ALA goodness – new friends, great books, much fun!

Happy Monday!

First things first… be sure to check out Friday’s updated Author Spotlight with Tera Lynn Childs to find out which fun tidbit was her lie. Some people guessed right. Did you?

Second, I had a blast at ALA in Chicago this weekend! Before I dive in with ALA news, I wanted to share something I KNOW you’re going to be excited about.

I got a bunch of ARCs for upcoming Great Scavenger Hunt Contest titles, and I’m giving them away!

As I made my way around the expansive exhibits hall, I chatted with some of the publishers about The Hunt. I explained what the program was and asked if I might be able to sneak an ARC for some of their upcoming titles in The Hunt. They were so generous that I came home with more than a dozen ARCs! So tune in to the blog every day because I’m going to be giving them away… but you won’t know when!

And librarians, watch your monthly Hunt newsletter for exclusive librarian ARC giveaways of some of these titles. You don’t want to miss out! (Not registered for The Great Scavenger Hunt? Register here!)

I know I’m going to miss some high points from the whirlwind experience, so please forgive any brain lapses! Here are but a few of the highlights:

1.   Meeting the fabulous Elizabeth Law, my editor and the publisher of Egmont USA. If you don’t follow her on Facebook or on Twitter (@EgmontGal), you’re seriously missing out. She’s not only brilliant, but hilarious to boot!

2.   Meeting the fabulous Egmont team, including Doug Pocock, Regina Griffin, Mary Albi and Ellen Greene. What an amazing group of dedicated, fun, terrific people. I feel so blessed to be in their capable and cheerful hands.

3.   Getting to preview Egmont’s amazing Fall lineup! I managed to snag a signed ARC of Julia Keller’s Back Home plus ARCs for Candor by Pam Bachorz, Stealing Death by Janet Lee Carey and Violet Wings by Victoria Hanley. All of these are upcoming titles in The Great Scavenger Hunt Contest, so I’m thrilled to be able to get a sneak peek of these myself before giving them away to lucky winners. I’m also delighted to have gotten an ARC of Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have by Allen Zadoff because it just looks so darn awesome.

4.   Getting to attend the Margaret A. Edwards awards luncheon honoring Laurie Halse Anderson for lifetime achievement. The luncheon was first class from beginning to end and Laurie’s speech was as delightful as she is.

5.   Chatting with Egmont author Julia Keller (Back Home). Julia is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has written a non-fiction book in addition to her debut YA for Egmont’s Fall list. As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous to meet my first Pulitzer Prize winner, but Julia could not have been more lovely and engaging. We had a fabulous time chatting at the luncheon. I can’t wait to feature Back Home as an upcoming addition to The Great Scavenger Hunt Contest and to read her amazing book about a girl whose father comes home from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury. It breaks my heart just reading the blurb. A serious must-have for every library.

6.   Getting to chat with librarians! I had a blast chatting with the darling Kristen and her very funny aunt, my awesome librarian friend Cathy, and the delightful gals, Andrea and Michelle, from the Joliet Public Library. Andrea and Michelle both immediately became my new BFFs by noticing my name tag and saying “You’re Kay Cassidy! I can’t wait to read The Cinderella Society!” This was the first time I’d ever had someone recognize me and say that, so it was a very memorable moment. (Thanks girls!)

7.   Chatting with bloggers! As planned, I met up with Chelsea, Kristi and Chelsea’s cousin Emily (I hope I’m spelling it right!) on Saturday afternoon. They could not have been more lovely and charming. (And they all took home great loads of fabulous books!)

8.   Getting a signed copy of Ballads of Suburbia from Stephanie Kuehnert to give away. (I hear you cheering out there!) She is just as fun in person as she is online, so it was awesome to finally get to chat with her for a few minutes. (Thanks for the bookmarks, Steph!)

9.   Attending the Egmont launch party on Saturday night at the beautiful Art Institute of Chicago. I met more wonderful librarians than I could possibly list here, including Stephanie Squicciarini from Fairport Public Library (the mastermind behind the Teen Book Festival in Rochester, NY), Sheila Schofer from Brooklyn Public Library and Arlene Weber Morales from Midwood High School in Brooklyn. Hmm… that sounds like I’m favoring the NY folks, so let me also point out that I chatted with some hilarious librarians from Kansas, Missouri, Texas and more. Everyone seemed to have a great time, me included!

10.   Having fun squee moments when I saw ARCs for some of the early Tenners. I saw Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush (and nabbed a copy – woohoo!) and Jen Nadol‘s The Mark (but was too late to nab one – sniff sniff). Egmont also had maybe a half dozen of Lindsay Eland’s Scones and Sensibility and Bree Despain’s The Dark Divine, but only gave them out if people specifically asked for them (lucky people!). I can’t wait until the ALA Mid-Winter Conference in Boston in January when tons of Tenner ARCs will be on display (including mine!).

11.   Getting to meet awesome authors like Kate Messner (The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z) and Sarah Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer – who sadly had completely lost her voice by the time we ran into each other). It was so great to chat with them both!

Now… as a first-time ALA attendee, here are a few things I learned:

1.   Wear comfortable shoes because the exhibits hall is ENORMOUS. Egmont was in aisle 1700/1800 and the aisles went all the way up to the 4000s, I think.

2.   Most publishers had ARCs on display but did not have them readily available. They would put out a stack of ARCs at different points during the day, but those got picked up practically as quickly as they were put out. If you wanted an ARC of a particular book, you simply asked a booth staff member if it was available. If it was, and it wasn’t being saved for an upcoming signing during the conference, they were happy to give you a copy. This is how I got the ARCs for the upcoming Great Scavenger Hunt Contest titles to use for the librarian and blog giveaways to help promote their upcoming releases.

3.   Librarians are SO nice! Whether it was browsing titles in the booths or waiting in line for a signing, everyone was chatty and warm and wonderful. It was like living in a fluffy dream world of great books and happy people. Just awesome.

4.   Authors who are there to sign books don’t just sign books during ALA. They are constantly on the go with breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, receptions, chats or signings at local bookstores… even the super cool YALSA coffee klatsch (kind of like speed dating between librarians and authors, from what I understand). My publisher made up an itinerary for each featured Fall 2009 author that was packed from sunup to sundown. I was just there as a booklover, but they even included me in some of the events like the Margaret Edwards luncheon and the Egmont launch party. It’s definitely non-stop action.

Whew! That’s a lot for one post, but it was a wonderful weekend. And remember, keep watching the blog for those One-Day-Only ARC giveaways of upcoming Hunt titles!

Entry Filed under: Grab Bag