Teen Author Drinks Night

Last night was soooooo cool. I went to my first ever Teen Author Drinks Night, a monthly gathering of YA/MG authors from the NYC area. We met at a bar in Manhattan, talked shop, enjoyed some liquid refreshment, and then went out for pizza. It was a blast.

I found out about this gathering from Scott Westerfeld (uber-author of THE LAST DAYS, PEEPS, MIDNIGHTERS, ...) and had been excited about going for the past week. I hopped the train to Manhattan yesterday afternoon and got to Penn Station right at rush hour. Soooo many people... I felt like quite the country mouse stumbling around in the big city. (Yeah, I don't get out much.) But after swimming upstream through the crowds of commuters heading home for the day, I found my way out of the station, got a cab, and made it to the bar. I didn't know anyone when I walked in the door, but everyone was super-nice. And they treated me like a fellow author, which, I guess, I am now! (This was my first shindig as an Author-with-a-capital-A. Such a nice feeling.) I met a whole bunch of fantastic authors who shared a lot of helpful advice, and I even got to hand out a few copies of my spiffy new business card. Plus I left with a great list of books-to-read:

Coe Booth - TYRELL
Mary Hogan - THE SERIOUS KISS
David Levithan - BOY MEETS BOY
Sarah Darer Littman - CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET CATHOLIC
Leslie Margolis - FIX
Robyn Schneider - BETTER THAN YESTERDAY
Delia Sherman - CHANGELING
Natalie Standiford - THE DATING GAME

There were also a couple other Sarahs whose last names I didn't catch, plus some whose first names probably weren't Sarah but whose last names I didn't catch either. :( Hopefully I'll get to chat more with them next time. I'll definitely be attending this on a regular basis from now on!

Oh, and I almost forgot... Some of these uber-cool people who I met last night will be doing a reading together -- Teen Author Reading Night -- at the Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village on November 1st at 6pm. So if you plan to be in NYC that night, be sure to check it out! I don't think I'll be able to go because I'll be en route to the World Fantasy Convention in Austin (my first ever conference as an Author-with-a-capital-A!), but it sounds like it'll be a great reading.