Today is the final TBF post. Have people been enjoying these? Have people been reading these? Only one person has commented! Do you know how losery that makes me feel? Oy.
I forgot to discuss lunch in yesterday's post. That part of the day was, if I really look at it from outside my body, a rather surreal experience. Here I was, at a table alone in a room with Carl Deuker and Ellen Hopkins and Rachel Hawkins (who was my alphabetical buddy) and Melissa Kantor and Garret Freymann-Weyr and Mark Crilley and Eric Luper and Patrick Jones and Elizabeth Scott and Melissa de la Cruz. And we all talked with each other! It was so fun and so great to hear about others' experiences in the publishing world, successes and difficulties. Oh, and they had a bouncer downstairs so no one interrupted our lunch.
After the lunch and the afternoon panels came the autographing. I was afraid that I would be sitting alone, and everyone would be waiting in the lines for the huge authors. And while I never had a mega line, people really bought my books and wanted autographs on other things, like the buttons of my face (loved those!) and their t-shirts and postcards. It was super fun. During the lulls, Rachel Hawkins and I danced at the table to the music provided by the DJ and pretended we were prom dates.
Here's a picture of me at my table with awesome librarian, Stacey Jones. She saved my book, Get Well Soon, from a parent challenge!
When it was time to leave, I rushed to catch the first ride out in our cool bus. It was a long day, and I was ready for a shower (it was very muggy. I'm surprised my hair didn't get bigger than it did.). People were gabby on the bus ride, but I was so sleepy. It was nice to just listen and enjoy the breeze.
That night, all of the authors and TBF staff had dinner back at our hotel. There was some interesting supernatural conversation at my table, which included Shannon Delaney and Shari Maurer. After dinner, many of the authors gathered in the lobby for drinks. I don't know if I've mentioned that I don't drink, but as a fully grown adult, it doesn't bother me to be around semi-drunks (I can't stand stupid drunks or violent drunks, but lounging author drunks are okay). I was, however, crazy tired. The night before I woke up at 2:00 and couldn't fall back asleep. That combined with mommy duty and a huge day of speaking and signing and smiling made me a little odd. At one point I started crying (not sobbing, just tearing up) on a couch with Jon Skovron and Ally Carter, just because I was so tired. We talked a bunch about ways of relaxing. Thankfully, something clicked, and I slept very well that night.
The following day was a loooooong one. Our flight wasn't leaving out of Buffalo until 6:30 p.m. (or so we thought), so the plan was to visit the Jell-O Gallery in LeRoy (the birthplace of Jell-O!) on the way. It was pouring rain, but we managed to find the town, have lunch in a cute old train depot restaurant (complete with upside-down moving train on the ceiling) and visit the museum. Our very enthusiastic guide went on and on about how Jell-O is NOT made from horse hooves but from some disgusting chicken part that she had to describe in great detail. I nearly threw up and was thisclose to telling her we're vegetarians. After the intro, we were free to walk around the small museum and enjoy the history of Jell-O. And Bill Cosby's face.
I don't know why I'm wearing my hood.
Our plane ended up being delayed three hours, which gave us loads of time to kill and fill at the Buffalo Airport. Note to self: don't fly on Sunday nights, when everything in the airport closes way too early. We did have some delicious subs at Which Wich. Pretty good for airport food!
It's wacky to think that in a little over a month, the family will be back in the air to fly to New Orleans for ALA. That trip is two nights longer than our TBF trip, which probably means I'll be completely delirious at the YA Author Coffee Klatch on the second to last day of our trip. Hope to see some of you there. I'll try not to cry.
Thank you to everyone at the Great Rochester Teen Book Festival! I truly hope you'll invite me back. And soon!
I forgot to discuss lunch in yesterday's post. That part of the day was, if I really look at it from outside my body, a rather surreal experience. Here I was, at a table alone in a room with Carl Deuker and Ellen Hopkins and Rachel Hawkins (who was my alphabetical buddy) and Melissa Kantor and Garret Freymann-Weyr and Mark Crilley and Eric Luper and Patrick Jones and Elizabeth Scott and Melissa de la Cruz. And we all talked with each other! It was so fun and so great to hear about others' experiences in the publishing world, successes and difficulties. Oh, and they had a bouncer downstairs so no one interrupted our lunch.
After the lunch and the afternoon panels came the autographing. I was afraid that I would be sitting alone, and everyone would be waiting in the lines for the huge authors. And while I never had a mega line, people really bought my books and wanted autographs on other things, like the buttons of my face (loved those!) and their t-shirts and postcards. It was super fun. During the lulls, Rachel Hawkins and I danced at the table to the music provided by the DJ and pretended we were prom dates.
Here's a picture of me at my table with awesome librarian, Stacey Jones. She saved my book, Get Well Soon, from a parent challenge!
That night, all of the authors and TBF staff had dinner back at our hotel. There was some interesting supernatural conversation at my table, which included Shannon Delaney and Shari Maurer. After dinner, many of the authors gathered in the lobby for drinks. I don't know if I've mentioned that I don't drink, but as a fully grown adult, it doesn't bother me to be around semi-drunks (I can't stand stupid drunks or violent drunks, but lounging author drunks are okay). I was, however, crazy tired. The night before I woke up at 2:00 and couldn't fall back asleep. That combined with mommy duty and a huge day of speaking and signing and smiling made me a little odd. At one point I started crying (not sobbing, just tearing up) on a couch with Jon Skovron and Ally Carter, just because I was so tired. We talked a bunch about ways of relaxing. Thankfully, something clicked, and I slept very well that night.
The following day was a loooooong one. Our flight wasn't leaving out of Buffalo until 6:30 p.m. (or so we thought), so the plan was to visit the Jell-O Gallery in LeRoy (the birthplace of Jell-O!) on the way. It was pouring rain, but we managed to find the town, have lunch in a cute old train depot restaurant (complete with upside-down moving train on the ceiling) and visit the museum. Our very enthusiastic guide went on and on about how Jell-O is NOT made from horse hooves but from some disgusting chicken part that she had to describe in great detail. I nearly threw up and was thisclose to telling her we're vegetarians. After the intro, we were free to walk around the small museum and enjoy the history of Jell-O. And Bill Cosby's face.
Our plane ended up being delayed three hours, which gave us loads of time to kill and fill at the Buffalo Airport. Note to self: don't fly on Sunday nights, when everything in the airport closes way too early. We did have some delicious subs at Which Wich. Pretty good for airport food!
It's wacky to think that in a little over a month, the family will be back in the air to fly to New Orleans for ALA. That trip is two nights longer than our TBF trip, which probably means I'll be completely delirious at the YA Author Coffee Klatch on the second to last day of our trip. Hope to see some of you there. I'll try not to cry.
Thank you to everyone at the Great Rochester Teen Book Festival! I truly hope you'll invite me back. And soon!
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1 comment:
out of all the times i've visited rochester, i've never been to the jell-o museum. this needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
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