I left work entirely too late to make it to my church activity all the way up in Seattle, so instead I’m staying home, eating homemade Thai (a panang curry, to which I forgot to add the onions! horror! but for a first time, I think I did pretty good), and posting about my week. I even started a fire in the fireplace so that the cats would have something more interesting to watch than me eat, which makes supper twice as long–three times when I have milk, which I find highly important to eating Thai. Which, by the way, was crazy. I’m dealing with yet another sinus infection (if any of you talked to me at ALA and I said I was coming down with something, I meant that, which ISN’T contagious, don’t worry! sorry to alarm!). That means yet more antibiotics. 

I can’t ever tell which is worse–the disease or the cure. Either way, I feel like my head has been stuffed with cotton ever since halfway through Midwinter. I felt like half the conversations I had involved me losing my train of thought. 

Other than my mental deficiencies, ALA Midwinter was a great time. We talked and talked to librarians and authors all weekend, and Friday night involved an amazing party thrown by Random House, our distributors–including a big birthday cake for R.A. Salvatore:

I got the chance to meet Timothy Zahn, whose Star Wars books were a big favorite of mine back in early college and helped this small-town girl realize there was a whole section of fantasy in the bookstore. (Hey, growing up, we only had one shelf of YA books in my little local Carnegie library, and the fantasy section was nonexistent. The nearest bookstore was 1/2 hour’s drive away, and when I had no money to spend on books, it’s not like I went looking for a bookstore.)

Speaking of mental deficiencies, I can’t remember what else I meant to post.

Oh! I can share pictures! I’ll even add captions. 

Bob Salvatore’s cake, complete with rebel guards…

The Jedis and the storm troopers
had a cease fire for the evening.

Here’s Jeff Sampson, aka

egg_fu

, and Linda Johns signing books at our author reception.

And a non-blurred picture of Jeff, still signing:

And my friend

citycountrygirl

in the booth, a high school librarian:

What else? We got to meet our fabulous new publicists, who were in town for Midwinter. We had a great time discussing children’s literature and all things related, and got to have a great dinner at Cutter’s, a restaurant that really shows off the flavor of Seattle. I had the most amazing salmon chowder that I’m still drooling over a week later, plus the most tender, fresh coho salmon with veggies for my main course. I’m not sure what seasoning they used, but I want to try it at home. (I tend to make salmon about once a week. I love it, plus it’s good for you.)

Oh, and I also got to try out a Thai fusion place Saturday night with some cool YALSA librarians. One of them even was able to identify a book I’d read as a teen about a girl whose evil twin steals her body via astral projection. Who knew I’d read Lois Duncan as a 14 year old? Stranger with My Face is now on my hold list at the library, so I can read it again and see if it lives up to the memory (what book does, really?).

Between Midwinter, being sick, and a week filled with meetings, it’s been a crazy week for editing. But I’m glad Midwinter was here in Seattle–it was great to talk to the librarians and get to see initial reactions for In the Serpent’s Coils, the first book of Hallowmere, by Tiffany Trent (

tltrent

). Everyone I talked to loved the cover, and thought that the book sounded great for their teens who love that genre, which is highly satisfying to hear. I’m hearing great preliminary comments as some who grabbed the ARC are reading it, as well. It’s a great feeling, because this is the first book of the first series I acquired myself. Egg_fu was my first author to work with at Mirrorstone (and go read his books too!), but the series he works in was one I’d inherited from another editor. There’s just something very special about your first acquisition.

Oh! And one other fun tidbit. As I was driving home from the grocery store, I happened to glance down at my odometer, and what do you know: the odometer read the exact same as the mileage needed for an oil change. I don’t think I’ve ever watched that happen before. Totally non publishing related, totally non important, but I have a camera on my phone now! I can show off completely unconsequential pictures!

Notice, I drive so few miles I was able to last nearly two more months after their estimated time!