American Library Association

Flew down to ALA for just one day. A wonderful whirlwind of people, books, bubbling excitement, bright lights, chattering conversation, and my favorite: the smell of all those new books, crisp and inky and promising.

Here's the wonderful Melanie Cecka at Bloomsbury showing the working dummy of my upcoming book, Big Cat Pepper, to Sheldon Fogelman, and no, he's not my agent. I never met him before, but he's lovely. Out for lunch with Regina Hayes and Catherine Frank, we came upon a Quinceanera Party. Beautiful young women and men in full celebration. The attendants in gorgeous red vests. And here's a hand dressed and styled Barbie. Love the way she morphs for different times and cultures. This is especially for Tanya and Catherine. Seeing friends is one of the big bonuses for us shut-in writers, right? I was supposed to meet Tobin Anderson for a cup of tea, ended up with a lovely group. Got a great shot of Linda Sue Park, who is so good with a camera you never get to see HER in the photos. Here you are, Linda Sue, with Tobin and Norton Juster, author of Phantom Tollbooth and many more books. Linda Sue and Tobin were fresh from their reader's theater presentation. Check out another awesome reader theater participant, and fellow Bloomsbury author, Shannon Hale for her report of the event.
End of the day, waiting to get picked up for my ride back to the airport. Couldn't resist this shot of someone -- guessing he is a librarian!-- just reading. Quietly, while the vans and taxes and chattering groups swished by.