September 29
2008
What I learned at the Kidlit Conference last weekend:
1. Lee Wind is unbearably cool and will be changing the world in 2009 for GBLTQ teens.
2. Greg Pincus is capable of miracles as he has actually made a room full of people who are not mathematicians want to learn about the Fibonacci Sequence.
3. Jackie Parker and I were somehow separated at birth even though we were born twelve years apart.
4. Pam Coughlin is the energizer bunny (with megaphone) of the lit blogosphere.
5. Many authors would like someone to write the rules for how the lit blogosphere operates and place them in handbook form to be presented to them upon their first publication.
6. As no lit blogsphere rules (or handbook) exists, many authors spent the weekend banging their heads on the tables in frustration.
7. Sarah Stevenson can draw a picture of someone in less than five minutes and it is instantly recognizable to everyone. She rocks!
8. Some publisher somewhere needs to publish the book on Norse myths that Eric Kimmel wants to write. The McElderry Book of Greek Myths that he authored was awesome (see my review at the end of this column) and it is incredibly hard to find good and accessible books for kids on the Norse myths so this man should be writing one and getting it published for the good of curious kids everywhere! (This should be obvious to everyone and yet somehow McElderry has elected not to publish the sequel. I can not begin to express my disappointment over this decision.)
9. You know you've found "your people" when no one thinks it is weird to be in a hotel bar at 1 AM talking about creating Myspace book clubs for teens. (That group would be me, Holly Cupala, Lorie Ann Grover, Lee Wind and, of course, Jackie Parker.)
10. A commonly overheard conversation Saturday between authors and reviewers ended with "...but that's just the way I do things and another blogger might be completely different." At this point the author could be seen heading to the hotel bar, head hanging in despair.
11. Philip Lee is the PR person every publisher needs. (Do you hear me Harper Collins???? Hire someone like Philip Lee!) Feiwell & Friends is very lucky to have him singing the praises of their books.
12. There is what everyone else is doing in teen publishing and then what the Readergrilz are doing to empower teens, especially girls, through books. If you want to make the world a better place, watch them and learn. (Also Readergirlz Diva Lorie Ann Grover is the other person from whom I was separated at birth.)
13. I saw Jackie Parker buy a bacon and maple bar but I still can't believe it. (Holly and Lorie Ann claimed they were buying them for their husbands.) (To be fair, Jackie said she bought it for a friend.) (Jackie is the one who insisted we go to Voodoo Donut however in search of the bacon and maple bars so I blame her for the leading the others astray.) (I did not buy a one for myself.) (This has to be the creepiest sounding donut/breakfast meat combination in the history of the world.)
14. The free hotel breakfast is better than nothing - but not by much.
15. Little Willow, Tanita, Gwenda, Leila, Justina and so many others - YOU WERE SORELY MISSED!
16. Kirby Larson, Deb Lund and Anastasia Suen are as lovely as you would assume them to be. Really.
17. Everyone wants to be Sara Zarr's friend. (Especially me and Jackie Parker.)
18. You can review someone's book a year ago and they will still remember you. For the record, Sara Ryan, I have not forgotten your book nor how powerful it is and I'm looking forward to reading Empress of the World (which I somehow missed) and writing again about your wonderful work.
19. It is possible to survive a three day weekend on eight hours of sleep and stay up for twenty-two hours straight talking to a ton of people about books and blogs, as Jackie Parker and I proved.
20. When I left home on Friday I wondered if the work I do at Bookslut, Guys Lit Wire, with the Summer & Winter Blog Blast Tours and everything else mattered. Now I have a positive answer and it makes me just more determined to affect a positive change in the literary world. (But not without Jackie Parker, of course!)
[See a full round-up of posts about the conference here.]
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September 29
2008
03:07 AM
Siiiiiiiiiiigh.