BEA '12 Wrap-Up! (And a star for DRAMA!)
This has been quite a week. Things started off strong on Monday morning, when I accepted the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for SMILE in Monteplier, VT. A separate post all about that is coming soon. We rushed straight to the airport as soon as the ceremony ended, and flew back to New York--and when the plane landed, I turned on my phone and immediately learned that DRAMA received a STARRED review from Publishers Weekly--my first starred review ever. I was so excited, I think the whole plane heard me squeal!!
From the airport, I headed straight to Scholastic HQ in Soho, where I was presenting at a bloggers conference in conjunction with Book Expo America.
Myself and several other authors presented READERS THEATER, which is where everyone reads a chapter from their respective books, and provides voices for each others' chapters. I read/showed a chapter from DRAMA, with hilarious results!
What a lineup! Here I am with (L to R, top to bottom) Eliot Schrefer, James Dashner, Jeff Hirsch, Kate Messner, Donna Cooner, Sharon Cameron, and Maggie Steifvater!
So that was a pretty good day.
Tuesday evening I participated in a NYPL event called COMING NEXT! I spoke on a panel with Dave Roman, John Green, and Michael Kupperman, moderated by Chris Butcher. We had fun talking about how we make comics, our upcoming books, and lots of other stuff! Thanks to everyone who came out to the event.
Wednesday was my "big" day at BEA, starting bright and early-ish with a Graphic Novels panel!
My co-panelists were Zack Giallongo, Mark Seigel, and Noah Van Sciver. Our moderator was Jenny Brown of Shelf Awareness. This was a lot of fun! The photo above is courtesy of The Daily Hey Now!, where you can see more photos and get a rundown of what we discussed.
My next event was AUTHOR SPEED DATING, which I have no photos to share from, but which was a total blast. An hour and fifteen minutes, twenty tables full of booksellers, and twenty authors--each author spends exactly 3 minutes at each table, talking about their new book! So I got to tell a huge roomful of people about DRAMA! Several booksellers I already knew, having done so much travel and promotion for SMILE these past few years. And many of them, whom I hadn't yet met, were already familiar with my work and excited to hear about what was new. It was exhausting and exhilarating!
Right after that, I had a signing in the Autograph Area!
(Thanks to Scholastic's Twitter feed for the photo!)
What fun! My lineup lasted the full hour, as I signed galleys of DRAMA for enthusiastic fans. It's wonderful to know how many people are eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new book! I only wish September 1st would get here sooner...
I got to sit down for a few minutes after my signing, and then it was off to the ABC Art Auction. What a great event--the food was cheese, crackers, fruit...and a mashed potato bar!! Now that is MY idea of a party! My favorite combination was red bliss mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, topped with asparagus, cheese, and chives. OMG.
The party was a who's-who of kidlit stars, and I got a chance to talk with a bunch of awesome creators, booksellers, marketing folks, and agents.
Me and Dave with Mo Willems!
Me and Maggie, who won my piece in the auction!
Finally, Dave and I stopped by the Kidlit Drinks party happening in midtown, and had fun talking to friends and colleagues...but couldn't stay long, because I was beat! I heard accounts of all the fun people had after we went home, but the benefit of living in New York is that the fun is never away for very long. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.
Thanks very much to everyone at Scholastic, for organizing everything and featuring DRAMA so prominently in their lineup for this year's BEA!
My next big event is ALA, in Anaheim, and I seriously can't wait. In the meantime, though, look for more posts here on my site about what's going on closer to home! See you soon!