Authors Are My Rock Stars

The lobby of the Random House offices

Last month, I was lucky enough to get to attend Book Expo America in New York City. For those of you who might not be addicted to books, BEA is a conference of what, at one time, was primarily booksellers and publishers but has come to include librarians, educators, and other supporters of reading in its various forms. Now, if you couldn't care less about books and the people who write them, stop reading, because you're just not going to get this at all. Someone like me getting to go to a conference like this is the equivalent of going backstage at a concert featuring all your favorite musicians with a  bunch of other people who love them as much as you do.

Rainbow Rowell signing autographs

Logic dictates that I would detail this adventure in chronological order, but not being particularly logical, I'm going to start with the highlight of my trip, which was running into Rainbow Rowell in an aisle between booths. Not literally, of course. If I did that, I surely wouldn't be sharing it with you here. No, I caught sight of her as I was walking through the hoards of people and was forced to stop and gush. (I'd like to say that I wasn't being literal here either, but I'd be lying.) Even if you love reading, you might not know who Rainbow Rowell is, but be patient, you will. For now, let's just say she's my current fave author, and so finding myself in conversation with her, live and in-person, is something akin to getting to shake the hand of the President. Rainbow has written two young adult novels and an adult novel, none of which resemble any of the others, and her description of her fourth novel (which will be for adults) sounds so intriguing that I'm already counting the days until I can get an advance copy. She was absolutely as delightful as any of her readers would expect, and she politely overlooked my excessive enthusiasm for the positive feedback about her books. I ran into her the next day (again, not literally) at her publisher's booth, where she was signing copies of her upcoming book, called Fangirl (Huh. Coincidence, that.) Rainbow was charming and gracious and seemed genuinely glad to hear how much her books are being enjoyed. It could only have been more perfect if I'd managed to get a picture of us together. Don't think I didn't consider it.

Which brings me back to the beginning of the trip, which began with a sort of "pre-BEA event" known as Library Journal's Day of Dialog (as in, dialog about all things libraries). It

Caleb Crain, Allan Gurganus, Al Lamanda, Richard North Patterson, and Amy Tan

was thrilling to be in the same room with authors like Richard Dawkins, Richard North Patterson, and Amy Tan. But just as exciting was the opportunity to listen to other librarians speak to current issues in librarianship, from self-publishing to floating collections (once again, if you're not a book lover or librarian, you really should consider a different choice of blogs for your reading material). I listened to a fabulous panel of experienced librarians talking about how their libraries deal with the same issues my library deals with. These are movers and shakers in my world, so while they might not be writing my favorite books, librarians, too, are my rock stars. I also got to put faces to many names I'd known online, libraries whose reviews I've read and libraries I've admired. I felt like I should have brought an autograph book. I would have put it to use immediately, as I got to meet Allan Gurganus (The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All), a North Carolina author who has his first novel in ten years about to come out. It felt a little like home.

That night was the first of several meals at which the company was so spectacular that it was easy to forget I was eating hotel food. My first engagement was the second annual BEA Children's Librarians Dinner cohosted by Association of American Publishers and School

Kendare Blake; not a great pic, but live and in person all the same

Library Journal and featuring Susan Cooper, Jack Gantos, Jonathan Stroud, Cynthia Voigt, and Kendare Blake. "I got into the children's librarian's dinner! I get to meet Kendare Blake!" I enthused to a friend in an email, as we are both huge fans of her first novel, Anna Dressed in Blood. "I think it's funny that you're going to be in a room full of award-winning authors, and you're most excited about the least known of them," she said drily in a responding email. Not to be deterred from my brush with greatness, I made my way to the dinner, poured myself a glass of wine (hotel food is always better with wine), and sat back to listen. It was really fun to get to hear her talk in person, and I emailed the above picture to my co-fan from the dinner table. Afterwards, I stood in line to meet her and tell her how much I enjoyed her work. I walked out with my bag of advance copies (the first of many bags of advance copies I would get over the next few days) and began shaking my hands with the excitement of having shook the hand of Kendare Blake. And while all the speakers were wonderful, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much I enjoyed listening to Jack Gantos. The renowned children's author, describing his long and circuitous route to getting published, offhandedly mentioned that his jail sentence was nothing compared to getting a book published. He looked slightly confused at our laughter, giving us a "I don't understand" expression, because he had indeed spent time in jail for transporting drugs into the United States. He even confided to us that he'd buried a stash in Central Park. Some people still think he was kidding. I became so entranced and fascinated that I'm now reading his account of that experience.

But that was just the beginning. Did I mention that I was there with a friend from my old library? Setting aside the whole Rainbow Rowell thing, getting to see her was truly a highlight of the trip. We didn't stop talking the entire time (that might just have been me). Janet and I set started out the conference with, what else?, an author breakfast. Sponsored by Random House and held in their offices, this morning we would breathe the same air as authors Jo Baker (Longbourn), Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity

Jamie Ford; not taken by me :-(

Physics), Janice Clark (The Rathbones), Elizabeth Silver (The Execution of Noa P. Singleton), and Jamie Ford. Here's what you need to know about Jamie Ford. He wrote Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and has a new novel coming out called Songs of Willow Frost, he wrote a great blog entry about his time at BEA, he's half-Chinese, he's totally charming, and he's hilarious. The accompanying picture is one of the few I didn't take myself, but you have to agree with me that it would have been a crime not to include a picture of this adorable guy in my blog entry. In a stroke of serendipity, they had to make my name card at the last minute and ended up using the back of a duplicate card for none other than the collection development manager of another library in North Carolina who I was hoping to catch up with. She was indeed there, so somewhere between the food and Jamie, we caught up a little bit.

