BEA news! With photos!

Back from BookExpo America, the largest book trade show in the country. Fantastic! I came a couple of days early and did some signings--one lovely, one where no one came. Ah yes, signings happen. I felt so bad for the bookstore and for Bloomsbury who hired a car to take me out there and bought me dinner (I had the soft shell crabs), and then, sitting by the front door for an hour as customers hurry past, averting their eyes as if I have some horrific skin disease. A lovely man did buy a copy of princess academy (Cheers, Mike!). A woman sat by me for 20 minutes talking to me about her grandchildren and my books and left without buying one. Ah yes. We had a good laugh.

Here's the shelf at the bookstore where I found princess academy shelved. Hm, not where I would've chosen, but way to break those gender barriers!

Thursday I had a free day and went to the beach in Connecticut with Max, Maggie, my editor and her two girls. Gorgeous. If you can arrange it, try to find a book editor who was also a professional chef, because then she might cook for you and--wow.

BEA was thousands of people who all care about books, loads of free books for the picking, and how much cooler can you get? I tried to snap a few photos for y'all, inspired by Linda Sue Park's fabulous photo blog from ALA last year.

After the children's author breakfast, I attack Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson in true fan girl style, stuttering and gasping compliments. We took a photo.
When I informed them that I planned to post the photo on my site and shamelessly claim we were excellent friends in order to up my street creds, they were all for it and were quick to provide even more evidence:

Dave and Ridley learning at my knee. I was really busy, but I generously took some time to teach them about character development and the intricacies of plot design. Poor fellas--they'd been flailing for so long. It's not out of line to say that everything they know, they learned from me.

Here's an unfortunate instance when I had to scold Dave. All too common, I'm afraid. Naughty, naughty.

Libba Bray and I illustrate the proper behavior of lady writers--quiet dignity, my friends. Quiet dignity.

Here Libba tells me the ending of The Sweet Far Thing. I'd never have guessed that everyone will die! But I won't tell you how. You know how I dislike spoilers.

I did three signings at BEA and each time there was a line of people waiting for a book and a signature. People I didn't know. Who wanted to meet me. And get a book. And cared about having my signature. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this. It's so amazing. And they seem like genuinely cool people too, not just unfortunates who mistake me for Gail Carson Levine. It was HOT in the convention center, though, so here I am signing austenland with Maggie stripped down to her essentials. We all wished we were five months old and could get away with it. The actress Julianne Moore has a picture book coming out and she was signing at Bloomsbury just before me, and she was loving on Maggie, holding and kissing her and exclaiming at her beauty and perfection. Julianne Moore clearly has excellent taste.

My dear friend Tiffany Trent, whose fabulous first book In the Serpent's Coils comes out in the fall. We were in grad school together and swore that one day we'd be together at a conference. Ah-ha! Eight years later, I have proof.

The excellent Mr. Jack Gantos. I was way too much in awe to do anything silly. Also it was just after the Author Speed Dating, where there were 20 tables with librarians and booksellers, and each author talks to them for 3 minutes then rushes on to the next table (not onto, because there was no table top tap dancing at this particular events, my friends.) After 90 minutes of ceaseless talking, my throat was raw and I was pretty sure I was the least interesting individual on the earth.

Holly Black proves that her tongue is way pointier and longer than mine. So not fair. I mean, it's one thing to have such a cool tongue, but to flaunt it like that? I mean, really.

I love her this much. Even with the tongue flaunting.

And despite the heat that made napping difficult for sweet baby girl, we all had a wonderful time. The audio book of goose girl got an Audie Award for Achievement in Production (congrats to Full Cast Audio!). The early responses to austenland were, frankly, overwhelming. And in only slightly less important news, Dean recognized the early signs of stomach upset in Max as our plane descended into Salt Lake, allowing me to get the barf bag under his chin just a moment before it all came out, thereby saving the day. In the end, when the kids are well, all is well.