Kimberly Pauley

ALA! ALA!

So, I had an awesome time at the ALA convention! We arrived on Friday and just hung out for the night (the flight was pretty exhausting, especially with a baby (though Max behaved perfectly and didn’t even cry once).

On Saturday, the only thing I had scheduled was a signing at the Random House booth with R. A. Salvatore and his son Geno. They just wrote a book together, Geno’s first, though Bob (R.A.) has written over 40 himself and is a NY Times Bestseller many times over. If you’re a fantasy lover and you haven’t read his books yet, what exactly are you waiting for?? He created the Drow elf character Drizzt, who has a following all his own. It was actually really cool to be signing at the same table as Bob…seriously, I read his books when I was 15. It’s kinda surreal to be doing a signing with someone that you grew up reading. He and Geno were both super nice, as is Bob’s wife Diane (who was a big fan of little Max).

Signing with R. A. and Geno Salvatore

On Sunday I attended a lunch that Abrams/Amulet was sponsoring where they were launching the books of three new authors and talking about Lauren Myracle’s newest book, Bliss (it’s a really different kind of book for her and very good, kind of a horror story, but really more about the loss of innocence). It was great to meet Lauren in person — I “know” so many people through YABC, but it is different when you get to see them face to face. I really liked what she had to say, especially about how (and I’m totally paraphrasing here, so don’t go back to her and say “Hey, Kimberly said you said…”) so-called “fluffy books” can still have solid messages inside them (I’ve already seen one review of my book that called it “chick-lit” kind of dismissingly which is just fine with me, honestly…I meant it to be a fun book, though there are deeper themes in there if you look for them). The other authors were Nancy Viau (Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in her Head), Jack D. Ferraiolo (The Big Splash – which I’m kind of psyched about since I’m a not-so-closted Spillane fan), and Shana Norris (Something to Blog About).

On Sunday I also had my signing at the Mirrorstone / Wizards of the Coast booth and it was awesome! I signed over 120 books at this one and people were actually lined up around the booth. Librarians rock! My hand was actually kind of sore after this one was through. I met a lot of nice people, including some that I “knew” from YABC.

Signing at the Mirrorstone

On Monday I had the Aliso Viejo YALSA event which I previously posted about and I also had a Live! reading event / signing at the convention. That was fun, though a little stressful. Before this day I hadn’t read something in front of a lot of people since, oh, probably high school! And that was w-a-y too long ago! It was fun though. I signed some books after this as well.

Live! at ALA Reading

But perhaps the most exciting thing, besides all the other authors I saw & met (like Dean Koontz and Marlene Perez and Neal Shusterman and Tim Powers and Debra Garfinkle (Supernatural Rubber Chicken! Just try saying that without a smile) and Cecil Castelluci [though I'm bummed I only saw Cecil and didn't get to talk to her, esp. since she had a signing at the Mirrorstone booth too], Nancy Keane, Kim Baccellia and well, too many others to mention), I finally got to meet my editor, Nina Hess (she’s also the author of A Practical Guide to Monsters), in person! That was great! Also very exciting to meet Shelly Mazzanoble (the publicist at Mirrorstone and also author of the hilarious Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress) and Matt (a web guru) and Susan (she’s the author of A Practical Guide to Wizardry and a seriously healthy person). Not to mention all the other awesome Mirrorstone and Wizards of the Coast staff and associated people (like Jessica, Jennifer, Tom, and Vincent [the only D&D guru I know that also has a huge shoe collection...well, except for Shelly, I suppose...but definitely the only guy] and Joyce & Susan from Raab Associates [who I've "known" for years]).

Shelly, Me, Nina (my editor), Matt, and Susan

So, all in all, it was a really great trip. Tony and Max had fun too. We also had some great meals (I think I might have gained ten pounds).

If I didn’t see you there, hope to see you somewhere else!