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My second day at NYSRA was really just an evening, but it packed enough excitement for a whole day! If you read my post on Day 1, you'll remember the phone call I got asking me to introduce the keynote speaker, James Earl Jones.

I had all day to think on this one. There was so much to say! James Earl Jones is one of my favorite personalities of all time and I had the honor of introducing him! I spent a large part of the day writing all sorts of fun things, poignant things, exciting things and funny things. I printed out the scene in my work-in-progress that references Mr. James Earl Jones in order to read in his honor. It's such a fun scene!!!

And then I remembered one thing: I wasn't up there to do this on my behalf or on the behalf of NYSRA. I wasn't up there to razzle-dazzle them. I was up there to welcome James Earl Jones on behalf of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand.

And herein was the challenge--quite possibly the most difficult challenge of my life.

I'm not very good at self-restraint.

So, my wife and I went to the event, me with my United States Congress dossier clutched in my hands. We spent an hour hobknobbing at the cocktail party with some great people. I didn't eat or drink a thing on account of the butterflies. Then, we made our way into the empty conference room a few minutes before the event began. We were the first people there and we found our seats.

A few minutes later, in walked James Earl Jones and his assistant, Reagan. All I can say is that this man has presence. He commands a room--even a vast one. The man has an unnatural presence. I hopped up, introduced myself, told him it was an honor to meet him. We chatted about my book and I gave him a copy of Big Slick.

James Earl Jones said, "Before I accept this, I want you to know that I may not be able to get back to you about it. I don't use email."

"No problem," I said, all the while think about how great it would be if he would do the message on my answering machine. "It's just an honor to give it to you."

He thanked me and Reagan put my book into her bag.

Then he asked me if I was involved with the writing strike.

I didn't expect the question and I was caught off-guard. "No, not me," I said and Mr. Jones turned away. In retrospect, I wonder if he thought I meant I was not in solidarity with the striking writers. If anyone who knows James Earl Jones reads this, please let him know that it's simply not my industry that is affected but that I support those guys 100%. Some of my close friends are striking!

Then they opened the door to the masses. Here are three pics of the room: right, center and left:





Lot and lots of people.

After Sue Smith (VP of NYSRA and all-around conference queen) said a few words along with the guy who sprang for the hors d'ouvres they asked me to come on up. First, I made a comment about having to follow the ukelele lady the night before and now introducing one of the greatest voices the world has ever known tonight, and that someone at NYSRA must really have it in for me. Here's the transcript of what I said:

My name is Eric Luper and I am the author of the recently-released novel for reluctant readers, Big Slick. It is a great honor to be asked here tonight to welcome James Earl Jones to the 2007 conference of the New York State Reading Association on behalf of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand.

Kirsten is a close friend of my family's. In fact my wife, Elaine, and Kirsten have known each other since they were in diapers and they grew together through those formative years that turned them both into lifelong book lovers. Kirsten and Elaine look back fondly on their memories of when they were nine on vacation at the Jersey shore. On the trip, they read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time page by page together on the bed. My wife boasts about being the faster reader.

Congresswoman Gillibrand is a great advocate of reading and literacy and she and I have had quite a few discussions on the topic. With that being said, I take great pleasure in reading her letter to you:

Dear Friends,

It is my distinct honor to extend my warmest greetings and welcome everyone, including our distinguished guest, James Earl Jones, to Saratoga Springs and New York's 20th Congressional District. Although I could not personally join you for this conference, I hope you have found some time to enjoy all that Saratoga Springs has to offer.

If an organization is only as good as its membership, the New York State Reading Association is an exceptional one. With 41 years of dedication to literacy in New York State and over 3,000 members in all educational fields from pre-school to higher education, your committment to improving the lives of others sets an inspiring example for all of us.

I wish you all the best in your efforts to improve our communities through reading and literacy.

Sincerely,

Kirsten E. Gillibrand

Then, I patted myself on the back for not making a single Darth Vader, Mufassa or Conan the Barbarian comment and I took my seat.

James Earl Jones took the stage and totally blew me away. It's one thing to see him on television or in the movies, but it's quite another to hear him in person. He was awesome but the Saratogian newspaper can tell it better than I can.

Here are a few pics and videos!





Here, James Earl Jones speaks about his terrible stuttering problem:

It was a great night and one I will remember for all time!

A very short report:

I had so much fun. Although I couldn't stay for Sunday night's festivities, it was so worth it to go.

Saw lots of old friends--including lots of VC people.
Met many new great people.
Met actual living people who had read my book and were not related to me or bound by friendship! met people who I had only known online, as well as people whose books I have read and loved. So great to put faces to names.
Still thrilling to get ARCs. R and E practically jumped on the suitcase. Had the opportunity to talk process with mentors and friends.

Still tired...will try full sentences at some point.

For today: must resend the book review I wrote last month. Isn't it funny how the ones we dread sending always get lost in the email?

Hurray!  SPITFIRE has been mentioned on a website that's not mine!  I'm presenting this November at the NYS Reading Association Conference, and the workshop description is posted online now.  I'm workshop #110.  There's just one problem....

The title of my book has been changed from Spitfire to Spitfir.  Makes it sound like I've written a story about a diabolical evergreen that lurks in the forest waiting to hock loogies at unsuspecting hikers. 

I sent an email to the conference organizer, thanking her for the listing and asking if my title could be fixed. She promised to have their web person deal with it soon.  I thought I'd share the moment, though, since it made me laugh.

Yesterday, I was asked to speak at the Conference of the New Jerey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) in November at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch, NJ. Prior to learning about this spa and resort, the only thing I knew about Long Branch was that they used to have a really cool haunted mansion--at least the mansion was really cool to a 6 year-old who saw commercials for it every ten minutes on WPIX in between games of PIX, PIX, PIX! on WPIX.

Anyhow, my talk, entitled "The Birth of a YA Author...and Avid Reader" will take place on November 15th and will be an hour long. The topic is one I've blogged about a bunch of times and one that author Diana Peterfreund got me thinking about in depth. I will be talking about what it was that got me moving from being a reluctant reader to being an avid reader...and a writer!

I feel honored to be presenting to this group (as well as at the NYSRA conference the preceding week) because I think librarians, teachers and reading professionals play such an important role in the development of our children.