A list of authors I have met, so I don't forget

-Diana Pavlac Glyer, author of The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. I met her at LionCon in 2008, where she presented about her book and its topic. She told us that CSL basically rewrote parts of "The Lay of Leithian" because he didn't like how JRRT had done it, contributing significantly to the version we know today.

-the Fug Girls, who signed my copy of Spoiled. I've read their blog for years and am a member of Fug Nation, so Heather signed my book with "Hola, lover." á la her JLo parody posts. I heard them on a YA panel and met them at their signing at the 2012 LA Times Festival of Books.

-Pam Muñoz Ryan, who signed my copy of Esperanza Rising and the copy of The Dreamer that I bought after her talk at the 2013 Annual Frances Clarke Sayers Lecture at UCLA. I told her how I loved ER growing up but I don't think she heard me. My sister came with me because it's also one of her favorite books growing up, and she brought her Spanish copy of ER for PMR to sign. She was like, huh, there's a Spanish version? which I thought was weird because it's a book about a Mexican girl? Of course there is? There are Spanish versions of pretty much all books?

-Peter Sís, who signed my copy of The Dreamer at at ALA Annual Conference 2014 and said he really liked PMR, that she was such a nice lady. I told him how I loved his illustrations in The Whipping Boy, one of my favorite books growing up, but he was in signing mode and didn't really pay attention.

-Marissa Moss, author of the Amelia's Notebook books, which I loved so much growing up. I told her that as I chatted with her a bit at her Creston Books booth at ALAAC 2014 (it is the publishing company she owns!). She is super nice. I entered to win an Amelia doll and I think an Amelia books set, but I didn't win :/

-Kate DiCamillo, author of usually animal-centric books that I love. I actually had no idea she was going to be at ALA Annual 2014, but lo and behold she was next to Peter Sís. If I had known I would have brought my copy of The Tale of Despereaux for her to sign, but as it was I think I bought a copy of The Magician's Elephant and she signed it. I don't see it in my LibraryThing so I'm going to have to do some searching.

-Margarita Engle, who wrote a couple of award-winning books, one of which I read for a children's literature class. I met her at ALAAC 2015 where she signed a copy of Enchanted Air, her poem-memoir about feeling divided between her two worlds of LA and Cuba, and I'm mad because I didn't realize who she was until I read the back of that book. The booth worker didn't tell me who she was and if I'd realized I would have been able to chat with her about her books (I read and loved this one) and being Cuban! Ughhh

-Gigi Pandian, who signed her book Quicksand for me at ALAAC 2015. I hadn't heard of her but her book looked interesting.

-This doesn't count as "meeting" per se, but once a few years ago I was at a Christian concert, volunteering with World Vision. We were to don orange vests and go with child sponsorship flyers to the front of the auditorium/stage while the heartrending video about sponsoring children through WV played, crouch down in front of the first row so we wouldn't block their view of the video, then hand out the flyers after the video and the WV representative's remarks. I went to the base of the stage with the other volunteers and knelt on the floor, avoiding looking up at the people we were in front of since this was awkward already. When the video ended I straightened up, and I found I had been kneeling at the feet of Rick Warren.

When it comes to meeting celebrities and especially authors, I am very much of the Troy Barnes school of thought, which is why I never want to meet Neil Gaiman, as I would hyperventilate and pass out and that would be embarrassing for everybody.

ALA Annual in cell phone pictures

I attended the American Library Association's Annual Conference this year in Las Vegas. It was such a great experience. I have these pictures in my phone that have been sitting there for months so I thought I'd post them even though this happened ages ago. Procrastination blog '14

This is a list of all the events, panels and speakers I wanted to go to or thought sounded interesting. Let's pause to give a mighty guffaw at my naivete. Oh you sweet summer child.

 

This is the other side of the paper: a list of the exhibits I wanted to visit. I did see most of them.

 

There is so much free stuff at ALA Annual, you guys. I took this aqua backpack that folds up into a little bag "just in case" and I definitely used it. In this pic I'm carrying the backpack (which has rolled-up posters stuck into the mesh water bottle holder pockets), my "trust me, I'm a librarian" tote because duh, and a tote from a vendor. I think I picked up at least one more before ALA Annual ended. I must have been carrying like 30 pounds. This picture is especially blurry because I took it in the mirrored walls of the Bally's hotel elevator and the door opened right as I took this picture and I thought someone was coming in. You can't really tell but I looked super cute that day. Also pictured: the free pins I got on my nametag lanyard.

 

 

I got so many free Advanced Reader's Copy books the strap of my (admittedly cheap) official ALAAC messenger bag I got upon registration ripped right out. I was able to trade it in for a new one, thankfully.

 

 

In the exhibits hall were booths of vendors, some of which had displays and furniture to try to tempt librarians into making purchases. I fell in love with this awesome-looking chair: 

 

Look at it!! It's plush grey and red quilted felt, super comfy to sit in, swiveled, its design made you feel enveloped in your own cozy private little space, and the tube roof allowed natural light in!!! Perfect for reading.

 

I love you, chair. I will never forget you. 

This is one of the many rad temporary tattoos I got from the 2015 Summer Reading Program preview. I love it. It has sadly worn off long ago, although I got another one I can put on at any time.

 

Anyway Las Vegas is beyond, you guys. This Vatican-esque ridiculousness was taken in the lobby of a mall. Really.

 

In fact it was this mall that had an amazing rare books store. I saw first American editions of some of the Chronicles of Narnia books.

My mom took more pictures (including ones of me in the Hershey's and M&M's stores), but that may or may not be a post for another time.