All this, and we hadn't even actually made it to BEA yet. Thanks to the VIP passes we were lucky enough to land (thank you, thank you!), we zipped right through registration and made our way onto the exhibit hall. It's hard to know where to look in a place like this. It's loud, crowded, bright, and totally overwhelming. And wonderful. I could spend a long time talking about the vendors I stopped to talk to, the conversations I had on the floor with librarians and authors alike (insert Rainbow incident here), and the many, MANY galleys I hauled around on my back until I could unload them into a box for shipping back to my library. I'll spare you those details (oh, it might be too late for that). I do have to say that my one regret is that I was so caught up that I neglected to make it to Library Family Feud, which I understand is hilarious. 

Louise Penny

Bill Bryson

The next notable event, naturally, revolved around yet another an author/food event, a luncheon again sponsored by AAP.  This time we munched (what was actually a pretty good sandwich) while listening to such fantastic authors as Bill Bryson, Louise Penny (who knew she was so funny?), Lee Smith, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Koethi Zan (Koethi is a debut author, but the others have written too much to try to name here). These folks were absolutely wonderful speakers, and they genuinely seemed pleased to have a roomful of librarians and other book lovers celebrating them and their work. I was honored to get a spot at the NetGalley table (thanks Robin B.!), a table reserved for librarians participating in online discussions of upcoming books for which they've read the galleys. Lee Smith is from the part of North Carolina from which I recently moved, but I never tire of hearing her speak. I made a point to go introduce myself after the luncheon, and I was pleased to have another lovely conversation with a rock star author.

It was at this point that I could have used a nap, but Janet, being the organized one in the pair, had arranged appointments with the library marketing reps for most of the major publishers. I have to say that I was incredibly grateful to get a chance to meet with these folks. They were gracious, helpful, and interested in our perspective on what libraries and readers are looking for. Once again, I was meeting people who I'd only known by name, movers and shakers in my world, and it was fantastic to get to share information with them.

Fast forward a bit, as much of the next day or so looked quite a bit the same with the exception being that Janet had an even longer and lovelier conversation with Lee Smith in the lobby of our hotel. Okay so this is the one other picture I didn't take myself, but it's such a great one that I have to include it.

Janet and author Lee Smith

One of the fun things about such an event is sharing it with other book-lovers. We spent a

Jeffrey Deaver

good bit of time tracking down advance reader copies and other swag for friends and colleagues back home. I decided to go after an author signing by Jeffrey Deaver, as he now lives in Chapel Hill (oh, how I miss you!) and is a favorite of a librarian friend of mine. If you've ever seen the back cover of one of his books, you know that he's, well, as creepy looking as his books. But it turns out that he's really quite normal in real life, and he showered his fans with smiles as he signed his most recent release (turns out the advance copy of his upcoming novel wasn't ready yet). Authors are normal people, too. 

Tracy and Chelsea: Separated at Birth?

While Chelsea Handler probably isn't the first person who comes to mind when you think of your favorite authors, she has indeed written some very funny books and was in attendance at BEA in advance of another hilarious collection of true and not-so-true tales. Like Jeffrey Deaver, the ARC of her book was not ready in time for the event, so the creative response of her publisher was to offer pictures with Chelsea. Gee, if I'd known that, I would have prepared better.

There would be one other author rock star sighting before my time in New York was over. On the last morning of the conference, we took a cab to the conference center and stepped out, gathering our bags in haphazard fashion, finally closing the door and turning around only to find ourselves looking straight at Neil Gaiman. Alone. All by himself. Standing on the sidewalk with the wind blowing his hair around. Oh my God. Oh my God. Hands full, I began digging in my bag for my camera phone. Why do I not walk around with that in my hand? By the time I'd dropped my stuff, found my phone, opened it to the camera, and aimed, his agent/publisher/handler had arrived, and he was being scurried away quickly. Which is why the photo you see here is of them walking away. Janet got much better pics when she saw him speak later in the day. But the photo of the back of his head is mine, all mine, and you can't take that away from me.

Janet's pic, if you really need to see his face

Neil Gaiman's back

  










 


There was one author interaction that I found puzzling. Most of those food events I went to were specifically for librarians, so the authors spoke to the things they loved about librarians and libraries. One author, however, had the group rolling its eyes a bit with her description of libraries. She was, no doubt, trying to be express her appreciation for the many wonderful things libraries offer, when she described libraries as quiet places of respite. We looked at each other, trying to hide our smiles. Had she BEEN in a library recently? Libraries continue to be extraordinary places, but in today's world, quiet, they are not. This author may be a fantastic writer, but she clearly has not stepped foot in a public library full of computer users with cell phones, children's programming, reader's advisory interactions, and teen spaces. Not recently, anyway.

And so it was finally time to leave New York. It was extraordinarily exciting to have all of these authors, whose writing I love from afar, surrounding me on all sides in one huge, packed conference floor. The last generation had Woodstock. Mine has BEA.