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Hey Robin Brande!

From your amigos at the first ever conference of kidlit authors, illustrators, librarians, bloggers, podcasters (and any combination thereof) comes this collage of thank you’s. We did our best to get everyone. Our apologies to those who were left out.

The Swaggering Dragon (by Zubot and Dawson) used with the kind permission of Steve Dawson.

Note: this audio file is intentionally not available in the Just One More Book!! podcast feed.

Colourful characters, great dialogue and the unbelievably generous hospitality of kidlit authors Robin Brande and Esme Raji Codell made this wonderful weekend of laughs and learning well worth the death defying flight that got us there. What a great bunch of intelligent, creative and totally fun people. We can’t wait til next year!

See our flickr photos here.

You can read more about 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference here and here and here and here…and here and here and here …

Hey! Tomorrow I'm heading over to The Miss Rumphius Effect for Tricia's Monday Poetry Stretch. As Robert Frost would say, "You come too."

Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande is finally out. I'm still waiting to read my copy because I was out of town when the book came out. Now I have to wait until after Labor Day to pick it up from my local independent bookseller. See? I'm trying to wean myself from big A.

Robin Brande just had a big book launch, and she wondered, as it approached, why she was feeling a bit numb. I assured her (with the infinite wisdom of my vast publishing experience) that she would have many moments, not just The One on The Day.

One of those "many moments" for me was discovering that the Library of Congress had a copy of my book. Well, of course it does; they're required to own copies of every copyrighted piece of material in the U.S. But the fun thing is that because of where I live, if you put my zip code and the title of my book into WorldCat's search box, the Library of Congress shows up first!

And guess what else is cool? The Library of Congress has a blog. Well, maybe they're required to do that, too, but I doubt it. And look at what their college interns got to do over the summer---rummage around in the archives. The English majors---gotta love 'em!--- dug into the manuscript collection, and found:

"a 1902 copyright deposit manuscript for a musical titled 'An Extra Session: A Chimerical Satire on the Feasible Possibilities Which Woman May Attain a Hundred Years Hence.' Written by William D. Hall, the musical is set in the White House in the year 2002, with a woman president and her all-female cabinet."

Robin, over at her blog, reminded me about Anne Lamott's famous writer-hating bus.

You know, the one that runs you down before you have a chance to fix all those problems in your crappy rough draft. The one that leaves you with a tombstone that reads:

Starting a book challenge while packing to leave Washington DC, checking carry-on bags for fluids and gels (forgot to notice the sunscreen) and death marching to the National Gallery while threading our way through 200,000 Girls Scouts enroute to a sing along - "Still Singing after all these Years!" - on the National Mall is dicey at best.

Fun to know Mother Reader herself was somewhere in the vicinity. I wonder if I was packed in next to her in the Smithsonian Metro station? We emerged from our train along with thousands and thousands of Girl Scouts in bright t-shirts. Shouts of "Buddy up, girls!" swelled from the throats of dozens and dozens of leaders and grown-ups trying to count heads and turn their troops in the right direction.

If I was a claustrophobic person, I would have seriously freaked out at the humanity-per-square-inch in that confined space. My main worry was being inadvertently pushed off the edge but we shuffled away from the drop and toward the escalators and slowly ascended towards the surface.

Total number of books read for the challenge: TWO
Total number of pages read for the challenge: 664 pages
Total altitude while reading: 36,000 feet
Number of sore limbs from 6 days of extensive sight-seeing while reading: 4
Number of heavy eyelids from 6 days of extensive sight-seeing while reading: 2
Amount of fun had from 6 days of extensive sight seeing and joy of reading two perfectly wonderful books: Too much to count!


My reading time did not commence until we arrived at Reagan Airport for the flight home.
My first book was the outstanding Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, 392 pages. I had not finished when the plane landed 2 hours and 40 minutes later but maybe I was the only participant reading at 36,000 feet??

Since it was so late when we got home, I did not finish until the next day. My reaction to this book is to exhort you to run, skip, hop, hasten, or zoom to your nearest book provider and grab it.

Skulduggery Pleasant is part Dashiell Hammett with a stir of Raymond Chandler and shaken well with magic and fantasy. Storyteller Landy has laced the mix with humor and action. This is one of my favorite books this year!

I can hardly wait to read more. I hope Derek Landy is writing away. I love Irish storytellers.


Book 2 on my reading list was Robin Brande's Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature, 272 pages.

In this family we know we have a great book in hand when one of us stops reading and says to everyone present, "Listen to this!" I did that so many times last night, I might as well have read the whole book aloud.

Mena's first day of high school is turning out to be a nightmare. She is shunned by all her former "friends" for something we do not find out about until later in the story. She is enduing verbal and physical assaults and thinks she has lost her parents' love. The chance pairing (or did God have a hand in it?) with her science lab partner, Casey Conner, science genius, is about to change her life though.

Casey is funny and smart and determined to help Mena succeed. I loved his character whole heartedly from the moment he realizes Mena has never read Lord of the Rings.

"So you've read it?"

"Um, no."

"But you have seen the movies."

I sort of winced and shook my head. I need to learn to lie.

Casey closed his eyes and pinched his fingers against them like he had a terrible migraine. "Okay, you realize I'm going to have to do an intervention."

RRRiordan is blogging from London. He met Amanda Craig of the Times and will be interviewed for BBC by Jacqueline Wilson! Living the Dream! (He will not get to Oxford this time, Michele.)

Meg Cabot is blogging from Paris (and other points) and got to meet Neil Gaiman in Leipzig. Paris is really so beautiful around Easter time. Actually, when is Paris NOT beautiful? Check out the chocolate Easter egg.

Neil Gaiman has been shadowing Meg Cabot and is a "a really cool dad" because MC gave him a stack of her books autographed to his daughter, Mandy.

Robin Brande is back from an author tour and visiting with her readers all across the country. Librarian, Susan Geye at North Crowley High School in Ft. Worth, Texas presented her with the most amazing gift. Read her post to find out what it was. What a terrific idea for visiting authors. Texas librarians are awesome!

Maureen Johnson has returned from London and has an entirely entertaining account, "BRIEF ENCOUTERS WITH FAMOUS PEOPLE." Monday, March 19, 2007, of her flight home with Sigourney Weaver.

Lisa Yee is in Michigan for a school visit and got to meet Jim (Happy Bunny) Benton at a book signing. Earlier in March, she also got to meet Carol Burnett and John Lithgow signed her napkin.

Linda Sue Park has been traveling to Hong Kong and Taiwan and is posting photos.

Grace Lin is back from Hong Kong and brought home a beautifully tailored blue dress.


And finally,

Hopefully, John Green is home from the hospital.

Get well, John.