My Most Fabulous Trip to ALA

 

The View from my Room

Here’s the thing, I just got back from a fabulous trip to Seattle, Washington where I attended the ALA (American Library Association) Mid Winter Meeting. In short I had a blast. But here’s the longer version.

The trip out was pretty much uneventful, except on the first leg of the journey from Philadelphia to Detroit I met Debbie. She was terrific. We talked about books and special education and she bought a copy of Cake. Pretty sweet. And she told me about her daughter who works for Barnes and Noble. Pretty Sweet again! Then I had to run through the Detroit airport for about two miles in order to catch my connecting flight to Seattle. By the time I arrived in Seattle I was so hungry, considering the time difference it was nearly eight o’clock my time and I had eaten nothing but a banana and a Twix all day. Not to mention miscellaneous totally rotten coffees. Anyhoo, I then had to grab my bag at baggage claim and then navigate to the place where the shuttle my publisher arranged for was supposedly waiting. The van was, the driver was out to dinner. No worries. I sat with a very nice young woman who assured me he would be back soon.

My Room

What was left of the Room Service Cake

Driver Dave showed up and he was super nice and drove me to the hotel in downtown Seattle. Which by the way, is a beautiful city at night. I arrived at the hotel and checked in. It was now nearly seven o’clock or ten o’clock my time. Again, I was starving. I eyed the basket of goodies in my room but when a sack of M&M Peanuts costs nine dollars I figured, nah, I need real food anyway. So I headed  down to the lobby and found a restaurant but it was so crowded, probably with librarians. There were after all, something like 10,000 there. Isn’t that amazing? Needless to say by now, I'm tired and hungry and desperately desiring to wash away the airplane germs. Did I mention I had to sit next a young man with a cold the whole way to Seattle. Yikes!

I ordered room service. A cheeseburger, a pot of tea and for dessert, chocolate cake. O my goodness was it ever so delicious. The whole entire meal. The cake slice was so huge I was forced to finish it for breakfast. I know, I know, it’s a tough being an author.

The Cake for Cake

Then it was time to go to ALA. I headed over to the convention center, which is of course, huge, an entire city under one roof, as most convention centers are. I found coffee and registered and then wandered around soaking in all the book stuff. What a place, an absolute orgy of bookdom. Everywhere you look books and more books and people who love books. It really is an amazing experience and I am ever so thankful that I get to play along.

The ALA Floor

That afternoon I headed to the Zondervan booth where my publisher and publicists were waiting with the most awesome Cake ever in honor of Cake and the Starred Review it received in Kirkus. You can read it here. The cake was chocolate with a layer of raspberry. YUMMY. And then I started signing books while Sara, my wonderful publicist sliced cake for very hungry and appreciative book people. Annette, my publisher assisted me with signing while Cynthia, the other publicist handed out books to librarians and folks. I signed and signed and signed. It was so much fun meeting librarians and chatting with a few. It is always an honor to sign a book I know will be loved.

After that, we went to dinner and talked families and business and stuff. I had the  chicken parm. Couldn’t finish it, but it was delicious. This after being so hungry just the day before.

And then it was back to my room where I went through my swag, all the free books and stuff I collected on the ALA floor—bookmarks, tote bags, posters, buttons. It’s so cool.

Then I watched Downton Abbey and cried like a baby when Lady Sybil died. I knew it was coming and still, I cried. I suspect Tom will run off with the baby. But that’s fodder for another blog.

The next morning it was back to the airport for a lovely, albeit long, flight home. No germy people next to me this time. In fact the middle seat was empty. Pretty sweet!

All in all my ALA trip was an amazing success and quite Cakey.

So, if you like good books and cake please pick up a copy. It really is a good book.