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!

So excited!

Eeee I'm so excited to hit ALA this weekend! I'll be getting up at like 5am Saturday then driving 4 hours (if I don't have any major issues) but I get to meet Miranda and Krista and more and hopefully a few authors in the exhibit hall. It's so worth the drive and early rise. This is my first writing/book/trip type event on my own. I was lucky enough to go meet Becca Fitzpatrick at a teachers convention with my sister (really wish she could come this time!) last year, but this time I'll actually be going in the exhibit hall and spending the weekend there. Can't wait to share the details next week.

Also, every excited about the way I used my Borders gift card. The last one is for my son, but I have to admit to loving Toy Story 3.

Dare to Risk

It's been a long time since I shared any quotes so here are a few special ones to kick off your Monday. Take a risk this week and see where it takes you!

"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love."
-- Leo Buscaglia

"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Only those who risk going too far can know how far they can go."
-- Unknown source

*The above quotes are from The Daily Guru/Saturday, June 12th. Check them out here!

Welcoming a dragon to the family

Writing a novel is one thing, but making up a story as you go and telling it out loud is quite another. I had no idea how difficult it would be until my 2 yr old started asking me to tell him a new story every night before bed. I innocently told him a story about a boy named Nate (of course that's his name) and a dragon we decided would be named, Emma. Well, of course, I had to describe Emma and asked Nate what color he wanted her to be. She ended up being blue/green, with sparkly wings and a very nice dragon who took Nate flying and became his best friend.

I thought the story was pretty lame, I stumbled over words and struggled to come up with new ideas, so I was shocked when I asked Nate what he wanted for his last day of school gift and he said, "an Emma doll!" We went to two toy stores and every dragon I showed to Nate ended with a "No. That's not Emma." I had no idea he had such a clear idea of what Emma looked like and I have to admit I was pretty stinkin' proud of him for it. Maybe my on the spot storytelling abilities aren't so bad after all.

We ended up finding Nate's dragon online and after a week of a very anxious boy bouncing around the mailbox, here's Emma... (ignore the dates, the camera had a little issue)

I want to hear about YOU!

I was looking through my followers list here the other day and realized how many new faces there are in the little squares. I love it. Thank you for your support! But enough about me. I'm always talking about me.

I want to hear about you!

Please leave a comment below and tell me a little about yourself. Are you a writer? What genre do you write? Do you have a blog you want people to come visit? How did you find my blog? Have a great book suggestion? You don't have to answer any of these questions, just say hi if you want, but I'd love to hear from you.