TLA - Part 2

Here is proof that I really did a panel with Sonya Sones and Ellen Hopkins. They were both so calm, cool and collected while I, on the otherhand, could not stop shaking. At one point, I went to take a drink of water, while one of them was talking, and it was almost funny how much my hand was shaking. I wonder how many librarians saw that and thought, what is wrong with that girl - does she have a medical condition of some kind? I mean, it was that bad. Oh well. Thankfully, my voice didn't show it (much).



I took a picture of the room with 550 seats a few minutes before we started. Most of the seats ended up being filled, which surprised us, and which also made us very happy.



The Texas Sweethearts (Jessica Lee Anderson (BORDER CROSSING), Jo Whittemore (FRONT PAGE FACE-OFF) and PJ Hoover (THE EMERALD TABLET) serving up some delicious desserts.



And here's me with Jess and PJ at the cocktail party.



You know who else was at that cocktail party? RICK RIORDAN!! Everyone was asking to take a picture with him, and although that would have been fun, I refrained, because the poor guy probably didn't even get a sip of wine with all of that going on. I did snap a picture from afar, however.



We had dinner Thursday night with a bunch of librarians, and I sat across from one of the librarians who was on the TAYSHAS committee and was instrumental in getting FAR FROM YOU on the list. It was a good time, and the margaritas were excellent!



I had fun chatting with teens and librarians during a teen chat on Friday. Here's a group of middle schoolers from a school in San Antonio (Frontier maybe?? I'm terrible with names).



And finally, Jess was kind enough to give me a quick tour on Friday, after we had lunch, when the sun finally came out for awhile. Here I am, in front of the Alamo!



One picture I don't have that I wish I did was of me and Suzanne Collins (THE HUNGER GAMES). We ended up on the Skylink in the Dallas airport together, and there was hardly anyone else there, and so I got brave and introduced myself. We chatted about the conference and traveling, and as much as I wanted to gush about her books and ask questions, I refrained. I attended her presentation at the conference, and a kid asked her if she could go back and change anything, what would it be? She said - oh no, there's something I should change? People laughed, and then she went on to say that even if there was, she's tired. Very tired! And so, I decided to give that tired author a break from those books that fill so much of her time. Still, a very cool five minutes for me!!

So there you have it. A fun, but busy, couple of days. I came home and took more naps this weekend than I can count. And now, I suppose it's time to buckle down and get writing.