Monday, June 28, 2010

My Fabulous First Conference Experience

*Forgive the formatting of this post if it's whacky. I tried for an hour to get the spacing right but Blogger refused to cooperate!*

If there's one thing I've learned in my 31 years its to go into things with low expectations. I did that this past weekend when I went to ALA. (a conference held this year in DC for the American Library Association) It more than made up for not being able to attend BEA. The weekend was awesome. My low expectations were totally blown away.

I started out leaving home at 5am Saturday morning and making the typically 4.5 hour drive in about 3. Yes, I drive rather fast, but at the hour on a weekend the traffic was fantastic. Once I got to the hotel I met up with Krista and Miranda (by the way, Miranda's husband is a seriously bad ass driver! He wove through that crazy downtown graduation traffic like a pro) Thank you for the rides, you two!

Before I let the pictures speak for themselves I have to say how amazing it was to meet and hang with Miranda and Krista. It was incredible to sit and chat in person with such talented and fabulous people. Love you girls! The combination of being with such great fellow writers and experiencing ALA has got me all kinds of motivated to work on my own writing. I didn't get to as many signing as I would've liked, but I got books signed by Melissa Marr, Ally Condie, Andrea Cremer, Carolyn Mackler, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and even two MG authors for my niece. Eeee! Now time for the pics...

An overview of some of the exhibit floor



Krista showing off some of her ARCs and purchases




A few of my books

Vodak with Miranda and I. Mwahaha!


John Green and David Levithan signing. You want to talk about a line!


Simon & Schuster booth. YAY for CRESCENDO love!


Getting my ARC of MATCHED, signed by author Ally Condie. The day after
getting it and I'm already half way through this book and it's AMAZING!


Meeting two of my favorite authors of two of my favorite books!
Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia,
authors of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS


Miranda, me, and Krista heading to the Stacks
More fun with Krista showing her finds










The only thing that could have made this weekend any better was having my sister be able to come along and seeing them handing out CRESCENDO ARCs. And, of course, having Becca there to sign them! Missed you girls. BEA 2011, baby!

9 comments:

Nikki said...

Oh my gosh, how fun!!! Looks like a great time :)

Maidenveil said...

Gosh, Rebecca! The ALA looks awesome! I wish we'll get to experience it too in the future.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

Mundie Moms said...

How awesome! Next year we all need to go together! I wish I could have gone this year.

JennM said...

Great post! I am soooooo glad you were able to go and that you had a great time! Can't wait until you are sitting on the other side of the table signing one of your books for people :-)

PS - I really wish I could've been there too

Ezmirelda said...

Wow! Looks like fun. I've read most of the books that you brought & most of them are pretty good. ;)

Sara {Rhapsody and Chaos} said...

aw man! I was there too with two of my writing friends, I would have loved to meet up with ya!!

Mary E Campbell said...

Wow looks like a lot of fun. So jealous that you got an ARC of Matched.

Katie Ashley said...

Um, how in the hell was I not following your blog? *blushes*

You managed to capture all the fun times we had!! I hear it's in New Orleans next year. WHOO HOO!!

It was so awesome meeting you guys!! Wish I could've been there Sunday too, but I didn't enough damage on Saturday!

Koreen said...

Before I joined Twitter, I hadn't ever heard of the ALA conference. Now that I know better, it's on my list of things to do next summer. Your pictures and comments were the selling point. Thanks for posting.
Koreen