Friday, July 2, 2010

Flashback Fridays: ALA Recap

'Create

Welcome to Week Ten of our fabulous segment Flashback Fridays where the old and new collide on everything from books to movies to first loves to favorite vacations.

This week I'm flashbacking to my experience at last week's ALA conference. So what exactly is ALA? Well, it's the American Library Association, and it is the oldest library association not only in the country, but in the world. Pretty impressive, huh?

ALA held this year's convention in Washington DC. It's always been a dream of mine to go to our nation's capital, so I figured touring DC and hitting the convention was an awesome plan. I'm sure you're thinking, "So what does a writer need with a bunch of librarians or info on the newest online databases?" Trust me, ALA is so much more than library cart races(yep, they do have those!). Publishers, editors, and authors all convene on ALA just as much as librarians do. Where else would you get to meet authors like Laurie Halse Anderson, Ellen Hopkins, Melissa Marr, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. And yes, although he signed books after I left on Sunday morning, I did have a fangirl John Green moment as he passed by my buddies and me.

Here are some pictures of the exhibit hall























It was truly an intense experience meeting all those great authors. It was a surreal moment getting MG author, Avi, to sign my book. My first year teaching I taught his The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.


And I have to say that it was an especially fangirl moment with Laurie Halse Anderson. I can't imagine a more giving and caring author than Laurie. After mentioning teaching Speak to my Freshman, we talked about the experience, and she also wished me luck in my own writing career. Now that's classy!! I can't wait to read her historical fiction Chains and its sequel Forge.

Other very approachable authors were a personal favorite and fellow AbsoluteWriter, Melissa Marr, and Carolyn Mackler, the author of The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Her new book, Tangled, sounds awesome.

So what else is cool besides meeting authors and publishing teams? One word. ARCS!!! I scored some very exciting books like Ally Condie's, Matched, Lisa Desrochers's Personal Demons, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia's Beautiful Darkness, and Alexandra Adornetto's Halo

Here I am with my tower of ARCS along with some purchased books




















And here's my buddy, Rebecca, with her books




















And here I am being very, very excited to have scored an ARC of Matched. Ally Condie was there on Sunday signing after I left. Bummer!













So ALA was about meeting authors, free books, but it was also about meeting up in person with "online" friends.

Here I am with a good Absolutewrite buddy of mine, Sumayyah. Remember her name because Melissa Marr loved it and its meaning. She might be immortalized someday!














And here I am with Twitter buddies, Miranda and Rebecca, who is co-owner of http://www.fallenarchangel.com/, which is a fansite for Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush series.







So, if you get the chance, I highly recommend you check out an ALA conference. They have a mid-winter meeting in January, which will be held in San Diego. And then next year's conference will be in Nawlins...or New Orleans!!

10 comments:

Lydia Kang said...

That looked like such a great conference! And I'm drooling over your huge pile of ARCs!

Anonymous said...

so so so so so AWESOME

Jill Wheeler said...

Awww, I'm so jealous! Looks like you had the best time! Mmmmm, ARCs.

Annie McElfresh said...

Dude getting ARCS from those conventions RAWK!!! And you scored some HAWT ones! I am DYING--DYING to read Halo, Personal Demons and Matched. Color me green with jealousy right now. LOL

Hannah said...

AWESOME. Mostly I'm just trying to figure out a way to transfer your book pile onto mine through my computer. *concentrates* Are your books gone yet?!

Stina said...

Wow, that's one tall pile of books. I'm totally jealous.

I'm going to start reading TANGLES tonight. :D

Leah said...

I won't tell you how jealous I am.
I've told you enough on Twitter :P

J.S. Wood said...

Um, I'm really jealous. I think I drooled over your stack of books. Glad you had a great time!!

Katie Ashley said...

Aw, thanks guys for the comments...and your ARC jealousy! LOL I knew I felt the same way after hearing what people were scoring at BEA and all. I'll just read them and think of you, lol.

Debra D. said...

Holy cow, that's a lot of books--WOOT! So glad you had such an awesome time--I'm totally jealous! :)