ALA 2012 Recap / Book Haul

I went to ALA (American Library Association) Annual meeting this year. It was in Anaheim! Super close to my house. :)

On Friday night, I went to the Anaheim Convention Center and met up with some awesome writers/bloggers!
Two I know through SCBWI - Shannon Messenger and Jessica Love. They introduced me to new bookish friends!
-The girls from YA Confidential: Cambria Dillon, Sara McClung, Cristen Terrill.
-Sasha of Sash and Em

I also met the girls from YA Sisterhood (Crush tourney!). So sweet!

We prowled the aisles together on Friday night and ate dinner at the hotel restaurant because we were SO incredibly hungry!!

Saturday


This was a day of several (wonderful!) babysitters and driving around for me to be able to come to ALA.

In the a.m., I began to prowl the booths again.

I met H.D. from Reading, Breathing, Writing. (I might have scared him. I saw him the previous evening talking to the lovely ladies I had just met but I wasn't able to meet him until Sat. morning. Me: "Hi! I saw that you just followed me on Twitter! I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself to you last night!" Him: "Um...hi." And then we chatted about bookish things and I encouraged him to introduce himself to Tahereh Mafi. :) )

I saw Lindsi and stood in line with her for a book.

I also got to see Farrah and Kelsey again!

Got CROSSED by Ally Condie signed. (I had gotten MATCHED signed at BEA.)

Met up with Cambria again and we stood in various lines for books. Got some lunch and headed back in for another signing. As we walked around, we saw George R.R. Martin - author of THE GAME OF THRONES in a booth. He was taking pictures with fans so we stood in line and took one with him. He is really nice! I love it when big-time authors are so personable!

Met Becky and her friend Amy from Stories and Sweeties while in line for Kendare Blake's new book.

Picked up books here and there. There weren't as many books at ALA as there were at BEA. Also, a lot of the books available were for sale. That kinda put a damper on things for me. As much as I love books, I can't spend all of my money on them.;)

I had to head out at 2 to pick up my kids from my in-laws house. Headed home to rest for a few hours and then dropped the kiddos off at my sister-in-law's so that I could go to the YALSA Meet and Greet at Morton's.
I met several lovely librarians while I was there! Chelsea from Georgia and I talked for a long time about books that we both like. Saw Dana with her hurt foot. :(  I met Allison and Michelle from Authors are Rockstars, along with their librarian friend Lali. They invited me to come to dinner with them. We ate at the Marriott hotel restaurant where the YA Highway meet-up was going to take place. After dinner, we headed out to the pool area and met LOTS of people! (I'm sorry if I've forgotten any of you!!)

-Gretchen MacNeil, author of TEN
-Magan from I'd Rather Be Reading
-Jenny from Books to the Sky
-Mickey from I'm A Book Shark
-Lena from Addicted to Novels

The best/strangest part of ALA was people looking at my bookmark that I was handing out and saying, "Oh! I've heard of this book!" I'm sure my eyes were huge and my mouth was hanging open! :) :)

So, if you decide to read my book and like it, let me know! I'd love to connect with you. And..I suppose if you didn't like it, you could tell me that, too. But only in a nice way. Otherwise, I'd probably ugly cry. But I wouldn't post in on the interwebz. Or bash you on Twitter. ;)

Monday!
I headed back on Monday and took my kids with me. I got SO many books on this day! People were handing books to my kids, which I very much appreciate! My kids read a lot. :)

We stood in line at Disney-Hyperion for a multiple-author signing. Yay! :)

(Do you see Ally Carter's new book?!?! PERFECT SCOUNDRELS is due out next year.)

Calvin was very excited to see the book cover for THE MARK OF ATHENA by Rick Riordan.

We saw Henry Winkler (the Fonz from Happy Days)!!! He spoke to me! I was fangirling for awhile. :)

We saw more people that we knew, picked up books, bought some books, and then raided went through the publishers booths that were giving away books at the end of the day. Thank you to all of the fabulous publishers who gave away great kids books!

I uploaded my Book Haul video so that you can see all the books I got. After I read and review the books, I'll give them away so that YOU can read them, too! :) If you see one that you'd desperately love to have, let me know. ;)