On Saturday I had the lovely experience of being at the American Library Association’s annual convention in nearby Anaheim. I brought my 27-yr-old daughter with me, a lover of books and an associate editor at publishing house, because a convention floor full of thousands of books and book-loving librarians is an experience meant to be shared.  

I was thrilled to sign and give away 50 copies of the advance review edition of The Girl in the Glass. They went lickety-split!  I had barely sat down at the very lovely Random House booth when the copies were signed and handed to happy librarians. So Stephanie and I had lots of time to saunter (it’s the only time I ever saunter) the aisles of BOOKS!

We also sat in on a Book Buzz presentation by middle-grade authors – they are fun people to be around – and learned that several of them who also illustrate their books would be in the Artist’s Alley on the convention floor, drawing sketches to give away. We enjoyed hearing about their books so much. (Check out The Sisters Grimm!)

After lunch, we headed down to the Artist’s Alley and caught up with Nathan Hale, who authors these amazing graphic novels based on historical events.  It’s simply the best way to  learn history, no matter how old you are.

He also illustrated the upcoming parody called Frankenstein (ala Madeline). And while I cringe at some parodies (no zombie Jane Austen for me), this book looks laugh-out-loud cute. He drew me a sketch of Frankenstein and offered to have say something to me! So I instructed Nathan to have the monster tell me to get busy. Writers are such procrastinators…

I love this sketch (above). It shall be framed and placed where I can see it at my writing desk. It will remind me to not only get to work but to not take myself too seriously. Life is more fun if you lighten it up a little.