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ala and dc and arc

Posted by ally in this & that

This is a post of acronyms.

About ALA. Wow. Wow. Wow wow wow. It was amazing. It was a former English teacher’s dream. Famous authors + awesome librarians=heaven. I was only in DC for 26 hours but a lot happened during those hours. (A lot has happened since I returned home, too. The Boys are passing around the throw-up-stomach-flu. My favorite! Stomach flu+potty-training=a special kind of hell.)

But back to ALA.

My first event was the Penguin dinner, where I got to meet authors like Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, and David Levithan. It was wonderful and a bit scary because we all had to give a three minute speech about our books to the 100 people at the dinner. Whew. I am glad that is over. Can you imagine? “I’m going to talk about my book at the same dinner in which Laurie Halse Anderson and John Green and David Levithan are going to talk about their books?”

I got scared again just thinking about it.

But they were also very nice. See pictures below. Please try to ignore how scary-excited I am in the picture with John Green. I’m sorry. I get scary-excited when I meet people I admire (my husband and I both love John Green’s books and have a long-standing “discussion” about which one the other should love most). Also ignore the shine on my face. DC is humid, people. I do not miss that about living back East. I like the weather like I like my Sprite cocktail–dry and crispy.


I am always floored by how generous and kind YA authors are to one another. This was another weekend in which I thought about how amazing this is. Melissa Marr wrote a blurb for Matched and I FINALLY got to meet her and she was wonderful too (and super funny).

The morning after the Penguin dinner, we had YA Coffee Klatch, which was basically speed dating nine tables of librarians, and I wanted to be betrothed immediately to all of them. Then I had a book signing at the Penguin Booth and it was awesome. So fun to meet people and to see them walk away with copies of MATCHED. It was so fun that I left my cell phone there and didn’t realize it until I was trying to call home to tell my husband when he could pick me up at the airport. Awesome! I like to leave an expensive electronic device in every city I visit. It’s my calling card. Next up: my laptop.

My beautiful, fun cousin Andrea came to the book signing (she is the one holding MATCHED in the first picture). Her incredibly nice husband came too and it kind of made the whole ALA for me. To have someone I’ve known and loved for years take that time to come hang out and be there for me was so nice. We got to go to lunch afterwards and it was perfect.

And. I may have left my cell phone in the Penguin booth, but I also accidentally walked away with a copy of MATCHED that Penguin had given me to use during the Coffee Klatch event. (Not only am I flaky, but I am also prone to thievery.) So. Another giveaway, perhaps?

Let’s do it. Just leave a comment. And if you are a follower you get double entries. This will be open until midnight MST next Tuesday, July 6th. I’m going to limit it to the USA…sorry about that. And if you have already won/obtained an ARC or don’t claim it by July 10th I will select a new number. :)

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