Books of Wonder

This past Thursday, I headed back to the Big City. Second trip this month. (Still felt like a country mouse, though I'm getting a bit better at navigating Penn Station.) This time, I went for a book signing at Books of Wonder.

Books of Wonder is an independent bookstore in NYC devoted entirely to children's books. And cupcakes. Half the store is the Cupcake Cafe; the other half is filled with books about clever pigs and plucky kids with enchanted swords and snarky teens and emerald cities and magic wardrobes and islands of blue dolphins... Nirvana. Well, I guess that's not right. Nirvana is the state of wanting nothing. I was in a state of wanting everything! So maybe anti-Nirvana works better. Anyway, though it required great self-restraint, I managed to only buy three books (hardcovers! muah-ha-ha-ha), one from each of the authors who were reading/signing:

Tamora Pierce - TERRIER
Laura Anne Gilman - THE CAMELOT SPELL
Tui Sutherland - SO THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

The readings were wonderful and I had many fun conversations with great people. Tammy introduced me to Peter Glassman (the owner of Books of Wonder) and told him all about my book! Tamora Pierce. Talking about my book. In public. Loud enough for lots of people to hear. Muah-ha-ha-ha. So awesome. (Click here to read my previous post about the awesomeness of Tamora Pierce.) Laura Anne and Tui were also very very nice, congratulating me about my book and saying sweet and encouraging things. And I got to chat with Tammy's husband Tim, and her editor too. Lots of fun.

As you can imagine, I had a fabulous time. And then on the train ride home, I read the inscriptions that Tammy and Laura Anne wrote for me in their books:

"Sarah - In 8 months, it's your turn! Whee!" (Tamora Pierce)
"For Sarah, who will be doing this next..." (Laura Anne Gilman)

This country mouse (well, at least, suburban mouse) is a happy mouse...