I’m taking the day off today, now that I’m back from ALA, and so my day started much later than normal. I put a bowl of water for my oatmeal into the microwave to heat for what I thought was 2 minutes, and forgot about it. I’ll go back and reheat it, I thought, and continued with what I was doing.

I just walked into the kitchen, and the microwave was still going!

It had 7 minutes left of 20 minutes. I was baking my bowl at this point, and oh, the smell! The bowl was cracked in half, and thankfully, though it was crispy in some places, the same hadn’t happened to the glass revolving plate–though both were hot enough that they might have been in the broiler.

I guess I won’t be having oatmeal this morning. Perhaps I should go to the store and get some milk and eat cold cereal!

Here’s the real address for the podcast of me and Tiffany Trent:

http://www.timewastersguide.com/article/1559/Time-Waster\s-Radio-1-Hallowmere—-In-the-Serpent\s-Coils

We talk about the genesis of Hallowmere, Tiffany’s background in writing, her advice for beginning writers, and much more!

I have a feeling none of you were able to listen to the podcast because I gave you a link to the forums rather than the page with the podcast! And now that I’ve realized my mistake, apparently the page doesn’t seem to be there anymore. It’s probably just a random fluke, because it was there earlier when I looked at it. At any rate, I’ll post that updated address as soon as I confirm that it’s there again.

Thursday, June 28
7:00 pm
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA 

Tomorrow night Shannon Hale, she of the Princess Academy and Goose Girl and most recently, Austenland fame, will be signing very near my neighborhood at the University Bookstore in the U District. If you’re local to Seattle, be sure to drop in and get a book signed. I will be bringing along at least two friends who are Shannon Hale fans as well. See you there!

While at ALA, Tiffany Trent

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) and I were interviewed for the inauguration of a podcast series over at The Official Time-waster’s Guide, a game/book/movie review site that really loves things of a fantastic nature. That interview is now up. If you like what you hear, you can go discuss it on their forums. The folks at TWG also interviewed Candice Ransom on another day, which will go up as the second of the series, I believe–though there may be another episode between then that will have other content. I’ll keep you updated.

Today was the busiest day of the conference for us at Mirrorstone, though the initial crush of weekend attendees has slowed a bit (we’ve been told that this conference’s attendance broke the record set in Chicago two years ago through the roof, as the highest attendance ever at an ALA convention). 

Highlights of my day (pictures to come later):

Seeing the line crook around the corner for Tiffany Trent’s ARC signing in the Random House booth (they’re our distributor, and I must say they’re all fabulous people). 

Seeing Cecil Castellucci reading at the Live @ Your Library stage and recruiting several librarian attendees to be the Janes in her new graphic novel P.L.A.I.N. Janes. Very inventive way to make a visual medium translate as much visually as auditorily (is that a word?).

Seeing Tiffany Trent read at the Live @ Your Library stage, the first time I’ve heard Hallowmere read aloud. And more librarians excited for Hallowmere.

Seeing and/or meeting several LJ/blog friends who I only see at these kinds of conventions including Alvina, Sarah, Holly, Cecil, dlgarfinkle, and many many others which now that it’s after midnight after several days on my feet, I’m remembering you but not. I will make amends at a time when I am thinking clearer and have time to go through my pictures.

Speaking of, pictures later. I was going to try to post them, but exhaustion has finally hit and I just need to go to bed if I’m going to make it to what should be my highlight of tomorrow: my tour of the Capitol! (First time to D.C., big history buff. Hey, I’m the kind of girl who will travel to Scotland to do family history. This is a really exciting thing for me.)

This post is entirely for my friend

mistborn

.

I’m at ALA today, standing in our booth. It was during Candice Ransom’s signing of her chapter book series Time Spies, and who do I see walking through our booth?

I leave it to Brandon to answer that with a shout.

p.s. Real recap of the show, including pictures, to come. But I’ve had some late nights and early mornings, so it’s not happening tonight. Quick summary: it’s really great! As usual, our booth is comfy and inviting, and people are liking our books. We’ve had some great chats with so many peopl
e. Tomorrow morning Candice and Tiffany Trent (

tltrent

) will be at a breakfast, and then Tiffany is signing at the Random House booth and in the afternoon she’s reading at the Live at Your Library stage in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be a very busy day.

If you’re going to be at ALA Annual Conference in D.C. this weekend, check out all that we have going on! (And stop by the booth to say hi even if not at these times. If you’re looking for me specifically, I may or may not always be there, so leave a comment here to coordinate times.)

I leave tomorrow about noonish my time, so after that I’m pretty much going dark (not that this LJ hasn’t been kind of dark already the last couple weeks–sorry about that. It’s been a busy month; hopefully I’ll get back to posting more regularly come next month!).

Note that the books/ARCs these authors will be signing will be FREE in limited quantities. Get there first!

Alvina, a Blue Rose Girl and editor at Little, Brown, is conducting a poll on her submission guidelines. Pop over and chime in–she’s still looking for comments.

And I have no good reason but to say, wow, I’ve been busy.  I’m actually whittling away at both my submissions pile and my deadlines. Emphasis on deadlines–including some very nice upcoming books like the Practical Guide to Monsters, the finales for three trilogies in the Dragonlance: The New Adventures series (see sidebar for links to the first books in those trilogies), and a new novel related to the Practical Guide to Dragons. And somewhere in there is Hallowmere—By Venom
‘s Sweet Sting, the sequel to Tiffany Trent’s In the Serpent’s Coils, which is between stages right now, and then there’s all those manuscripts and samples coming in! Patience is a virtue much to be treasured during May and June in the publishing world.

The next big event right now is ALA, which I’m very excited for on many levels. Most importantly, I’ll finally get to meet Tiffany (

tltrent

). We’ve worked together for two years now, and we haven’t met yet! I’m so jealous that all my coworkers met her a couple weeks ago at BEA before I got to. I take comfort only in knowing that they missed me terribly.

Second most importantly, I’ve never been to Our Nation’s Capital before. Or the Capitol, for that matter. I’m excited to see what little I can squeeze in while the whirlwind of the conference is going on.

Second again most importantly (because it’s just as important if not more so, and I’m just as excited, but for different reasons) is that I’ll get to connect with librarians and teachers and all sorts of people connected with children’s books again. I love going to shows like this. It’s energizing (and exhausting).

So if you’re going to ALA, look for the Mirrorstone/Wizards booth (note from Tiffany’s pictures from BEA that the booth will again be that cool–it’s a great landmark for meeting friends, I hear). Come meet Tiffany and get an ARC of In the Serpent’s Coils. Meet Candice Ransom and investigate history with the Time Spies. Come explore the world of dragons and monsters with our Practical Guide signings–and ARCs of Red Dragon Codex, the cover of which is so beautiful that I must share it, but it’s not completely final yet, so you’ll be the first to get a sneak peek if you’re at ALA! And as always, there will be other free stuff too. 

I’ll post the booth number next week when I know it!

Having been to a number of shows in the last year where I’ve picked up ARCs that I haven’t had a chance to read yet (yes, this includes books I picked up LAST YEAR), the 48 hour reading challenge issued by MotherReader is one that I think I’ll take up after all. (I saw it when she first posted it and thought, “What a great idea! Too bad I don’t have the time,” but as it comes closer I am starting to think the pile of books is starting to teeter and I’d really like to at least read a couple of them. So perhaps I’ll spend the weekend reading. If it’s nice weather, I’ll take the books to the park and read there.)

If your TBR pile is anything like mine, you’re welcome to sign up and join too. I hear there’s going to be prizes.