TLC at TLA

Last week, Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center played host the the Texas Library Association conference. This means that the Bayou City was swarming with fabulous young adult and children's book authors. And, lucky me, I got to attend thanks to the lovely ladies at Penguin Young Readers. Here's how my day went:

My first stop (after picking up my exhibit hall badge) was the Feiwel & Friends booth. I was on a mission to get an ARC of EYES LIKE STARS by Lisa Mantchev, which comes out this summer. Sadly, they were already out! But the lovely lady in the booth took my name and address and promised to send one. Fingers crossed!


Next I went to visit my Penguin peeps. I walked into the booth and saw a GODDESS BOOT CAMP ARC on the display table. I pointed at the cover and said, "That's me." And then, realizing that there was a very not me teen girl on my cover, I added, "I mean, that's not me." I pointed at my name across the bottom. "That's me."


They were so excited and I got introduced around. They pulled out the two boxes of my ARCs that they'd been saving for my arrival and set me up to sign at the front of the booth. I had a nonstop line--met some wonderful Texas librarians and teens--and both boxes were gone in less than an hour. I didn't even get to steal some for myself!

I finished around noon, which was also the time nerdfighter king John Green was supposed to be signing in the Author Area at the far end of the hall. The Penguin ladies set me up with a copy of PAPER TOWNS (with the yellow cover) and I headed that way. Then I pulled out the sneaky author card when Penguin's author appearance coordinator introduced me to John (who is so awesome--my editor used to be his editor's assistant) and he signed my book without my having to wait in line. (Sorry for the cuts, librarians!)


As I was wandering away in a John Green haze (he's just as adorable in person, people) I ran into Melissa Marr, from whom I learned two important things. 1) Her imprint at HarperCollins is now going to be Katherine Tegen, which is also my imprint at HarperCollins. So that means were like publishing sisters. Yay! 2) Since she won the RITA award for Best Young Adult last year she will be presenting the award to this year's winner and there's a 33% chance that it'll be me. Either way, it'll be great. Here's Melissa (far right) and me (second from the left) on a YA panel last year:


I spent the next three hours stopping in to get some Harper love at their booth, learning the TLA ropes with my pal Dotti Enderle, and watching her sign endlessly for two hours! We escaped to a nearby bar and downed Diet Cokes for a couple of hours (yes, just Diet Cokes) to recover.


Later that night was the Joint Publishers Reception. This was basically a big cocktail party with everyone from the publishing houses, some librarians, and a bunch of hungry authors and illustrators look for free food and drinks. There was a massive projection screen running in the corner, showing headshots of all the authors attending the conference. Here's a shot of my screen (taking via very crappy phone cam):


Here are just some of the hungry authors I got to meet or catch up with: Ally Carter, Sara Zarr, Varian Johnson, and Justine Larbalestier. Scott Westerfeld was also there (I met him earlier in the week when he and Cassandra Clare signed at Murder By the Book). And so was Meg Cabot--starstruck! Here's a picture of me and the Meg (again on the very crappy phone cam):


Okay, so I didn't exactly get up close and personal with her (she's the one in the background wearing a kelly green dress). Until the next day. When she was signing at my beloved Blue Willow Bookshop. After listening to her talk (she is so good at that) I waited in line for, like, ever. When Cathy from Blue Willow introduced me as a double RITA nominee Meg was seriously impressed.

"What categories?" she asked.

I tried not to stammer. "Best First Book and Best YA."

"What book?" She quickly signed my copy of AIRHEAD.

"OH. MY. GODS." I answered.

"Oh my God," she squealed. (Okay, maybe not squealed. That's my artistic license.) "I have that book. I haven't read it yet, but I have it."

Omigod, omigod, omigod. Meg Cabot has my book! That seriously made my week!

So, there you go. This was what my first time at TLA (and the day after) was like. Will I do it again next year in San Antonio? Absolutely!

Hugs,
TLC