This photo was taken at last year's ALA conference in Washington D.C. during a panel I was on with (from L to R) our moderator, Sherman Alexie, Cecily Von Ziegesar, me, and Laurie Halse Anderson.
Why am I showing you a photo from last year? Partly because I never got around to actually posting it last year, but mostly because I forgot to bring my camera to this year's ALA conference, which just so happened to take place in my hometown of Orange County, CA. And after navigating the freeways, finding a parking space, and then walking (in 4" wedges) all the way to Hall A, only to discover I'd left my camera behind, I was not about to go back and get it.
And even though I didn't get to document it, I had an absolute blast signing a ton of books- copies of both CRUEL SUMMER and SAVING ZOE-- so many copies I even ran out of the bookmarks I'd brought (and nope, I wasn't going home for those either!). I met a ton of awesome librarians, as well as the daughters and granddaughters of librarians. I even met the librarian at my old high school who brought me a picture of a display that they made in my honor--including my yearbook photo! See below:
And, of course, no ALA is complete without carting away a couple bags of free books. But unlike BEA where I went a little overboard, (um, 82 books anyone?), this time I kept it reasonable (17). And I even managed to snag a few ARCS I've been really wanting to read, including Brooke Taylor's UNDONE, and Stephanie Kuehnert's I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE. Now all I need is some quiet time so I can actually sit down and read them!
Oh, and the awesome Robin over at FOLUSA made me a copy of my READ poster (shown here with my my collection of ALA ARCs). Please ignore messy office credenza it's propped on!
A mess that probably won't get cleaned up anytime soon as July promises to be extremely busy, what with my niece and a nephew's annual surf camp visit, my 4th of July beach and fireworks party, Rock 'N' Read on July 13 (save the date!), the RWA conference in San Fran (my first ever, can't wait!), oh, and did I mention I'm on deadline????
Back to work for me--- Happy July 1st everyone!
