Monday, June 28, 2010

ALA part II

Today is our last day of ALA and we are coming home loaded with swag. I think that we have too much but it is never too much for my wife. We will be paying to ship everything fedex because the wonderful USPS pulled out after one day at the conference.

The most inspirational author that I met this week was James Kennedy. He wrote the book The Order of Odd Fish. It is a fantasy book and it seems a little weird but that is ok. I met him at the ya coffee klatch yesterday and he had such great energy! He brought a bunch of fan art about his book and even made mix cds of the music that inspired him during his writing for everyone that he visited with. I do not think that I will be inspired by much on the CD, but it was great to meet another writer who used music as such a strong muse while they write.

Well, I suppose that is it. My last suggestion based on my ALA experience is to pick up Charles and Emma: Darwin's Leap of Faith. I met the author and she was great and said that the reason she was so drawn to this book was because Charles and Emma Darwin's marriage was very much like her own with her husband. She comes from a religious background, he comes from a science background and how they make it work together and find aspects of each others' "faith" (ie. faith in God versus faith in Science) to reinforce their own beliefs and find that perhaps the differences between science and religion are not so great. I have not read the book myself, but I think my wife has it so I think I am going to read it.

Hope you enjoyed my recap of the trip, I look forward to any comments.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

ALA!!!

Hey everyone,

Here is my update on ALA. It has been a great so far. Lots of free stuff and I have met a bunch of really cool authors. My favorite so far has been Brandon Sanderson. I got an advanced reader copy of the first book in his new 10 book series. He was very nice and personalized his signing.

I was also looking for Mockingjay (not here because the book is so popular they are keeping it secret like with Harry Potter), the new Bartimaeus book, (not here because it is too popular but they are going to mail me a hardcover when it comes out thanks to my wonderful wife), and the third tapestry book by Henry Neff (not here because it got pushed back, i will get it at Midwinter in January). So those were major bummers.

We have gone to all of the monuments and the Library of Congress. Monday we will hit the Smithsonian.

Met a lot of great librarians and bloggers too, and in the morning we are going to the ya author speed dating event that enjoyed so much we did last year.

Best moments/Random thoughts:
Best Carry-on at the airport: A dog head from a mascot costume
Best Quote: @the Lincoln Memorial, Kid 1: Wow that's a big Lincoln! Kid 2: Yeah he was even bigger in real life.
Best Book: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Best Meal: Tonight at Austin Grill with a bunch of bloggers, librarians, and authors; 17 of us in all.
The convention is really loud! Is it too ironic to shush it?
Apparently ALA is where librarians go to spawn...last year there was a secret twitter account posting anonymous sex confessions, this year it is a twitter hashtag for everyone to see.
Book bloggers are either really cool or really awful and greedy.
The #ala10 twitter feed is either extremely funny or extremely boring
I guess librarian's like soccer because the USA match today was really popular
Lots of kids are here, most seem bored...poor things.

Well that is it I guess. Off to bed because I have another full day tomorrow. If you want to keep up with my adventures follow me on twitter: @crazywriterblog

See ya and look for another update soon.

PS I have been WAY to busy to write so far but I am hoping for time tomorrow. I tried on the plane, but I was too tall to look at the screen...I had no legroom.