May 15, 2009 in Events | 5 comments

Just last night, I had the pleasure of hanging out with some awesome YA authors. Cheryl Renee Herbsman, who wrote BREATHING (Viking, 2009), Sarah Quigley, author of TMI (Dutton, 2009) and C. Lee McKenzie of SLIDING ON THE EDGE (WestSide Books, 2009) were our three debutantes at Books Inc. They can be seen pictured here from left to right. (Sorry your eyes are closed, Cheryl, it’s hard to get three people coordinated in a group shot!)

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!

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Lisa Yee Results Coming Soon!

April 16, 2009 in Site Stuff | No comments

Thanks to everyone who entered the Lisa Yee contest. Results coming very soon. For now, I’m off to the event. Expect a post afterward!

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